WWE 2012 35 2012-07-15 2012-07-15 https://r2.thesportsdb.com/images/media/event/thumb/srywuq1453041696.jpg https://r2.thesportsdb.com/images/media/event/poster/urqwvu1453041681.jpg The 2012 Money in the Bank event was the seventh of twelve professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) events produced by WWE that year, and the third installment in the Money in the Bank series of events. It took place on July 15, 2012, at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. At previous Money in the Bank events, Raw wrestlers competed for the WWE Championship contract and SmackDown competitors challenged for the World Heavyweight Championship opportunity. The 2012 event featured two interbranded Money in the Bank Ladder Matches, one for a future WWE Championship match and the other for a future World Heavyweight Championship match. On the June 25 episode of Raw, Vickie Guerrero announced that only previous WWE Champions may participate in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match for the WWE Championship contract. The four participants are Kane, Chris Jericho, Big Show and John Cena. Earlier, during the pay-per-view, The Miz would return from filming The Marine 3: Homefront and announced that he would insert himself in the match. On the June 29 episode of SmackDown, qualifying matches were held for the Money in the Bank Ladder Match for the World Heavyweight Championship contract. In those matches, Damien Sandow defeated Zack Ryder, Tyson Kidd defeated Jack Swagger, Santino Marella and Christian defeated Cody Rhodes and David Otunga in a tag team match and Tensai defeated Justin Gabriel. On the July 3 "Great American Bash" edition of SmackDown, Rhodes defeated Christian and Dolph Ziggler defeated Alex Riley in two additional qualifying matches. The final qualifying match for the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match took place on the July 9th episode of Raw in which Sin Cara defeated Heath Slater. In addition, there was a rivalry involving CM Punk and Daniel Bryan for Punk's WWE Championship. In his reign as WWE Champion, he had successfully defended his title against several contenders, and had defeated Bryan in several pay-per-views, the last one also involving Kane. At the same time, Bryan's ex-girlfriend AJ had taken a liking towards Punk and Kane and had also rekindled her interest in Bryan, but Punk and Kane believed that she was unstable due to Bryan breaking up with AJ. Following No Way Out, Bryan defeated Punk and Kane to earn his rematch against Punk at Money in the Bank. Weeks later, AJ was named special guest referee. Right before the pay-per-view began, WWE.com posted that the no disqualification stipulation was added. 504391