I hope you relieved your corporate bladder before climbing the corporate ladder because that was one crazy Money in the Bank! Here’s a quick rundown of all the results and highlights from this unique 2020 WWE PPV, which featured a dozen Superstars brawling and battling through Stamford headquarters to be the first to lay their hands on the cherished, all-powerful MITB briefcase.
And so we didn’t have to watch TWO separate matches featuring a ferocious fight through the luxurious levels of WWE HQ, the men’s and the women’s MITB matches happened at the exact same time, with both cases hanging over the ring on the roof simultaneously. It was the latest in the line of chaotic, kooky cinematic Atti-Zoom Era matches that began at WrestleMania with the Boneyard Match and the Firefly Funhouse Fever Dream.
On top of that insanity, Braun Strowman defended the Universal Championship against a Fiend-free Bray Wyatt (which meant a weaker version of Bray) and WWE Champ Drew McIntyre put his belt on the line against Seth Rollins.
Becky Lynch was AWOL this month, but Bayley battled Tamina, putting her SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line. But enough of this prattle. Let’s get to all the ridiculous Die Hard/The Raid/Punisher: War Zone/Dredd action!
Jeff Hardy vs. Cesaro (Kickoff Match)
Highlights: …
The story, as it usually is with most Cesaro matches, was “Cesaro should have won but instead lost.” Here, the (longer than most Kickoff matches) loss was to Jeff Hardy who, while Matt’s off being Broken in AEW, is going solo for “one last ride/one last chance at greatness” in WWE as part of his umpteenth redemption arc. Kickoff matches are strange now, as is the Kickoff Show in general, since its usefulness aside from recapping the feuds is to warm up a crowd that’s trickling into an arena.
Props to the – er – props here, as the Performance Center was decked out in ladders even though the MITB matches weren’t happening there.
Also, not a terrible match here.
Winner: Jeff Hardy
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Fatal 4-Way Match
Lucha House Party vs. Forgotten Sons vs. Miz and Morrison vs. New Day
Highlights: John Morrison’s Spanish Fly Dive
It was just a little odd that this wasn’t a tag team ladder match considering ALL the ladders surrounding the ring as MITB decor. Regardless, this was a fast, fun and filled with – well – REVERSE SPANISH FLYS…
The inclusion of Lucha House Party however meant that someone was pinning Lucha House Party. New Day could retain this way or a heel team could swipe the belts from them this way. Ultimately, it was New Day retaining.
Winners: New Day
R-Truth vs. MVP
Highlights: Comedy Antics Interrupted by Bobby Lashley Brutality
MVP and Truth bickered a bit about the finer aspects of miming basketball shots until Lashley came in and subbed for Montel. That’s it that’s the gist. This was originally a Kickoff match.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Tamina
Highlights: Tamina Hurling Bayley Over the Announce Table
There weren’t any real surprises here, other than it being the best match Tamina’s had in a long while. Possibly ever. The crescendo came after Tamina snapped after Bayley threw water on her face and did this to the champ…
A Sasha Banks distraction allowed Bayley to escape a Samoan Drop loss, eventually leading to her winning via crucifix pin win.
Winner: Bayley
Universal Champion Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt
Highlights: Huskus the Pig Boy’s Words of Encouragement, Bray’s Tornado DDT, Braun’s, Braun’s Mind Games
Bray wrestled as Funhouse Bray here, not as The Fiend, which we hadn’t seen since the main event of TLC 2019. The reason he was Funhouse Bray before was to not waste the The Fiend on The Miz. The reason he did it here was so that Braun could get a win over Bray but not have it affect The Fiend’s dominance (Goldberg loss aside).
Also, Funhouse Bray meant…Funhouse characters!
Huskus popped up mid-match to pump Bray up while the others — Abby, Mercy, and Ramblin’ Rabbit — appeared at the end when Bray thought he had the match in the bag because the “Black Sheep” had returned to the herd. Yes, Braun pulled out some of his own mental trickery, donning the his old Wyatt Family mask, making Bray think he’d switched sides, and then – BAM! – it was all over with a powerslam. Going forward we’ll have to see if the feud keeps going with The Fiend in place of Bray.
Winner: Braun Strowman
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Seth Rollins
Highlights: Drew Belly-to-Bellying Seth on the Announce Table, Drew Kicking Out at 1 a Few Times, Final Sequence
By far, this was the most solid singles match of the night. It was a great hard-hitting back and forth bout unencumbered by minions or puppets (not to disparage either). Seth’s new music might not be all that wonderful (man, I miss the CFO$ something awful) but him eating the commentary desk was awesome…
That announce table took a straight shellacking tonight as three matches used it as a crushing crash pad. The final beat — the headbutt, the superkick, and the the Claymore — was a cool finish. Drew retains in his first PPV title defense that’s not Big Show retconning.
Nice handshake moment at the end too.
Winner: Drew McIntyre
Men AND Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Women: Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Asuka, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, and Carmella
Men: Daniel Bryan. Aleister Black, Rey Mysterio, Otis, King Corbin, and AJ Styles
Highlights: Crazy Antics Throughout, Undertaker Room, Vince’s Office, Die Hard Beethoven Joke, Aleister and Rey’s Deaths, The Winners
So this was more Boneyard Match than Funhouse Match or the Edge/Orton Falls Count Anywhere Match. It was way goofier, in most regards, than the Boneyard bout, sometimes feeling like one of WWE’s silly commercials (Vince commanding people to leave his office, them cowering), but it still all worked well as a rekindling of the type of scored cinematic match we saw back at ‘Mania. This one was broken up way more into skits and segments though as we cut back and forth between the men and women.
Guest spots from Paul Heyman, Brother Love, a clown that was supposed to make us think of Doink (though looked nothing like Doink), Stephanie, and Vince all landed right – as did Carmella moonwalking directly into a Women’s Right by Lacey Evans. Apparently the elevators weren’t off limits, I guess, because Asuka got in one right away. She didn’t get that much of a lead on everyone else though for some reason, through she did wind up winning overall so I guess it helped, narratively. She last knocked King Corbin off the ladder to win, though the two of them could have just teamed up to take each case. I guess she hates him as much as most fans do.
I’m not quite sure about the actual rules of the MITB match. Ever since James Ellsworth helped Carmella win, the ins and outs of grabbing the case have been iffy. John Morrison won the ladder match at ‘Mania by falling with the belt off the ladder, snatching it away from the other two guys on the way down. Here, AJ actually unhooked the case and held it, but it slipped from his grasp and Otis, on the mat, caught it. Not sure how that tracks, but Otis has officially left Tucky in the dust now.
This match was super nuts, like we all thought it would be. Fun on a bun. Two Asukas up.
And yes, there was a stealth Die Hard reference as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” played during a food fight. Like in the original ending of the movie.
RIP Aleister Black and Rey Mysterio, who plummeted to their deaths nbd.
Winners: Asuka and Otis
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Source: IGN.com WWE Money in the Bank 2020 Results, Winners, and Highlights