Drew McIntyre defended his WWE championship against Seth Rollins.
WWE
Money in Bank 2020 could have been a train crash. There should be two Money in the Bank matches where the men and women play at the same time. And instead of the usual multi-person ranking game, the participants should start at the bottom of the WWE headquarters building and make their way up. How would that work? Is there a chance that it could be good? At least for me that didn’t seem likely.
But like the previous Boneyard and Firefly Fun House games, this was a pleasant surprise and a lot of fun. Asuka won the women’s briefcase, a great decision, and Otis the men’s, a questionable decision. Otis is very popular, but it’s hard to see his current character in a feud of the main event. But we will see.
At the beginning of the show, Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman were able to defend their world title. McIntyre defeated Seth Rollins in a strong match and Strowman defeated Bray Wyatt in a weak one.
The main show only lasted two and a half hours, which will hopefully become the standard for WWE pay-per-views because it’s the perfect length. Below is a full summary of money in Bank 2020.
Otis and Asuka win money in the bank games
Man oh man. These. Was. LARGE.
Admittedly, I had little expectation of it – Money in the Bank was a race from the bottom of WWE headquarters to the top, where both the men’s and women’s games took place simultaneously – so this was a super pleasant surprise. It was filmed similar to the Boneyard and Firefly Fun House matches on WrestleMania, only it was (a little less absurd).
The boys started in the basement gym. The women started on the ground floor. Asuka jumped from a nearby ledge to knock the women down and then took the elevator up several floors. The men had a free game for everyone in the gym, and Rey Mysterio was holding AJ Styles under a barbell.
Which followed as absolutely ridiculous but was so much fun. AJ Styles saw a poster of the undertaker and received PTSD flashbacks from her WrestleMania encounter. We have a food fight between men and women that somehow doesn’t suck. There were performances by Brother Love, Doink the Clown and John Laurinaitis.
One of the best parts was AJ and Daniel Bryan arguing in Vince McMahon’s office, where he immediately called them out. Is it stupid if two top boys are beaten by the boss? Yes. But it’s so silly that it’s hard to be crazy.
The women were the first to make it to the top where Asuka opened the first briefcase. The men invented it later. Baron Corbin and AJ fought over the other briefcase when Elias showed up and dropped Corbin by slapping him in the back with a guitar. AJ then fiddled with the briefcase that Otis had caught. Really.
Review: go out of your way to see this. No star rating as it was not a real match.
Drew McIntyre defeats Seth Rollins
Drew McIntyre’s first WWE championship defense is a success. He was stuck to Seth Rollins after a claymore kick. After the match, the two shook hands.
These two played a main event style match as if they were in an arena with a full audience. The lack of an audience certainly hurt it, but it worked until the last few minutes. Lots of fun counterattacks and hard kicks, including McIntyre, who turned a tree of suffering into a German suplex, which led McIntyre to retire from a curb stomp before taking victory over Claymore.
Rating: 3.75 stars.
Braun Strowman beats Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt came out as Bray Wyatt, not The Fiend. From that point on, it was pretty certain that Strowman would win this match.
And what a match it was. In terms of game quality, this was more Bray Wyatt vs. The Miz than The Fiend vs. Daniel Bryan. That means … not good. It was a fine wrestling match that was interrupted by crazy moments. Dolls from the Firefly Fun House showed up to encourage Wyatt.
Wyatt would get a few near falls, even after a sister Abigail. Finally Strowman put on the old mask he was wearing when he was part of the Wyatt family. Bray thought it was a return home, so to speak, but it was a trick. Strowman surprises him with a powerslam and gets the pin. The story is that Strowman defeated Wyatt in his own game and won mind games. Lame.
The story certainly continues when Wyatt takes Strowman as The Fiend at a future show.
Rating: 1.5 stars. Swing and a miss.
Bayley maintains the SmackDown Women’s Championship
Bayley defeated Tamina by countering a Samoan drop with a crucifix needle. Tamina let Bayley hit, but as a silly baby face, decided to chase Sasha Banks around the ring instead of pinning Bayley down.
Long match for a weak challenger. Tamina has worked hard, but it’s hard to buy that she would be the one to end Bayley’s long title government. The highlight of the game was a cute counter where Bayley turned a super kick into a leglock. The only problem was that Bayley didn’t seem to know any real leglocks – she had Tamina in a strange mix of an ankle lock and a knee bar, while Corey Graves tried to explain how the submission wasn’t Really But most viewers won’t know or care about it better, so it was a cool place.
Rating: 2 stars.
Bobby Lashley is stuck in R-Truth
R-Truth makes his war to the ring knocking his entrance and beckons the non-existent crowd to “make some noise”. R-Truth is so great.
MVP comes down for their match, but after some quarrels between MVP and Truth, Bobby Lashley enters and says he’ll take MVP’s place.
After a short match, Bobby Lashley kills R-Truth with a spear.
Rating: Squash Match. However, it was fun for R-Truth to appear without a crowd.
New Day maintains SmackDown Tag titles
After a fun match, The New Day successfully defended their gold when Big E Gran Metal got stuck after a big ending. It was a deadly four-game match between The New Day and Lucha House Party, The Forgotten Sons and John Morrison and The Miz.
The match had some shortcomings – some parts were sloppy, easier to notice without distracting the crowd, and sometimes you saw guys waiting for their turn to dance – but all eight wrestlers worked super hard . The match ended up being chaotic, with teams getting on and off and a lot of creative teamwork.
There was a strange moment towards the end when Jaxson Rikker intervened and Michael Cole noticed that the referee could not do anything because it was not a match without disqualification. Then the referee threw out Rikker.
Rating: 3 stars.
Kickoff show results
Jeff Hardy defeated Cesaro with a Swanton Bomb. It’s Hardy’s first match upon his return – why was it on the kickoff show? Who knows.