Money in the Bank was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The majority of the event took place live on May 10, 2020 from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, while the show's eponymous ladder matches were pre-recorded on April 15, 2020 at WWE's Titan Towers global headquarters building in Stamford, Connecticut. It was the eleventh event under the Money in the Bank chronology.
The event was originally scheduled to take place at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, but the venue cancelled all shows that were to be held in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, WWE took advantage of the situation and moved the two titular ladder matches to their global headquarters building in Stamford with a new "Corporate Ladder" gimmick where the match's titular briefcases were suspended above a ring on the building's roof. The wrestlers began on the ground floor and fought their way to the roof.
Quick Results:
- Kick-Off: Singles Match - Jeff Hardy def. Cesaro
- Fatal 4-Way Tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) (c) def. The Forgotten Sons (Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake) (with Jaxson Ryker), The Miz and John Morrison, and Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado)
- Singles Match - Bobby Lashley def. R-Truth
- Singles Match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Bayley (c) (with Sasha Banks) def. Tamina
- Singles Match for the WWE Universal Championship - Braun Strowman (c) def. Bray Wyatt
- Singles Match for the WWE Championship - Drew McIntyre (c) def. Seth Rollins
- *** Money in the Bank ladder match for
a Women's Championship Match contractthe WWE Raw Women's Championship - Asuka def. Carmella, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans, Nia Jax, and Shayna Baszler
- Money in the Bank ladder match for a World Championship match contract - Otis def. AJ Styles, Aleister Black, Daniel Bryan, King Corbin, and Rey Mysterio
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| MITB Winners: Asuka for the women and Otis (LOL) for the men. |
Afterthoughts:
Let's start things off by addressing the elephant in the room first and foremost. It was revealed on Monday Night RAW (5/11/20) at the start of the broadcast that the MITB match for the Women's Championship contract wasn't for a title opportunity, but for the RAW Women's Championship itself since Becky Lynch is taking a leave of absence after revealing that she's pregnant. I won't lie - I saw this news being reported on a few websites during the PPV actually and didn't pay it any mind at all. I chucked it up as random bullshit started up by one of those dirtsheets that spread false information. I was thinking that if that news was legit, one of the legit sources of wrestling news would have reported it sooner. Instead, we got the truth straight from the cow's mouth (as how the saying goes) right here on RAW.
While I'm happy to hear that Becky Lynch is undertaking the journey of motherhood and being a parent with Seth Rollins, I can't say that this was the way that I saw her Women's Championship run coming to an end. If she knew that she was pregnant back in April (as she mentions in an interview right after this news got out) then that was even more reason to drop the title to Shayna Baszler at WrestleMania a month ago. This time last year, Becky Lynch's stock was on an all-time high. No one else in that company was on her level, outside of maybe Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey before she left the company shortly after WrestleMania last year.
That's when Becky's stock went on the decline too, not saying that those lackluster feuds with Lacey Evans (who shouldn't have been rushed up from NXT and shoehorned into a program with the top woman in the company) then that joint pairing with her real life boyfriend, now fiancee, Seth Rollins against Lacey Evans and that charisma-vacuum Baron Corbin, did her any favors either. After that, Becky has been in a clusterfuck array of questionable feuds (except for that callback to Asuka's one defeat over her at Royal Rumble 2019 that WWE seemed to gloss over for months) and segments. One could blame that she didn't have her "Joker" (Ronda Rousey) to play off their natural chemistry as bitter enemies like Batman and Joker. I can't put all of the blame on that fact as WWE's women's divisions have been lacking depth across the board on the main roster with all of the marquee talent down on NXT. They called up Shayna Baszler to an underwhelming degree (I still don't understand why she was biting people in the neck...), only to have her LOSE at WrestleMania when it would have been the perfect narrative to have Shayna win to avenge her fellow MMA Horsewoman. Becky could have been back to clawing her way up from nothing to the top again - the same story that got fans behind her in the first place. Instead, she became what she hated - the top drawing female with the rest of the division under her thumb.
I don't want to dwell on that too much though as we're supposed to be talking about MITB here. I'm going to be completely honest. I had the PPV on as background noise on my phone while I was playing Final Fantasy VII Remake. I would occasionally glance at whatever matches were going on, but nothing really held my interest until the main event.
R-Truth vs. MVP/Lashley felt like deja vu from that feud where Lashley was beefing with Pope in Impact Wrestling while he was still a part of MVP's Beat Down Clan faction. If WWE is going to rehash that in their company, I would love to see MVP as Lashley's hype man again then. If Samoa Joe can stay off the injured list, then I say lump him into that crew as well.
How the hell did Jeff Hardy vs. Cesaro land on the kick-off show for Hardy's return but R-Truth got a match on the main card anyway? I don't mind those two feuding, but man, now more than ever we need to see Cesaro get elevated into a main event position. Stop wasting this man's fucking talents in this company. It's obvious he's not going anywhere else, so strap the rocket on him and see what happens. With the ratings at an all-time low, it's not like you got much else to lose.
Tamina vs. Bayley had me fooled for a second there towards the end. I was convinced for a second there that they would actually have Bayley drop the title to Tamina after Sasha Banks got involved to cause that rift in their friendship that everyone is waiting for. I wouldn't have been upset either as Bayley could have easily won the belt back on SmackDown! this following week in a rematch. Instead of all of that, WWE went for making Tamina look like a colossal idiot by breaking her own pin on Bayley when she had the match won just to chase Sasha around the ring. At that point, I literally said it out loud, "No wonder you haven't held a title after being in this company for so long."
I glanced at the Fatal 4 Way for the SmackDown Tag Team titles off and on, but if I'm honest here, I didn't care who was winning that. The Usos are sidelined and the New Day were defending against two "underneath"/jobber-fodder tag teams along with Miz and Morrison, who literally lost the belts a few weeks ago. I was just happy that the Forgotten Sons didn't win the gold. It disgusts me about what this company has done to those guys in the Lucha House Party since signing with the company following the Cruiserweight Classic. You'll see glimpses of Gran Metallik and Kallisto's former greatness here and there, but absolutely no one is taking them seriously as a credible threat for any titles nor for a win in general. You would think that they would be begging to get out of their contracts to head back to Mexico where their talents could be put to better use.
I thought Drew vs. Seth was the better of the two World title matches as I personally can't get into the "Mr. Rogers" Bray Wyatt matches. I didn't care when he fought Miz last year and I didn't care here when he fought Strowman. It was obviously the means to an end to setup the rematch against The Fiend at Backlash. I hope and pray to God that they don't have plans to have Strowman beat The Fiend like how he lost to Goldberg in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. I like Strowman but everyone knew that he was a transitional champion this year at WrestleMania to substitute a warm body in the ring with Goldberg (without any sort of a storyline, mind you..) when Roman Reigns decided to sit that show out for the well-being of his family during this pandemic. Let's put the belt back on Bray and have everything (at least in the WWE Universe anyway...) go back right in the world.
While I'm happy to hear that Becky Lynch is undertaking the journey of motherhood and being a parent with Seth Rollins, I can't say that this was the way that I saw her Women's Championship run coming to an end. If she knew that she was pregnant back in April (as she mentions in an interview right after this news got out) then that was even more reason to drop the title to Shayna Baszler at WrestleMania a month ago. This time last year, Becky Lynch's stock was on an all-time high. No one else in that company was on her level, outside of maybe Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey before she left the company shortly after WrestleMania last year.
That's when Becky's stock went on the decline too, not saying that those lackluster feuds with Lacey Evans (who shouldn't have been rushed up from NXT and shoehorned into a program with the top woman in the company) then that joint pairing with her real life boyfriend, now fiancee, Seth Rollins against Lacey Evans and that charisma-vacuum Baron Corbin, did her any favors either. After that, Becky has been in a clusterfuck array of questionable feuds (except for that callback to Asuka's one defeat over her at Royal Rumble 2019 that WWE seemed to gloss over for months) and segments. One could blame that she didn't have her "Joker" (Ronda Rousey) to play off their natural chemistry as bitter enemies like Batman and Joker. I can't put all of the blame on that fact as WWE's women's divisions have been lacking depth across the board on the main roster with all of the marquee talent down on NXT. They called up Shayna Baszler to an underwhelming degree (I still don't understand why she was biting people in the neck...), only to have her LOSE at WrestleMania when it would have been the perfect narrative to have Shayna win to avenge her fellow MMA Horsewoman. Becky could have been back to clawing her way up from nothing to the top again - the same story that got fans behind her in the first place. Instead, she became what she hated - the top drawing female with the rest of the division under her thumb.
I don't want to dwell on that too much though as we're supposed to be talking about MITB here. I'm going to be completely honest. I had the PPV on as background noise on my phone while I was playing Final Fantasy VII Remake. I would occasionally glance at whatever matches were going on, but nothing really held my interest until the main event.
R-Truth vs. MVP/Lashley felt like deja vu from that feud where Lashley was beefing with Pope in Impact Wrestling while he was still a part of MVP's Beat Down Clan faction. If WWE is going to rehash that in their company, I would love to see MVP as Lashley's hype man again then. If Samoa Joe can stay off the injured list, then I say lump him into that crew as well.
How the hell did Jeff Hardy vs. Cesaro land on the kick-off show for Hardy's return but R-Truth got a match on the main card anyway? I don't mind those two feuding, but man, now more than ever we need to see Cesaro get elevated into a main event position. Stop wasting this man's fucking talents in this company. It's obvious he's not going anywhere else, so strap the rocket on him and see what happens. With the ratings at an all-time low, it's not like you got much else to lose.
Tamina vs. Bayley had me fooled for a second there towards the end. I was convinced for a second there that they would actually have Bayley drop the title to Tamina after Sasha Banks got involved to cause that rift in their friendship that everyone is waiting for. I wouldn't have been upset either as Bayley could have easily won the belt back on SmackDown! this following week in a rematch. Instead of all of that, WWE went for making Tamina look like a colossal idiot by breaking her own pin on Bayley when she had the match won just to chase Sasha around the ring. At that point, I literally said it out loud, "No wonder you haven't held a title after being in this company for so long."
I glanced at the Fatal 4 Way for the SmackDown Tag Team titles off and on, but if I'm honest here, I didn't care who was winning that. The Usos are sidelined and the New Day were defending against two "underneath"/jobber-fodder tag teams along with Miz and Morrison, who literally lost the belts a few weeks ago. I was just happy that the Forgotten Sons didn't win the gold. It disgusts me about what this company has done to those guys in the Lucha House Party since signing with the company following the Cruiserweight Classic. You'll see glimpses of Gran Metallik and Kallisto's former greatness here and there, but absolutely no one is taking them seriously as a credible threat for any titles nor for a win in general. You would think that they would be begging to get out of their contracts to head back to Mexico where their talents could be put to better use.
I thought Drew vs. Seth was the better of the two World title matches as I personally can't get into the "Mr. Rogers" Bray Wyatt matches. I didn't care when he fought Miz last year and I didn't care here when he fought Strowman. It was obviously the means to an end to setup the rematch against The Fiend at Backlash. I hope and pray to God that they don't have plans to have Strowman beat The Fiend like how he lost to Goldberg in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. I like Strowman but everyone knew that he was a transitional champion this year at WrestleMania to substitute a warm body in the ring with Goldberg (without any sort of a storyline, mind you..) when Roman Reigns decided to sit that show out for the well-being of his family during this pandemic. Let's put the belt back on Bray and have everything (at least in the WWE Universe anyway...) go back right in the world.
As for the main event, I can't even really call that a match. It was a spectacle more than anything else with some brawling littered in-between. I wasn't embarrassed nor flat out disgusted by it, but it kept me entertained from start to finish. I thought there were some missed opportunities there though, such as possibly cuing up the Saw music when Black trapped Styles into that room full of The Undertaker's coffins and props. Wrestling twitter failed me when no one (even as of this posting) made a montage of Lacey Evans sucker punching bitches with the Women's Right like Butch Magnus on that one episode of The Boondocks where Riley got his chain stolen. The food fight was bound to happen, but I was little surprised at inter-gender brawling during that bit, especially with Shayna choking out Rey Mysterio.
I was little disappointed at the cameo from Vince McMahon in his office, but I have to admit that I see what everyone else is seeing about how bad (or rather OLD) Vince McMahon looks now. Is he getting enough sleep and eating well during this pandemic? I can understand that these times are a stressful situation, especially with his XFL revival going down the toilet for the second time in a row without even getting a foot properly off the ground and his wrestling product drawing in the all-time lowest ratings across the board. It might be the time to hand the reigns over to someone else to run this thing at this point. Let's face it, Vince, you're not getting any younger at this point. Either hand it off to Triple H and Stephanie to run or sell it to the highest bidder. I mean, c'mon... It's time to chuck things up as another L in the books if things get any worse for the E machine.
I thought the right woman won with Asuka winning the Women's MITB briefcase, which turned out to be containing the Women's Championship the following night. From the few times that I have tuned into highlights from RAW as of late in these empty arenas, Asuka has always been a highlight. It doesn't help that I have become a fan of her YouTube channel as well. You would think that she would be killing her gimmick with that YouTube channel with how adorable she is in her personal life, but it just adds to her charm as an onscreen persona (Asuka the Killer and Asuka the Adorable Otaku) when both venues are polar opposite from each other that it's EASY to keep them separated - at least in my head anyway.
As for the men, I had it pegged for AJ Styles or Aleister Black to win the entire thing and we saw where that wind up by the time this thing as all said and done. Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black found themselves thrown off the roof by Baron Corbin (AKA the Grand Marshall of the Possum Day Parade as per Jim Cornette). Corbin and Styles get to the top of the ladder and both snatch the briefcase down, but Corbin hammered with a guitar by the returning Elias. Styles fumbles with the briefcase, only for it to land in the hands of Otis below. Watching this live, I busted out laughing hysterically. Every once and a while you need to have a win like this to show that anyone could win one of these matches. I don't see why some people are acting like it's such a travesty that Otis won the MITB briefcase. It doesn't mean that he's guaranteed to win the title of his choosing whenever he decides to cash it in anyway. Besides, who says he doesn't lose it to one of the random heels on SmackDown! in a match?
Otis' win here tickled me like that time Santino Marella almost won the Royal Rumble in 2011 against Alberto Del Rio until he got thrown out at the last instant because everyone forgot that he was still in there. On paper it sounds goofy, but you need shit like that in wrestling every now and then to remind people that the squeaky clean babyfaces can pull off miracles too. That's what got people to fall in love with that event in the past. It was established that anyone had a chance to win it and not just the guys that are CLEARLY being elevated on the cards. Look at Drew McIntyre's win from this year for example. Everyone knew that he had the potential to be a World Champion since coming back to the company but was waiting on that golden opportunity to come through at the right moment. He got it two-fold in that match. He eliminated Brock Lesnar AND won the entire thing.
I'm not saying that Otis' win here should end with him winning the World title because that would be asinine at this point. All I'm saying that this could be used to further his ongoing storyline with Mandy Rose. She would come across as the ultimate heel if she left him high and dry after he gave her the MITB briefcase, who she would then award to another rising heel MALE Superstar. Then again, Tucker could turn on Otis by costing him the title opportunity too. There's a lot of ways to go with this. For me personally, I wouldn't break up Heavy Machinery anytime soon as Tucker is going to be dead in the water without that tag team to hold him up. On top of that, Otis would be a moron to cash in the contract for a tag title shot. My tag team partner would be put out to pasture if I had Mandy AND the MITB briefcase - I'm just sayin'.
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