WWE Payback (Aug. 30, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Payback was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on August 30, 2020 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the sixth event in the Payback chronology and the first to be held since the 2017 event.

The card comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman in a No Holds Barred Triple Threat match to win the Universal Championship. On the undercard, Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy, Keith Lee defeated Randy Orton, and Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax defeated Bayley and Sasha Banks by submission to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.

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Match Results:

Kickoff - Tag Team Match

The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan) def. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce)

Didn't watch, but as of this posting (9/1/20), the IIconics were forced to disband due to losing to the Riott Squad the following night in a rematch on Monday Night RAW. I'm all for that since Peyton Royce deserved to go on her own for a while now. She's clearly the more talented of the two in-ring. Let Billie Kay serve as enhancement talent on one of the other brands post-draft.

Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship

Bobby Lashley (with MVP and Shelton Benjamin) def. Apollo Crews (c) by submission

The first thing I uttered after the finish was "WTF is the FULL Lashley?" Decent match, I guess, but they did the right thing here and put the title on Lashley, who should have been challenging Apollo in the first place. MVP should have been the mouthpiece from day one. I don't need to see him still wrestling in 2020. Isn't the whole point of the Hurt Business is to rehab Lashley and elevate him back to his former greatness with Shelton Benjamin?

Singles Match

Big E def. Sheamus

These two guys tried here, but they had already had a series of decent matches over on SmackDown! so this was pretty much rehashing familiar territory. I was the under the impression that Sheamus still had some nagging back issues so I found myself cringing that he took that bump down to the floor from the ring apron off that Spear out of the ring spot that Big E loves doing. I'm surprised that dude hasn't sprained his wrists or something from doing that so much all of these years. I can totally get behind this Big E that's all business when the bell rings.

I'm going to keep saying it though - he needs to leave the goofy shit at home if he really wants to take this singles push somewhere though.

Singles Match

Matt Riddle def. King Corbin

I couldn't give a flying fuck about this. Corbin lost and that's all what matters in terms of sensible booking.

Tonight, I prove that Matt Riddle is a failure in a WWE ring.
By the way…he’s already proven that he’s a failure at home. #WWEPayback

— THE KING (@BaronCorbinWWE) August 30, 2020

.@SuperKingofBros' reaction to King @BaronCorbinWWE's personal tweet ahead of their #WWEPayback match: pic.twitter.com/pUtrI9dlOw

— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) August 30, 2020

Corbin won the match though when his tweet was read on-air and the exact moment where Riddle's happy expression sank right down the drain was priceless.

I see people complaining about bringing up his real life infidelity allegations into a WWE storyline but I'm looking at it like WWE bringing up Jeff Hardy's alcohol and drug abuse into storylines recently. It's nothing different for them. This is their brand of being "edgy" and "real" in 2020. It's definitely in bad taste but they think are exposing "insider" stuff by airing dirty laundry on television.

Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax def. Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) by submission

I didn't think this actual match was very good at all. There were tons of botches, not just from Nia Jax, but from Sasha and Bayley attempting to move her around the ring. The best thing to come out of this match was the very creative submission finish from Shayna Baszler by using Sasha's own arms to choke out Bayley for the win.

Man, that was an awesome finish. Can't say the same about the rest of the match leading up to it though.

I busted out laughing that commentary wasted absolutely NO time in saying "NO BELTS BANKS" after the decision. I couldn't understand why Nia was overjoyed during the post-match interview when she contributed absolutely jackshit to the finish here. They should've handed both belts to Shayna and let her be a single woman wrecking crew - unless she has Marina Safir and Jessamyn Duke as her lackeys on the main roster (full-time) now.

Singles Match

Keith Lee def. Randy Orton

Can't say that anything here was memorable nor noteworthy, but in terms of the pattern is smart booking tonight, the right man won with Lee going over on Orton. I guess this confirms the rumors and predictions that Orton is going to take that title from Drew McIntyre, which would set Lee in a prime position to challenge for said title in the near-future.

Tag Team Match

Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio def. Seth Rollins and Murphy

This wasn't anywhere close as their match at Summerslam the weekend prior, but it's to be expected that these guys can't hit two homeruns in two PPVs mere weekends apart. On top of that, Rey Mysterio suffered an injury in this match, so that probably played a factor in that as well. This wasn't a bad match, but I was a little underwhelmed, especially given the high stakes of their previous match. Dominik still shined here like before, but Rollins and Murphy's antics are getting old at this point. Murphy ate the pin here, so it's obvious that this feud isn't over when it should be at this point. They could have given the Mysterio family the win with the feel good moment to capitalize on the name of the PPV but they didn't with Rollins not being the one to eat the pinfall here. I don't see why they should milk this feud out for a few more months. It's not like WrestleMania is around the corner or anything.

No Holds Barred, Triple Threat match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) def. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (c) and Braun Strowman

The tale of the tape to setup this match all night was the cliffhanger reveal at the end of Friday Night SmackDown! was that Paul Heyman was now managing Roman Reigns. If there's any doubt in anyone's minds, but the "Big Dog" is now officially a heel. He was refusing to sign the contract for this match until it was tailored to his specifications. The story had the commentary team acting like there was any doubt that he was going to sign it to be a part of this title match. Strowman and The Fiend came off even bigger dumbasses in all of this when they were fighting in this match like it was a one-on-one contest until Roman Reigns came out and wrecked shop like this was a Money In The Bank cash-in.

Going into this match, I was convinced that Roman and Heyman were going to be revealed to being the masterminds behind Retribution, but in retrospect, I'm glad they weren't. What the hell does Roman have to be mad about? That wouldn't have made a lick of damn sense. I rather this reveal for Retribution be something big for a lot of NXT call-ups or misused main roster talents anyway.

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Paul Heyman raising the hand of his new client in victory.

Afterthoughts:

This wasn't a flat out god-awful show, but it wasn't a particular exciting show either, especially to serve up as a follow-up last weekend's NXT TakeOver XXX and Summerslam events. Despite the wealth of smart booking decisions on this show, it ultimately felt completely unnecessary. They could have done most of what they have done here later this month at Clash of Champions or on the weekly RAW and SmackDown! shows to pop a rating. As a result, I was left feeling like a vast majority of this show was a complete waste of time, especially for the majority of the undercard.

WWE Summerslam: You'll Never See It Coming (Aug. 23, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

SummerSlam was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on August 23, 2020 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the thirty-third event under the SummerSlam chronology. It was also the first SummerSlam since 2011 to not feature Brock Lesnar, who competed in the main event match for the past six years and in 2012. Additionally, it was the first SummerSlam since 2009 to feature MVP.

The event was originally scheduled to take place at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston mayor Marty Walsh announced the suspension of all large-scale gatherings and that no permit would be issued for an event that could draw a large crowd before September 7. Since mid-March, WWE has presented the majority of their shows from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando with no fans in attendance due to the pandemic. With the move to the Amway Center, SummerSlam was the first major WWE event held outside of the Performance Center since March, although still without fans physically in attendance; fans instead were able to attend and be seen virtually on LED boards in the venue through a new experience called ThunderDome.

The card comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman in a Falls Count Anywhere match to win the Universal Championship for a second time. After the match, Roman Reigns made his return following a five-month hiatus and attacked both men. On the undercard, Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship, Mandy Rose defeated Sonya Deville in a No Disqualification Loser Leaves WWE match, and Asuka defeated Sasha Banks to win the Raw Women's Championship for a second time after losing her match against Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship in the opening bout.

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Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship

Apollo Crews (c) def. MVP

Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin were banned from ringside.

Kick-off match, so I didn't watch, but I have a question. Why is MVP still wrestling matches when he's supposed to be the mouthpiece for the Hurt Business? Couldn't Lashley be wrestling these matches instead?

Singles Match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Bayley (c) (with Sasha Banks) def. Asuka

Out of the three women's matches on this PPV, I have to say that this was the weakest match out of the three. I don't mean that an insult either as there was some great women's wrestling on this show in all three bouts, but the finish here soured my taste on this match in the end.

Sasha Banks no sells three consecutive attacks from Asuka, only to jump up on the ring apron and take the bullet for Bayley during the final exchange off the ring apron, thus allowing Bayley to roll Asuka up to retain.

I thought it would have made more sense to have Asuka dethrone Bayley because that women's division on SmackDown! is on life support, despite the fact that Naomi beat Bayley clean on SmackDown! Friday night. Bayley has gone through that entire roster in terms of challengers for that title and no one has beaten her nor has shown any signs of a glimmer of hope of taking it from her anytime soon. The win over Asuka here just felt like a minor footnote in terms of giving Bayley bragging rights that she overcame her loss to the Empress of Tomorrow from their days back in NXT.

The fact of the matter is that Asuka had Bayley's number and she knew it.

Tag Team Match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (c) def. Andrade and Angel Garza (with Zelina Vega)

There's nothing much to write home about this match as it was your typical Monday Night RAW run-of-the-mill, bland, boring tag team match that went on a little far too long for my taste.

I was expecting a run-in from Bianca Belair for the finish, but no dice. The finish occurred when Montez Ford accidentally bumped Zelina Vega off the ring apron and down to the floor, where Andrade was too pre-occupied with tending to her instead of helping Angel Garza fend off the Street Profits.

No Disqualification Loser Leaves WWE match

Mandy Rose def. Sonya Deville

The decision to change the stipulation of this match came at short notice following the trial on Friday with Sonya's real life stalker being charged in court. This match originally was going to be a hair vs. hair match, but it changed to the current stipulation. To be fair, the loser here was never really in doubt, especially with everything that Sonya Deville has gone through with this stalker incident. I don't blame her for wanting to get off television for a few months and just get away from all of this for a while. That way she can hit the reset button - mentally and physically - before coming back bigger and better for her next big WWE storyline. I'm still bummed out that Fire & Desire never won the WWE Women's Tag Team titles, but the fucking IIconics did? Fuck that noise, especially when they were desperately looking for teams to put those belts on at one point.

Loving Mandy's choice of new ring gear to go with her new hairstyle. 

I got a kick out of Mandy doing the Caterpillar/Worm to celebrate with Otis after the match. I almost died laughing at that. She needs to ask Nikki Bella for some pointers on that.

Street Fight

Seth Rollins (with Murphy) def. Dominik Mysterio (with Rey Mysterio)

This was a fucking master class in terms of storytelling for the evening.

This was arguably one hell of an in-ring debut for Dominik Mysterio. I'm sure his biological father, Eddie Guerrero, was smiling down him with pride (laughs). All jokes aside, Dominik, Rollins, and Rey Mysterio killed it with everything in this match from bell to bell. They even had me going with Mysterio's wife teasing to get involved.

I absolutely adored everything about the narrative in this match. This image alone is worth it's weight in gold. 

The match had the PERFECT ending too. Dominik got so close at victory that he could taste it, but Rollins got the knees up to shoot down those dreams. Rey wanted to help his son, but was helpless as he was handcuffed to the ropes across the ring and was forced to watch Rollins deliver the Curb Stomp that would secure his victory. If this doesn't lead into that father/son tag team match against Rollins and Murphy (The Disciple...LOL) that Rey Mysterio has been begging for, then these people need to be slapped for this booking.

On a sidebar note, cool throwbacks to Rey Mysterio's WCW Halloween Havoc '97 for Rollins' ring gear while I could have sworn that Dominik was rocking some TJP-inspired gear. I know that kid is thanking his mom's side of genetics to get her height instead of being his dad's height.

Singles Match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship

Asuka def. Sasha Banks (c) (with Bayley) by submission

Sasha Banks was on a mission to have the best women's match of the night and she sure as hell accomplished that feat. Her and Asuka were killing each other in this match from bell to bell. I couldn't give a flying fuck about Sasha's current gimmick and storyline right now, but she hasn't disappointed me in the least when it comes to her in-ring ability. I still think that she does a little TOO much in matches at times, but I can't hate on her ability to perform, even though she tends to go overboard in terms of unnecessary bumps and risks.

I was all for this match being the best thing on the show from the women, but the finish was absolutely stupid. They rehashed the EXACT same spot from Bayley's title defense, only for Bayley to get knocked off the ring apron and Sasha got rolled up instead. I get that they were saying that Asuka learned from her costly mistake in the previous match, but why the fuck is the commentary team going on about this Bayley's fault?

The announcers are telling me this was Bayley's fault even though with my own two eyes I saw Sasha try a move and it got countered and she tapped out clean. Why is this so hard?

— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvarez) August 24, 2020

Sasha went to the well too many times in terms of dirty tricks and got owned. Simple as that.

*Waits for the Sasha stans to get butthurt that she lost ANOTHER singles title in the first title defense*

To be fair, Sasha shouldn't have won it from Asuka in the first goddamn place IMHO. They just did it for this pairing. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

I know the Sasha stans will be butt hurt that she lost yet ANOTHER singles title after her first title defense, but she shouldn't have won it in the first goddamn place. That entire storyline from the last month or so was absolutely stupid. It was only done for Sasha and Bayley can continue parading around together, bragging about having "dos straps" or "two belts". To be honest, I would have went with Asuka taking both of those belts from Sasha and Bayley, but that's just me.

WWE seems to be deadset on stalling and dragging out this split between Sasha and Bayley for over a year (which feels like 2-3 at this point) to the point where I don't see how anyone still cares at this point. Sasha goes back to being a boring babyface while Bayley is the heel this time around. Who cares? I don't doubt the match itself would be nothing short of amazing, but all of this stalling and waiting is killing this in the long-term scheme of things.

Singles Match for the WWE Championship

Drew McIntyre (c) def. Randy Orton

This wasn't a bad match at all. Randy Orton seems to be on a mission to prove that he can have great matches without a ton of dives since his feud with Edge earlier this year. They totally had me going that Orton was going to win the title when Drew whiffed the Claymore completely though. I totally bought into that spot, only for Drew to roll him up with a backslide to retain.

Another positive about that match. There weren't 1001 finisher kickouts and near-falls. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

I'm fine with Drew retaining, but off a backslide? C'mon now. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

I don't have an issue with a backslide being used, but my main issue was with it being used merely to give the commentary team the excuse to shout "YOU'LL NEVER SEE IT COMIN'!!" as the show's tagline. That had to be a Vince call to have the commentary team shout that right after the finish. Regardless of that call, I wouldn't mind seeing Drew and Randy have a rematch.

As of this posting (8/27/20), Keith Lee has debuted on Monday Night RAW - as advertised in the promo package that aired after this match and is set to face Randy Orton one-on-one at WWE Payback this Sunday (8/30/20). Seems like they are scrapping the rocket on the back of the Limitless One right off the bat.

Falls Count Anywhere Match for the WWE Universal Championship

"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt def. Braun Strowman (c)

I'm going to be honest. At this point of the show, I had mentally tuned this match out for the most part. For what I did pay attention to, I thought it was decent, but I can't say that I'm a fan of these slow-prodding big man matches in WWE. They never seem right on execution. Kross and Lee had a match in the same spot that left a lot to be desired and while this match wasn't as highly anticipated as that one was, there were some good spots to this match. It just felt like they completely shit the bed on the finish.

Boy that was dumb. An EXTREMELY stupid finish to a decent match. Braun setup his own downfall here like a complete dumbass.

And huge meh to Roman coming back. If he's not worried about his health then I'm not going to worry for him. #SummerSlam

— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) August 24, 2020

The talk of the town of this match was the big return of the "Big Dog" himself - ROMAN REIGNS. Now THAT I didn't see coming at all. I thought he was staying FAR, FAR away from this company as long as COVID-19 was a threat, especially with his previous battles with leukemia.

Roman Reigns returns.

I suppose since the Thunderdome is in an open air arena, it's safer for him to perform. WWE has that rented out for the next few months, so that's long enough to get the ratings back up before taking him off TV for a while. You don't want to overexpose him before WrestleMania season. If I was Charlotte Flair, that's what I would do. Stay far away until close to that magic hour of 2021 when they need her for the WrestleMania builds while establishing her some new opponents and new faces to face.

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Afterthoughts:

With the ratings for Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown! both reaching record lows, you knew Vince McMahon was going to hit the panic button and bring back someone from off of the bench at home. I wonder how long it's going to take before we see Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman show back up on TV? I would pay to see him bare knuckle brawling in that RAW Underground thing at least once. Either that or call him down for a NXT TakeOver special to have a Fight Pit match against Timothy Thatcher, but I know we won't see that anytime soon.

All in all, I think WWE delivered on both fronts with both NXT AND the main roster for once for Summerslam weekend. This show was far from perfect, but they had several matches that I was genuinely invested in. This was the first main roster PPV during the COVID-19 era that I have thoroughly enjoyed since the two-nights of WrestleMania back in April.

PREVIEW -- WWE 2K Battlegrounds: Official Trailer

Pre-order WWE 2K Battlegrounds Now - https://wwe.2k.com/battlegrounds/buy  

Featuring over 70 WWE Superstars and Legends, WWE 2K Battlegrounds is an all-new, over-the-top, multiplayer arcade experience featuring interactive environments and devastating power-ups. Battle your friends online or on the couch in loads of match types, including the new King of the Battleground and online tournaments.

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The first thing that I'm seeing as I'm watching the gameplay play out in this trailer is essentially WWE All-Stars at it's core. I'm seeing partials and fractured pieces of the distinct fighting styles from that game on display here. The only difference being with this game is that it's "chibi" models of recognizable WWE Superstars and Legends instead of roided out, comic book over-exaggerations for said personalities that people heavily criticized that game for going with in terms of the visual style.

I'm glad to see that women will be well represented here as I spotted Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, and Asuka in this trailer in the mix of the action. I like to think that they borrowed a few elements from the defunct Def Jam series too with the weapons and "powered up" state I saw at the end of the trailer. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if those developers were picked up by 2K after floating around in limbo for so long.

For 2K's sake, I hope this is worth the investment, especially how things panned out for them with WWE 2K20 last year. September 18 seems like FAR too soon to be releasing a new wrestling IP when they never got on good graces with players after their last debacle.

WWE Backlash (June 14, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Backlash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was broadcast on June 14, 2020 with all the matches taking place at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. While the majority of the event aired live, the match between Edge and Randy Orton was pre-recorded on June 7. It was the fifteenth event in the Backlash chronology.

The event was originally scheduled to take place in Kansas City, Missouri; however, the event had to be moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like WWE's other shows since mid-March, Backlash was moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, though unlike the previous shows, Backlash was not announced until after the start of the pandemic, which made it WWE's first PPV event to be announced during the pandemic.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Randy Orton defeated Edge in what WWE billed as "The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever". In other prominent matches, Drew McIntyre defeated Bobby Lashley to retain the WWE Championship, Braun Strowman defeated The Miz and John Morrison in a Handicap match to retain the Universal Championship, and Sheamus defeated Jeff Hardy.

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Don't worry, this write-up won't be long at all.

Quick Results:

Kick-Off: Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship
Apollo Crews (c) defeated Andrade (with Angel Garza and Zelina Vega)

Triple Threat Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship
Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) defeated Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross and The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce)

I said it on Twitter after the match was over, but I'll say it here too. The IIconics are fucking rotten in-ring workers. Everything they do comes off sloppy or poorly executed and I can't shit on them without pointing out that Bliss and Cross aren't that much better. Bayley and Sasha had their work cut out for them leading these two teams through a barely passable effort for all those involved here. This was the first match in a long time where the IIconics didn't embarrass themselves, so I guess that's something.


Singles Match
Sheamus defeated Jeff Hardy

I dare say this was the best match on the card, even though I'm not a fan of another intoxication storyline for Jeff Hardy, especially when he still has another pending court case coming up later this year. 


Singles Match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship
Asuka (c) vs. Nia Jax ended in a double countout

For the love of all things holy, PLEASE send Nia back to the Performance Center to get some proper training. It seemed like Asuka and Nia were butting heads to get anything going in this match, despite the fact that Asuka was able to lead her through some great bouts in the past. Sadly, Asuka was unable to make a miracle happen on this night. (Cringes) With that draw finish, you know that they are dragging this out for another month or two. 


2-on-1 Handicap Match for the WWE Universal Championship
Braun Strowman (c) defeated The Miz and John Morrison

I got up during the entrances, warmed up my dinner, and by the time I came back this was over. No one should be surprised to see that Strowman retained. 


Singles Match for the WWE Championship
Drew McIntyre (c) defeated Bobby Lashley (with MVP)

Lana walks out and costs Lashley the match just like everyone and their mothers saw coming. Can someone tell Lana to lay off the spray tanning? Just because she's married to a black man in kayfabe doesn't give her the excuse to start looking that shade of Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair burnt orange. 

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship Match
The Street Profits vs. Viking Raiders - Match never started

I couldn't even begin to tell you what the fuck did I just watch with that shit. I didn't like their bullshit segments leading up to this match and I didn't care for this either. At this point, I think we need to all agree that both WWE and AEW are running these "cinematic matches" into the ground. It's not something we need to be busting out on every single PPV now. As much as I loved Hanson and Rowe in Ring of Honor as War Machine, I'm to the point where I can't stand their WWE incarnations.


Singles Match
Randy Orton defeated Edge

Was this the Greatest Wrestling Match... (hold for dramatic pause) Ever? No, but it was good match, despite all of the editing and reshoots for botches. What's ironic about this is that this match was LONGER than their WrestleMania match, but the major difference here was that it wasn't fucking boring from bell to bell. I thought they dove a little too hard into stealing finishers and relying on too many near-falls towards the end like this was a New Japan match, but overall it was much better than their last encounter. Samoa Joe deserves the credit for keeping this exciting on commentary as well. Everything he said added and uplifted the in-ring action, even during those moments where the students in the crowd from the Performance Center were phoning in "This is awesome!" and "Fight forever!" chants. I did chuckle at WWE piping in crowd noise from old shows in there too like no one wasn't going to catch that as well. After Edge's unfortunate injury during reshoots, we won't be getting the third match in this series at Summerslam. That should be a good thing as it would give people time to properly digest these first two matches before rushing into a third in this series. 

WWE Money In The Bank 2020 (May 10, 2020) -- Afterthoughts on a VERY Unorthodox Show

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.

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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 contract the 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

MITB Winners: Asuka for the women and Otis (LOL) for the men.

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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. 

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'. 

WWE Elimination Chamber (March 8, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Elimination Chamber (2020) (also known as No Escape (2020) in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on March 8, 2020 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the tenth event under the Elimination Chamber chronology.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, NXT's Shayna Baszler won Raw's women's Elimination Chamber match to become the number one contender against Becky Lynch for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 36. On the undercard, Aleister Black defeated AJ Styles in a no disqualification match, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Cesaro defeated Braun Strowman in a 3-on-1 handicap match, with Zayn pinning Strowman to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship, and The Miz and John Morrison retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship in SmackDown's tag team Elimination Chamber match.

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Note: I'm not going to discuss every match on this card as I think we can all agree that this show was unamiously a massive dud. Not a bad show, but just a really boring one, missing a lot of key top talent and lackluster matches, save for a few bright spots on the under card. A lot of people, myself included, went into and walked away from this show feeling like it was a bigger waste of time than advertised. This show did absolutely NOTHING to get me excited for WrestleMania in any shape nor form. 

Tag Team Match

The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) def. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder

Kick-off Match. Didn't watch. Didn't care.

Singles Match

Daniel Bryan def. Drew Gulak by technical submission

For the love of all that's holy, can we stop with all of these scary neck bumps? Daniel Bryan for sure doesn't need to be taking them in any way, shape, nor form.

Enough with the fucking neck bumps. I'm sure Naito and Ibushi's dicks were hard seeing that spot though...

Outside of that scary moment (along with another with their Dynamite Kid-style suplex out of the ring spot), I thought this was a decent technically sound match. I understand that Bryan wanted to work with Gabba Gulak to give him the rub/shine so to speak, but I don't see how a loss in their initial encounter is going to do anything to advance this program to make anyone want to see them do a possible rematch for WrestleMania.

Singles match for the WWE United States Championship

Andrade (c) (with Zelina Vega) def. Humberto Carrillo

I get it - Humberto Carrillo is one hell of a talent in terms of the lucha libre style, but ENOUGH with the title shots that this dude has gotten over the months against Andrade or for the United States title in general. I can't look at the guy without thinking that he's the love child of Evan Bourne/Matt Sydal and Joe Lopez ("Other Joe" on AngryJoeShow). Seriously, Google those two guys and tell me you don't see it too!

This wasn't a bad match, but holy shit, they are running this feud into the ground just like how they did Andrade vs. Mysterio last year, which burned people out well before the feud could properly climax at WrestleMania last year too!

Elimination Chamber Match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The Miz and John Morrison (c) def. The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston), The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker), Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado), and Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode

Eliminated	Team	Entered	Eliminated by	Method	Time[1]
1	Lucha House Party	3	Heavy Machinery	Pinfall	17:15
2	Heavy Machinery	5	Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode	Pinfall	23:45
3	Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode	6	The Usos	Pinfall	25:15
4	The New Day	2	The Miz and John Morrison	Pinfall	29:05
5	The Usos	1	The Miz and John Morrison	Pinfall	32:55
Winner	The Miz and John Morrison	4

For me personally, this was the match of the night - until Heavy Machinery were eliminated. Lucha House Party killed it here with a ton of great spots (at least the ones that they didn't botch upon execution), only to get eliminated right after their biggest spot of the match by the New Day. You knew that wasn't good when that elimination took all of the air and excitement out of the building in one fell swoop.

This was a thing of beauty right here. Too bad the Lucha House Party got eliminated immediately after this spot.

Heavy Machinery got the crowd going again, until they got eliminated as well, following Tucker's failed attempt to hold his own after Otis went flying out of the one of the chamber pods down to the floor.

I'm still disappointed that Otis hasn't been out for blood since Ziggler stole Mandy away from him.

I don't know what the hell WWE Creative was thinking in regards of booking this match. The only thing they had to do was either let Heavy Machinery win here after getting their hands on Ziggler and Roode or allow Roode & Ziggler to win to have them lose the titles to Heavy Machinery at WrestleMania. This isn't rocket science. Otis AND Tucker are over like rover. It's not like with the Street Profits where the team obviously had one clear star (Montez Ford) from sheer charisma and athleticism and his partner is just standing in his shadow (Angelo Dawkins).

Tonight was your weekly reminder to NOT sleep on Tucker Knight.

Both members of Heavy Machinery proved their worth here in this match with Tucker reminding people that he's a force to be reckoned with as well.

I get that reuniting The Miz and John Morrison in 2019 and putting the tag titles on them earlier this year was a big deal in terms of nostalgia, but it wouldn't have killed them to drop the titles to the two teams I mentioned earlier, especially when the Otis-Mandy-Ziggler triangle is the biggest storyline going over on SmackDown! that people care about. Haven't we seen The Usos against the New Day enough in our goddamn lifetimes though? When they started this match I was already rolling my eyes harder than that Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr. meme that people love using.

No Disqualification Match

Aleister Black defeated AJ Styles (with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson)

For a No DQ match, I thought this was mostly pretty darn boring until towards the end of the match. The most frustrating thing here is it was obvious that they were dragging this out to fill out time on the show and the fact that I know that both Black and Styles are capable of much better performances than this.

The Club's reactions here were priceless.

The only reason I was engaged as I was just waiting for the arrival of The Undertaker like everyone else was at this point. They had to do something to continue hyping up this feud between Styles and Taker, so it was a given that something was going to happen in this match to even up the odds. That being said, I hope it's The Undertaker and Aleister Black against The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson) at WrestleMania instead of Styles and Taker one-on-one. Styles would bump his ass off for the Deadman for sure in a singles match, but let's not leave any window for another lackluster performance by The Undertaker, especially when his best years are behind him. A tag team match would be much more easier for him with Black doing most of the heavy lifting so to speak.

I love how Styles get caught out of the Phenomenal Forearm as if it's a video game. 

Tag Team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (c) defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy

Simply put - this was a Monday Night RAW television match. Nothing more, nothing less.

Owens came out with a bag of popcorn to distract Rollins' for the finish.

...Only to get served a Stunner for his troubles.

This match was easily forgettable, save for Rollins' sell to Kevin Owens' Stone Cold Stunner.

3-on-1 Handicap match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Cesaro defeated Braun Strowman (c)

Since Zayn pinned Strowman, he won the championship.

During the promo backstage before this match started, Sami told Nakamura and Cesaro to stand back while he handled Strowman on his own. Boy was that a load of bull... As soon as it started he retreated back to allow his cronies (sad what both Nakamura and Cesaro have been reduced to at this point...) to do his dirty work.

I'm happy that Sami Zayn (who is getting a bit of a Dad Bod...) finally won singles gold on the main roster, but did they need to take the title off of Strowman right now? Dude already seemed like he was allergic to titles every opportunity he got to win one in the past. I would like to assume that they will have Strowman run through Nakamura and Cesaro over the course of the next few weeks of SmackDown! programming, only to force Sami to face him one-on-one at WrestleMania. If they end up being in that nothing of a match called the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal then someone needs to be slapped. That's all what I'm saying. This should be as easy as booking The Big Show versus Cody Rhodes that one year at WrestleMania. Nothing fancy. Just go out there and get the job done to drop the title back to Strowman.

Elimination Chamber Match for a WWE Raw Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 36

Shayna Baszler defeated Natalya, Liv Morgan, Asuka, Ruby Riott, and Sarah Logan

Eliminated	Wrestler	Entered	Eliminated by	Method	Time
1	Sarah Logan	3	Shayna Baszler	Submission	7:50
2	Ruby Riott	2	Shayna Baszler	Submission	8:15
3	Natalya	1	Shayna Baszler	Submission	9:30
4	Liv Morgan	5	Shayna Baszler	Knockout	15:00
5	Asuka	6	Shayna Baszler	Knockout	21:00
Winner	Shayna Baszler	4

I understand why this match went last (mainly because it was International Women's Day and the SJWs would have roasted them all over social media if it wasn't...) but it didn't deserve that spot, much like Becky Lynch doesn't deserve to main event WrestleMania for the second year in the row. This should have ended with either the Tag Team Chamber match or Black/Styles just for the massive pop this dead crowd erupted for the arrival of The Undertaker at the end of that match. Instead, we got a massive dud of a main event here. Don't get me wrong. I understand that this was damage control to repair Shayna Baszler's street cred and overall impression since arriving on the main roster as most people aren't savvy to her credentials from dominating on NXT over the past two years. I just didn't agree with these massive windows of time where there's absolutely nothing going on other than Asuka shouting in Japanese while Shayna is merely posing as they are awkwardly standing around as they wait for the pods to open up.

Asuka's taunting within her pod was one of the more entertaining moments of this match.

This match would have ended better if Liv Morgan got in before Shayna for they could have done the confrontation of all three members of the Riott Squad facing off, only for Shayna to come in shortly afterwards and clean house with them upon arrival.

Jeebus Christ!

I wouldn't be surprised if Nattie was concussed during this match, especially after those cringe-inducing bumps she took back to back from Sarah Logan. Like holy shit, I thought she bit the turnbuckle at ringside from that first bump from Logan after being dropkicked into the pod. Don't forget about that dive too where Logan's knee smashed Nattie in the face. I'm sure she had to be pissed about that as I was mad seeing it. If I were to speculate, that's another possible reason why this match didn't go as long as it should have. Nattie was probably meant to go the distance against Shayna until she got hurt here, but who knows. As of this posting (3/13/20), there's no reports floating around of possible injuries from this match from the female talent but there's no denying that Nattie got her bell rung here.

As much as they were teasing and hyping up the confrontation between Asuka and Shayna towards the end of this match, I was disappointed that Asuka didn't last longer against her, especially given her own reputation as a record holding NXT Women's Champion in the past. I guess they wanted to play it safe with Asuka's recent wrist injury and didn't want her to have too much action here with WrestleMania around the corner.

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Afterthoughts:

At the end of the day, WWE got what they wanted. They established Shayna Baszler as the "killer" set out to challenge "The Man" Becky Lynch for WrestleMania - as if there was any shred of doubt going into this PPV. With those reports floating around of Vince not really buying into Shayna and that leaked photo of Rousey at WWE HQ, I was half-expecting them to pull an audible and sub-in Ronda Rousey instead of Shayna for WrestleMania against Becky Lynch one-on-one since it didn't happen previously. Y'know, do the finish where someone (Shayna) is eliminated early for the shock factor, only for Ronda to replace someone else and steal the win like that one year Edge stole Kofi Kingston's Elimination Chamber spot, only to win the entire thing after losing the title earlier that night. (Laughs) Yeah, I know. I give WWE Creative too much credit in that regard and should have known better.

Despite of all of that, I wasn't anywhere as pissed off like a lot of other people online after this show. I don't know what it is but I'm at the point where I just watch these PPVs, NXT, and read spoilers/highlights from RAW and SmackDown!. If I don't like this processed bullshit that WWE continues to churn out every week, I know how to turn the channel to something else I rather see. That being said, I can totally relate with the complaints about this show. This is the last stop before WrestleMania and with the clear lack of star power and big names, you can tell that this show was phoned in after Sweet Saudi Money V: Keep Hope Alive. They don't care as WWE is obviously in their annual "It's WrestleMania and we know you're going to watch anyway" mindset at this stage of their schemes. WWE needs to start getting concerned, especially when people had "#CancelWWENetwork" trending after Super ShowDown when Goldberg beat The Fiend for the WWE Championship, only to follow that show up with another flop. It's not doing anything for fans' morale going into "The Show of Shows". I just hope they get their shit together - not only with these coronavirus concerns - but with this show altogether. Maybe they should cancel WrestleMania? That would give WWE Creative a lot more time to fix this shit and figure out exactly what the hell they should be doing with their product.