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'. 

OPINION -- #GiveDivasAChance Transforms into a NXT Divas Revolution on Monday Night RAW

Monday Night RAW (July 13, 2015) saw what many WWE Diva fans are calling a “revolution” as many fans got what they have been begging for months on end as the NXT Divas made their debuts to tip the scales in the WWE Divas’ battle against Team Bella (Current WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella, Alicia Fox, and Brie Bella). This segment started with Nikki Bella “addressing” the Divas division with a promo about her show of force over the division and her dominance over every challenge that has stood in her way. In typical fashion, Stephanie McMahon (oddly announced as the “Principal Owner of WWE” - since when?) came out to put Nikki Bella in her place. Most fans will remember that Stephanie did the same thing during the Kaitlyn and AJ Lee feud in 2013 and last summer at the heights of both of the AJ Lee and Paige feud and the cringeworthy rivalry between the Bella Twins. Stephanie has a knack for putting their Divas in their places when they seem to step far out of line - I honestly see this as a metaphorical “glass ceiling” when she injects herself into these segments as it’s obvious that WWE doesn’t want any other Diva to be as big of an on-air personality as her.

Stephanie enters the ring and talks about how women are creating revolutions all over the world today, not just in sports - even name drops Ronda Rousey in UFC (I guess she didn’t get enough at WrestleMania) - and decrees that it’s time that the WWE Divas do the same, hinting that there are women on the roster who are clawing and scratching at the opportunity to take things to the next level. That brings Paige into the conversation, who which Stephanie acknowledges that one person can’t fight this battle alone, so she evens the scales by introducing and aligning both Becky Lynch and Charlotte to Paige’s aid. Stephanie is then interrupted by Tamina Snuka and Naomi, who demand a part of this as they have unfinished business with Paige and the Bella Twins. Stephanie McMahon gladly agrees with them and introduces current reigning NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks (oddly without said title) to the main roster, who quickly aligns herself with Naomi and Tamina.

Pleased with herself, Stephanie leaves the ring with Team Bella surrounded by the two new Diva factions. An inevitable brawl breaks out between the Divas, with the highlight of this skirmish was the image of Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks having all of the members of Team Bella trapped in the middle of the ring with their signature submission holds (Figure Eight, Seated Fujiwara Armbar, and the Banks Statement) before the members of Team Paige and Team BAD (Naomi, Tamina, Sasha) stared down as RAW went to commercial break.

The reception of this segment was monumental in the arena and across social media as my Twitter and Facebook timelines were blowing up with reactions from this segment. It’s rare for the main roster Divas to be the highlight of Monday Night RAW and I'm glad to see people talking about women’s wrestling (at least in WWE’s regard) in a positive light.

As a fan and proud advocate of women’s wrestling (ALL forms, not just limited to WWE/NXT Divas - yes, that includes TNA/Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Lucha Underground, and the independent/international scenes), I thoroughly enjoyed this segment, but at the same time, I’m not as gullible as the bulk of the fans from what I’m noticing from the comments and reactions on social media.

Remember WWE has pull this before. Fans have demanded change in the Divas division and they gave us Paige to shut us up last year to end AJ Lee’s reign of dominance. It kills me that fans fall for WWE’s ploy every single time. We complain and voice our opinions about how they are ruining their own product and they do that ONE small thing to cave to our demands. Everyone goes crazy that they got that one small thing that they wanted and instantly forgets about how much of a mess WWE creative is currently while other companies, namely Impact Wrestling, constantly get shafted by the IWC (internet wrestling community) just because they don’t cave like how WWE does to their demands. Don’t worry, I plan on writing an article on that matter at a later date.

WWE tosses their fanbase a bone for we can quit barking, only to go back to what they were doing prior to their fanbase getting vocal about their opinion and demands. Contrary to popular belief, but ONE segment isn’t going to change the state of the Divas division. I would love to be insanely optimistic like the bulk of the WWE Universe, but WWE has let me down more than made my hopes and wishes come true so it’s better to NOT buy into false hype of anything as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve seen people commenting on social media that this was the first time that “THIS IS AWESOME” was chanted during a main roster Divas segment/match ever. Whoa, nelly, hold your horses. Rewind back to AJ Lee and Paige’s first in-ring encounter after WrestleMania XXIX, it’s painfully apparent during that segment and I’m sure that it was chanted during a few of those great PPV matches during her title reign that following year. Don’t get so jaded in your “marking out” over your favorites getting one HELL of an opportunity to be personally endorsed and introduced by Stephanie McMahon herself in their debuts on the main roster that you forget what company is this.

This is the same company that is still holding African-American/black wrestlers underneath a glass ceiling, despite what people may think of the New Day and Primetime Players being showcased at the top of the WWE Tag Team Division at the moment. Then don’t get me started on JBL’s comments towards R-Truth being the “King of Motel 6”... #GiveDivasAChance? How about #GiveBlackWrestlersAChance, WWE?

The point of the matter is that Naomi has been shoved back to the back of the line towards the Divas Championship for well over a year now. She was a fierce competitor for Paige back when Paige was a rookie on the main roster in AJ Lee’s absence and Naomi is still a solid talent today. Why WWE hasn’t given her or Alicia Fox another run with the title is mind boggling for me. Instead, both women have been saddled with being set on the backburner. Sasha Banks’ future didn’t look too bright as they banded her right with Naomi and Tamina Snuka, while Alicia Fox is still the odd woman out on Team Bella (I would love to know how and why she ended up with the Bella Twins as their third member) - why not use Summer Rae or “Evil” Emma in that spot? Seriously, it’s an improvement over what they are doing otherwise on the main roster or on NXT. Even better idea, use Natalya since she needs something to do while Tyson Kidd is sidelined for possibly the rest of the year. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to have another veteran ring general in there to keep the match in order other than Tamina.

Back on point, it would have made a lot more sense to team Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks on one single team (the last few NXT tapings already went out of their way to sell Sasha Banks as a babyface in recent weeks - and to be quite honest, I REALLY hate that they went that route with her character because she works SOOO much better as a heel) against Team Bella while Paige, Naomi, and Tamina could have teamed up after feeling like they were “overlooked” after these NXT Divas’ debuts.

Regardless of how WWE managed to shift the teams around, I loved this segment up to the point where all nine of the Divas started brawling. It quickly turned into a mess. I felt that they lost the magic of the excitement that they were all garnering here from the anticipation of what the future of the Divas’ division could create. After a lot of sloppy executed moves and poor selling, the three of the “Four Horsewomen of NXT” managed to pull a memorable moment during this skirmish with all of Team Bella in their submission holds. If they were ALL on the same team it would have made sense to end the segment right here with Team Bella in full retreat mode (notice that Paige had to hand off the Divas title to Nikki who clearly forgot about it), but nope. WWE had that moment of HUGE awkwardness where both Team Paige and Team BAD (Best at Dominating) stared down before the commercial break. It didn’t help the fact that the cameras panned back to Stephanie McMahon standing at the top of the entrance ramp while Michael Cole was talking about HER instead of the Divas on commentary as they went on commercial break.

To make matters worse, this segment did NOTHING to sell what’s to come at Battleground on Sunday. Stephanie McMahon didn’t announce a match nor express that the WWE Divas Championship would be on the line - if at all - during the PPV in less than 6 days. I’m currently writing this article BEFORE the WWE Smackdown! tapings tonight, so who knows what they have in mind. You can’t have everyone challenge for the belt at once, nor can you set up one of those clusterfuck huge Diva tag team matches or battle royals because everyone has had their fill of those at this rate.

In my eyes, WWE has only backed themselves into a corner and only made the situation even worse for the Divas division. The main roster Divas division currently includes Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Alicia Fox, Naomi, Tamina Snuka, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Paige, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Summer Rae, Lana, Layla El, Rosa Mendes, Emma, and Cameron while the NXT Divas division includes Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Carmella, Cassie (KC Cassidy), Dana Brooke, Eva Marie, Jasmin, Jessie (Jessie McKay).

That’s a LOT of names, isn’t it? Both divisions are rather crowded. Now with the additions of Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks, I have to say that the main roster as a whole is overcrowded with a lot of individuals that WWE clearly doesn’t know what to do with. The inconsistencies in the main event scene for WWE World Heavyweight Championship is proof enough of that, along with the piss poor booking of almost everyone not named Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, or John Cena.

Now that they have taken more of Triple H's precious "NXT children" under their wing, I can't imagine how WWE will be able to manage to keep booking those women as strongly as they were depicted on the NXT brand. If the treatment of Paige, Emma, and Summer Rae weren't any signals of what we could be potentially expecting in the near-future, then you need to go back and review the state of those three former NXT females' careers.

Paige and Emma went from putting on a 5-Star match to crown the first ever NXT Women's Champion one of the premiere Takeover NXT live-events on the WWE Network to becoming shells of their former selves. Emma became a dancing baffoon on the main roster when her dancing antics didn't carry over to the main roster's crowd and quickly found herself as an enhancement talent to put over some of the other Divas in lackluster matches (there's a few gems worth hunting for though...) on RAW, Main Event, Superstars, and Smackdown! before finding herself repackaged back on the NXT roster with a heel gimmick. So far she's merely acting as Dana Brooke's "sidekick" as NXT is obviously trying to market her (Dana) as the next "big thing" to come out of brand in terms of women's wrestling. Paige, on the other hand, garnered a lot of success in her debut year on the main roster - winning the Divas Championship TWICE (being the lone wolf who managed to end the tyranny of AJ Lee) and even a Survivor Series bout, but those successes became the problem. Paige was pushed to the moon right out of the gate and she has little more to aspire for on the main roster, despite being so young. Most of her fanbase has turned on her as she has become boring and "comfortable" in her position in the company. Her lackluster feud with the Bella Twins haven't done nothing to change this opinion from the WWE Universe. In my personal opinion, Paige is trying too hard to fill in the gap that AJ Lee left in the division in her departure. There's nothing wrong with being different (#FreaksAndGeeks) but at the same time, she doesn't have to be a carbon copy of AJ Lee - who was essentially a copy of Lita before her. Last but not least, we have Summer Rae - a woman who I had high hopes for on the main roster to bring a fresh new natural heel to the Divas division. Sure, she's a ripoff of Maryse Ouellet, but I'll take what I can get in her absence. From the moment that Summer Rae was brought up to the main roster from NXT, she was doomed to failure when she was stuck with the gimmick of being the dancing partner to Fandango. Look where Fandango is - nowhere. His brief run of popularity wore off and she was dropped like a bad habit after WWE tried to pair him with Layla only to have the idea of a potential lesbian make-out session made those two Divas more popular than Fandango himself. That buzz of popularity was short-lived as Summer Rae found herself in cringe worthy angles, again and again. That brings us to present day, where she is acting as the storyline replacement for Lana to Rusev after their onscreen break-up in an angle that took the Divas division back 30-40 years instead of moving it forward.

I want to be optimistic about WWE treating Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks properly on the main roster but with WWE's track record thus far I can't do nothing but fear the worst. I want their addition to mean something more for the WWE Divas. I want their division to be taken seriously again. I want the Divas to have longer, blockbuster matches that everyone can be proud of. I want the WWE Divas to be contributors to the high degree of athleticism that we come to expect from the WWE product. I want the WWE Universe to see ALL of the Divas, not just the NXT Divas as assets to the roster and not just pretty faces. C'mon people. Impact Wrestling can't keep women's wrestling alive in the mainstream product of professional wrestling on their own. It's LONG past due for WWE to contribute - big time. The NXT Divas took the first steps, and now is the time for the rest of the Divas division to take things to the next level or it's all for nothing in this revolution towards progress.

I ask ALL of you who love women's wrestling as much as I do one thing. Don't let #GiveDivasAChance stop your demands for wanting more for the WWE Divas after ONE segment. Let WWE know that you want to see this type of change continue. They aren't going to make the division better until we voice our opinions as a whole.