WWE Money in the Bank Review - May 10, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kickoff Show: Jeff Hardy def. Cesaro

This was a vast improvement over Hardy's forgotten first match back two months ago against King Corbin. Cesaro was the perfect opponent for Hardy as he made him look good and I was glad they received as much time as they did. I've accepted that Cesaro is a stepping stone for others at this point, so the outcome was what it was supposed to be. Sheamus not showing up (despite his history with Cesaro and current feud with Hardy) was actually a pleasant surprise.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) def. The Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik), The Forgotten Sons (Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler), and The Miz & John Morrison in a Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Match

Although I maintain that SmackDown's tag team division lacks depth, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this. Everyone busted their butts, but I thought Lucha House Party in particular had a stellar showing. WWE's booking on the main roster has not done them any favors, but when given an actual chance to showcase their skills, they never disappoint. New Day retaining their titles was the correct outcome considering they just won the belts back recently and I assume Forgotten Sons will challenge them coming out of this.

Bobby Lashley def. R-Truth

I really, really hope that MVP giving up his spot in the match to Lashley leads to them becoming a unit (as I've been saying nonstop for weeks). They worked wonderfully as allies in TNA and I think both men can benefit from joining forces. Lana was nowhere to be seen at ringside for this, so that was a plus. This was booked as a simple squash as it should have been. I'm on board for building Lashley back up, but he has to do more than beat enhancement talent. On a side note, Truth said later on in the show backstage that he has his sights set on getting the 24/7 Championship back from "Tom Brady," but I would rather they drop the title all together.

SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley def. Tamina

Tamina is terrible. I'm not sure how else to put it. Bayley did her best to carry her to a competent contest, but this was poor and easily the weakest match on the entire show. Tamina should absolutely not be in this position at this stage of her career (or any stage of her career for that matter). The only positive thing I can say about this was that Bayley won and that the slow build to her matchup with Sasha Banks continues.

Universal Champion Braun Strowman def. Bray Wyatt

I knew as soon as it was announced that Wyatt and not The Fiend was facing Strowman that Wyatt was losing. It was more a matter of how good their match was going to be and I don't think anyone had high hopes for it. While I wasn't an instant classic by any means, it was decent. I didn't even mind what they did at the end with Braun breaking out the black sheep mask again and teasing a Wyatt Family reunion. You had to know it wasn't going to happen for real, but I always figured this was going to be a buffer bout before The Fiend goes for the gold at a later date. In other words, I wasn't disappointed.

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre def. Seth Rollins

First and foremost, the updated entrance theme for Rollins is a welcome change and fits his new character. I'm not in love with it, but I didn't love "The Second Coming" either and that eventually grew on me, so we'll see. Nevertheless, the match itself was excellent and lived up to the hype after they did such a strong job of building it up over the last month.The nearfalls would have packed more of a punch if there was a crowd there, but other than that, this was a superb piece of business. It would have been booking malpractice if Rollins dropped the belt so soon and I'm happy he picked up the victory in clean fashion. The post-match handshake to Rollins was unexpected, so I'm curious to see where that goes.

Asuka def. Lacey Evans, Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Carmella and Dana Brooke to Win the Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match; Otis def. AJ Styles, King Corbin, Daniel Bryan, Aleister Black and Rey Mysterio to Win the Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match

I have no clue how to even go about breaking this down. On the whole, I thought these were a blast and loved how WWE went about them. I understand it won't be for everyone, but to me, it was better than doing the Ladder matches in an empty arena (see: WrestleMania 36 and the subsequent TakeOver-themed edition of NXT). The music added to it and the cinematic style was fun, though I realize they can't do it all the time. I got a kick out of the cameos and the brief interaction between the men and women was well done. Most importantly, the matches didn't overstay their welcome and were unique enough to be considered worthwhile as pay-per-view main events. Much like most people, Otis and Asuka were not my first choices to capture the briefcases. Baszler made more sense for the women, but Otis' run as Mr. MITB could be entertaining if handled properly. Fingers crossed he doesn't cash in unsuccessfully after being betrayed by Mandy Rose.

Overall Show

This pay-per-view automatically gets a thumbs-up from me for the simple fact that it was just under two-and-a-half hoursThe WWE Championship match and the Money in the Bank Ladder matches were the only things I was looking forward to this show and both bouts delivered in my opinion. The undercard was solid as well, so all things considered, I enjoyed this event. Again, the main events are bound to be polarizing, but McIntyre vs. Rollins was fantastic and the four-way tag title affair kicked the evening off on a high note. While not as exciting as it usually is, Money in the Bank exceeded my expectations, breezed by and left me satisfied.