100 Worst WWE Matches Ever - 26 - The Collective Nonsense Known As The 2020 Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Money in the Bank 2020
Otherwise known as:
Asuka vs. Carmella vs. Dana Brooke vs. Lacey Evans vs. Nia Jax vs. Shayna Baszler
And
AJ Styles vs. Aleister Black vs. Daniel Bryan vs. King Corbin vs. Otis vs. Rey Mysterio
I suppose technically these are two separate matches, and I could just judge each individually based on what we see from each. But honestly, I can’t separate the two and I feel much the same way about both of them so rather than waste two spots on this catastrophe, I’ll collectively lump these two as one entry.
I sympathise with the covid era of wrestling. In a short timeframe, wrestling companies had to adapt to what was essentially a whole new world. All of a sudden, decades of tradition is out the window. Wrestlers that spent a lifetime learning how to wrestle in front of fans left to unlearn all their habits, and awkwardly perform in front of nobody. Promotions that spent generations perfecting the way to present their product in front of a live audience now scrambling for alternatives. For WWE, it was a tough transition in particular.
There’s a reason that not many covid-era matches have turned up so far, and that’s because of my sympathies with the talent - plus a general unwillingness on my behalf to watch anything more than I have to from that wretched era.
But somehow WWE managed to strike gold at Wrestlemania 36. Perhaps taking more than a little inspiration from Matt Hardy, WWE produced two cinematic matches that were a shining light on an otherwise miserable two night affair. AJ Styles and Undertaker in the wonderful Boneyard match; and the Firefly Funhouse between Bray Wyatt vs John Cena that, while I personally don’t enjoy, was well received by the fans. All of a sudden, WWE had their golden ticket - their way out of monotonous covid-era wrestling and back into something vaguely representing watchable television.
Following Wrestlemania was Money in the Bank, and WWE decided to flex its muscles again. The Boneyard match and the Firefly Funhouse were, let’s be real, quite silly affairs. What if WWE took the traditional Money in the Bank ladder match, and made it silly. Rather than the classic, climb a ladder and get the briefcase, the setting was changed. The ring was now at the very top of WWE headquarters, and to win the match the competitors must get to the top of the building and win on the roof.
This may be the closest WWE ever comes to Halloween Havoc 1995.
This to me feels like a culmination of every single comedy match I’ve put on this list so far. From the recent Kai En Tai vs. The Oddities, to the Bushwhackers, the midget clowns, the Ambrose Asylum, a bottle of Head and Shoulders used as a conclusion to a wrestling match, and the 9 millionth Hornswoggle vs Chavo Guerrero match. I believe I may have used a similar line in all of those reviews, and I will repeat it one final time:
Comedy matches only work when the comedy is funny. And when comedy matches aren’t funny, they are the worst thing ever.
This isn’t the worst comedy match on this list - because hoo-boy there’s a couple of doozies still to come - but it feels like the one that most closely exemplifies all my feelings about all those matches above. Consider this the final boss of bad comedy in wrestling, and what is to come is the optional superbosses of bad wrestling comedy. Maybe I just hate fun. Maybe there are people other than Vince McMahon that believe this is the peak of comedy. One look at the post-match reaction to this match and various reviews will tell you that this is a pretty contentious match, with the general reaction leaning more positively. After all, 2020 was a miserable time for most of us. This was the peak of the pandemic - the entire world was now locked down with no obvious end in sight. Maybe this was the exact sort of wrestling that worked in the bizarre vacuum of time that was the covid pandemic.
The match starts off with the 6 women starting in the lobby, and the 6 men starting in the gym. Through the match, it cuts between the fighting in various places within WWE headquarters. However in terms of actual commentary about the wrestling, it’s mostly just a bunch of running around between set piece to set piece with some brawling in between. Asuka immediately leaps off the balcony in the lobby onto the other 5 women conveniently standing waiting for a spot that feels right at home in modern wrestling. Seriously, it’s a pre-taped match and WWE still can’t make that look good?
What follows is like this weird droning tone that feels more like Don Callis’ theme, and I don’t really understand why it’s used here. That music worked in the Boneyard match because that’s meant to lean into the spookiness and creepiness of it, but the production choices in this match are bizarre at best.
I think the musical choices for this are by far my least favourite thing about it. It ranges from the sort of stock music you’ll hear in WWE 2K24 showcase mode, and then more dramatic sombre tones. Audibly, this match is a pain to the ears. It is so bad, so amateurish, so devoid of creativity and life that I can’t believe they ever watched it back and thought it was good. It’s inexcusably bad. They have a strange habit of putting a dramatic silence after every big move and nothing about it worked. To the point that the stock music actively takes me out of the match and impedes the comedic timing of what are already mostly unfunny spots. I actually think this match could have been fun if it were shorter, and the production choices weren’t as shit as they were.
As if there weren’t enough strange production choices, why on earth did they think it was smart not to have commentary here? For the Firefly Funhouse and the Boneyard a lack of commentary made sense because the guys were pretty much telling the story to the audience as they were going. This match was absolutely begging for someone to be laughing at how stupid all this is. Essentially, it needed a laugh track because it’s not funny enough to exist without it, and without one all the unfunny comedy is flat. It would also help fill in the bits between the comedy.
Asuka jumps in an elevator, and somehow the WWE headquarters might be the only office building on earth that doesn’t have an elevator that goes to the top. There’s even an elevator camera, and WWE production somehow missed the opportunity to play elevator music when it cuts to it.
The guys start in the gym, and immediately PTSD sets in for me. Nothing good ever happens when you mix wrestlers and a gym. Thankfully these guys decide not to spend the next 15 minutes there. Corbin throws a weight at Daniel Bryan, who dodges and a mirror behind him gets shattered. Corbin looks at this with the expression of a man who has just watched Bambi for the first time. Maybe he’s just superstitious.
The other highlight of the gym section sees Otis drop a set of weights on AJ, trapping him, which leads to a funny moment where he’s shouting at Rey for help. AJ would return later in the match and it’s never explained how he got out.
They start brawling to the bathroom area, and we get our first “look how silly this match is” spot of the night. I can almost hear Vince in my ear shouting “anything can happen in the WWF”. This match relies a lot on cameos. Rey runs into the bathroom and sees none other than Brother Love fresh off of having a shit. Brother Love says “I looooooove you” to Rey, who says “I know, but I gotta go” and that’s that. Why did Rey go into the bathroom anyway? Why would he think that’s the way to the roof? Why is Brother Love being used for a cameo in 2020? Everything is whacky in the WWE Universe. Minutes later we get a cameo of Doink the Clown - portrayed by someone who has clearly never been Doink the Clown.
Back to the women, and they find themselves brawling into a boardroom. In here, there’s a Money in the Bank briefcase which Dana climbs onto a table to grab. Heroic music starts playing as she celebrates as if she’s just won the match. A running gag of this match is that Dana Brooke is a fucking idiot who doesn’t understand the rules, and is generally a complete klutz. Our third cameo of the night is Stephanie McMahon who tells Dana the rules of the match while her theme song plays in the background. I think this was supposed to be funny, but it was just awkward as it’s so obvious that Stephanie is certainly not in the same room thanks to the abrupt camera cuts and a different coloured wall. It just serves to establish that Dana is an idiot. She gets a portrait of Carmella smacked over her head for her troubles
Next up we see Paul Heyman about to enjoy a well earned feast with an obnoxious amount of food (get it, he’s overweight). That is until the competitors male and female interrupt. Otis starts freaking out and declares a food fight between everyone. Daniel Bryan can’t even hide how much fun he’s having here. Dana runs into the food fight with the Carmella poster still around her head. Okay, that’s pretty funny. There’s a staredown between Nia and Otis, who is helping himself to a sandwich. There’s an uncomfortable silence before both just … walk away.
Otis finds catering, and is about to enjoy himself a delicious piece of pie (for those counting, this is our third “get it, he’s overweight” spot of the night). That is until John Laurinaitis rolls up on his scooter just to say “people power” and piss me off. He inevitably gets pie faced. Excruciating.
As if a John Laurinitis cameo isn’t enough, this match decides it needs another sexual deviant as AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan make their way into the office of Vince McMahon himself, complete with a T-Rex skull on the wall and everything. Bryan and Styles are bitched out by Vince for disturbing him. Bryan and AJ both blame each other as they sheepishly put the furniture back and leave. Once again, Bryan can barely contain his corpsing through this whole thing. Vince sanitises his hands after both leave.
Dana Brooke gets written out the match when she cracks her head slipping on a recently mopped floor.
I do need to give a special shout out to AJ Styles, who really tried his best to carry this, and was probably the one consistently funny person in this match along with Carmella (who was taken out of the match far too soon). His traumatised Undertaker moments are by a million miles the funniest part of the whole match, but generally everything AJ did in this match was terrific. He and Carmella are the only people that seemed to have comedic timing, and got the memo about this one.
Eventually they get to the roof, and Kevin Dunn gets to flex all of his production tricks, with more camera cuts than your average Taken film.
Despite being a ladder match, there’s no actual big ladder spots whatsoever. In fact, Asuka just sort of manages to climb the ladder a brief bit of brawling with Lacey and Nia (and for some reason, Baron Corbin despite the fact they were fighting for different contracts). Asuka would never cash in the briefcase, as it’s revealed the following night on Raw that they were actually wrestling for Becky Lynch’s Raw women’s title following her pregnancy announcement. Finally some commentary from Michael Cole to declare Asuka the win. Where the fuck was this guy during the match? The fact that he only has two lines for each of the winners makes this weird decision feel even worse.
Now it’s the men’s turn to make it to the roof, and once again there’s no big ladder spots. Rather, the biggest, most memorable spots are when Baron Corbin decides to casually murder Rey and Aleister Black by yeeting them off the roof of WWE headquarters. Weirdly, nobody mentions this, makes reference to it, the music doesn’t change. It’s the most nondescript attempted homicide you’re ever going to see.
Poor Rey, that might not even be the worst thing that ever happened to him during covid-WWE.
Eventually it’s Otis that is able to fluke his way to victory. Corbin and AJ are fighting at the top of a ladder, only for Elias to come out and hit Corbin with a guitar. The briefcase flies loose and into the hands of Otis, who picks up the surprising win. A finish that is right up there with James Ellsworth winning the first ever women’s Money in the Bank in terms of stupidity. Otis, like Asuka, would never get to cash in his contract as he would lose it to the Miz several months later.
A very brief summary by Michael Cole and that’s it. No elaboration on where Rey or Black landed. No review of the wackiness or hilarity. If you’re going to do stupid spots you think are funny, why are you not trying to highlight the comedy we’ve seen?
Ultimately, how much you enjoy this match will depend entirely on how funny you find it. At around 30 minutes, that is a long, long time for a comedy match with very little actual wrestling going on. You’re relying on a lot of comedy hitting, and for me they miss the majority of the time.
In the interest of fairness, here’s some things that I enjoyed about this match, including the funny spots that actually landed with me:
AJ Styles finding the Undertaker’s private room in WWE Headquarters and getting traumatised memories of the Boneyard match.
Daniel Bryan hitting the Yes kicks on Corbin while Otis is chanting along with it.
Carmella kicking Nia Jax, immediately realising her mistake, and screaming “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” as Nia picks her up.
AJ and Bryan sheepishly putting back Vince’s office chair and blaming each other. AJ’s “wow you acted like a real coward in there” is the line of the match.
Do I sympathise on some level with the company for this time period? Yes. Do I understand why they went silly given the successful cinematic matches from Wrestlemania? Yes. Am I being a little unfair to look at this with 2024 eyes when the world was a much different place? Perhaps, although I hated this at the time too. Were they right to go in this direction? Maybe. If you want proof of concept that it is possible to tow the line between silly and hilarious in a covid world, go watch the first Stadium Stampede instead and leave this one behind as a distant memory. In my opinion, the right thing to do with this match was what they did at Backlash the following month with Edge and Randy Orton. Pre-record a regular wrestling match and micro-manage the fuck out of it to make an over-produced yet entertaining twist on traditional pro-wrestling. That is how I would have approached these ladder matches, a match type that doesn’t require much help to be exciting even in a world without an audience.
Up Next - Everyone forgets how to wrestle
Previous Entry:
Next Entry:
