8 Match Star Ratings For WWE Money In The Bank 2020

8. KICKOFF: Jeff Hardy Vs. Cesaro

The idea of a Kickoff in this new world is fascinating, for starters.

Ostensibly designed to get you hyped for the big show, "Are you ready for an ethically irresponsible bastardisation of the thing you love?!" isn't really, as they say, "it".

Neither are Kickoff matches at the best of times. They take on an instant, quintessentially WWE quality, likely because it's the last thing a Producer can be a*sed to think about, and they default to the manual accordingly. So yes, the mandated headlock happened immediately, and then some more moves were exchanged at your more enervated pace and within WWE's patterned structure. At one point, appallingly, Jeff Hardy nailed Cesaro with an atomic drop, and just as he was revving up to sell big, Hardy put him in a full nelson. Dear God.

Does he not follow Rick Rude Getting Atomic Drops on Twitter?

Cesaro turned it on during the heat spot, arrogantly and viciously tearing through Hardy at a nice old pace, but a heat spot needs, yes, heat for it to work. A match built around the babyface comeback - particularly a babyface like Hardy, who needs to tug that bit more forcefully at the heartstrings at this stage of his career - has a gentleman's three-shaped ceiling on it.

Star Rating: ★★★