8 Match Star Ratings For WWE Money In The Bank 2020

N.B. - Ratings are modified to factor in the fact there are no fans; obviously, it's not as good as the real thing.

The build to this pay-per-view was abysmal; WWE resolutely failed to adjust virtually any of its output to make a show without fans less punishingly weird.

They did the VIP Lounge, man. Twice. They put sofas in the ring. They put microphones on them to allow the talent in the segment to say their one interrupted line. They had the talent say the line, and the line was interrupted. Then the customary brawls ensued and matches were made, and at no point did anybody have the capacity to sense how weird this would look in front of no fans. Maybe they did, but it's Vince. You don't challenge him. Theoretically, say he lives as long and as vibrantly as his 99 year-old tennis-playing mother. He's 74 now. Do we get Miz TV in 2045?

All evidence points to us getting Miz TV in 2045.

Two of the short, short list of talent to really excel in the Performance Center - Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville - weren't granted the default memorable stage of pay-per-view as reward for their efforts.

And, when WWE did concede to this new world, in the form of another cinematic match, the only thing the comedy match got right is that it was a joke.

So that's good.

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: ★★★