WWE Money In The Bank 2020: Braun Strowman Losing And 5 Potentially Huge Surprises

WWE Money in the Bank 2020 has a tough task ahead: Reigniting interest in the WWE product at a time when it, well, just isn’t there.

Indeed, viewership for both Raw and SmackDown has plummeted to historic lows since WrestleMania 36, likely due to the absence of stars like Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Edge, Goldberg and The Undertaker, who all disappeared following the pay-per-view and haven’t been seen since. As WWE’s audience continues to decrease while the quality of its shows does the same, it certainly stands to reason that WWE will pull out all the stops in order to make this show a memorable one. In fact, it’s already doing that with the first-ever pair of MITB matches in which six male and six female superstars will have to simultaneously “climb the corporate ladder” to the top of WWE Headquarters to win the coveted briefcase.

Could this year’s event follow in the footsteps of last year’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view, which featured one of the biggest PPV shockers in recent memory? If you’ll recall, that’s when Lesnar came out of nowhere to win the men’s MITB match even though he wasn’t even an official entrant in the bout. That unforeseen creative call left some fans with their jaws on the floor and others enraged at the thought of “The Beast” winning a match he wasn’t even technically in. Given the nature of the MITB matches and other high-profile bouts, like Bray Wyatt vs. Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre, expect more of the unexpected this year.

Here are five potentially huge surprises WWE could execute at Money in the Bank 2020.

Dana Brooke Pulls Off The Upset

Dana Brooke is undoubtedly the biggest darkhorse in the women’s Money in the Bank match, both in terms of logig and the betting odds, which give her the second lowest chance at winning the bout.

While it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see any of the other women in the match—Nia Jax, Asuka, Shayna Baszler, Carmella or Lacey Evans—win the bout, it would be a huge shocker to see Brooke pull off the win. After all, in 2019 there were reports that Brooke was well-liked backstage for being such a hard worker but creative pitches to push her fell on deaf ears. In 2020, however, Brooke has had noticeably more TV time, recently challenged for the Women’s Tag Team Championship and has demonstrated very noticeable improvements as an in-ring performer.

WWE isn’t averse to pulling off huge upsets out of nowhere, like Jinder Mahal’s unforeseen WWE title win in 2017, and Brooke could be the next overlooked star to be suddenly catapulted up the card.

Drew McIntyre Drops The Belt

Speaking of Mahal, remember in 2017 when Randy Orton won the WWE title from Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33 and then dropped it a month later to Mahal?

It isn’t unprecedented for world champions to have really short title reigns, and though most of the recent WWE Champions have had title reigns of considerable length, there was a stretch from 2015 to 2017 where 10 of 11 title reigns lasted fewer than 85 days. Of those reigns, seven lasted fewer than 50 days. It is, therefore, pretty common for WWE to find a way to quickly transition a world title from one top star to another, and that may ultimately prove to be the case with McIntyre.

In the ideal situation, McIntyre would have a lengthy reign that only ends at the hands of a rising heel, but let’s be honest: History suggests that won’t be the case. Especially after Vince McMahon blamed Raw’s recent ratings struggles on its push of new stars, you have to think that putting the WWE title back on Seth Rollins is a legitimate possibility.

Tamina Becomes SmackDown Women’s Champion

Tamina has been in WWE for roughly a decade and has never held a title, but she’s been pushed quite strongly over the past couple of months, making her a strong candidate for a random title reign that no one could have predicted.

While hardly any fans are clamoring for a championship run for the rather mundane Tamina, it seems that every year after WrestleMania at least one star gets a really random push. Over on Raw, that honor belongs to Apollo Crews right now, and on SmackDown, Tamina is fitting the bill as a star who is getting catapulted up the card without any real explanation other than that most of the other female stars on SmackDown are busy with their own feuds at the moment.

Bayley has been pushed strongly as champion for much of the last year, and though there are far better candidates to take the title from the formerly beloved superstar, there is reason to believe that Tamina’s suddenly sizable push might result in her surprisingly being the one to do it.

Someone Other Than Aleister Black Or AJ Styles Wins The Money In The Bank Match

The men’s Money in the Bank match seemed to have a clear frontrunner in Aleister Black. Then, AJ Styles returned.

With names like Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan not really needing the briefcase at this stage of their career while Baron Corbin hasn’t been pushed to that level recently, Black is the perfect candidate to win the guaranteed world title shot. He’s got a fantastic look, a great and unique gimmick, has been protected by the booking, and is someone who fans were getting behind prior to WrestleMania 36, so much so that he was even considered to face Brock Lesnar at WWE’s flagship pay-per-view.

It is probably best that WWE decided to hold off on Black’s mega-push until the timing was right, and now, it certainly feels that way. Styles’ recent return, however, means that Black is certainly not a shoo-in to win the MITB briefcase, but guess what? Neither is “The Phenomenal One.” As much as Bryan and Mysterio don’t need the briefcase, they are top stars who could certainly pull off the big win while the darkhorse to watch is Otis, who has a huge supporter in Vince McMahon.

Braun Strowman’s Title Reign Ends Abruptly

WWE has already booked itself into a corner with Braun Strowman’s WWE title reign. Why? Because he shouldn’t lose at Money in the Bank, and neither should Bray Wyatt.

Wyatt’s gimmick took a big blow when “The Fiend” lost to Goldberg at Super ShowDown, and though he’ll be wrestling simply as Wyatt at Money in the Bank, another decisive loss might do irreparable damage to his aura as one of WWE’s most captivating gimmicks. Likewise, Strowman shouldn’t lose the Universal title barely a month after winning it as he’s already spent much of the past few years being plagued by start-and-stop pushes.

The question is: Does WWE feel that Wyatt or Strowman is the bigger act here? You could argue that, given his status as WWE’s top merchandise seller, Wyatt is a hotter name, which means he could prematurely end Strowman’s title reign at Money in the Bank if WWE wants Strowman—who was not initially pegged for this role—to be used as a transitional champion who puts over Wyatt.