San Jose, California - April 2016
CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's event, Brock Lesnar is the reigning WWE Universal Champion, but does not appear on the show. The United States Champion is SmackDown's Kevin Owens (Dean Ambrose is the Intercontinental Champion but also does not appear on the show), while the RAW Tag Team Champions are The Hardy Boys. The Cruiserweight Champion is Neville and the RAW Womens' Title is held by Bayley.
COMMENTATORS: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, and Booker T
Payback begins with Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens going 1-on-1 in a rematch from WrestleMania. Better than their Mania match,due to the fact that it was a much less overtly produced match and one wrestled with much more urgency. In front of a stadium of 70,000 or whatever, Jericho and Owens needed to slow things down in order to get their big transitions across, but here? Signature spot after signature spot after cut-off after cut-off and finger-on-the rope spot...it was consistently fun and the kind of match that Jericho should be really proud he can still perform, though, I wouldn't put it anywhere near his peak work. I wouldn't call it a superb Owens match either, just the best that these two talents, in 2017, are able to produce. A hot crowd helped as well, though, I think even Jericho's biggest supporters were surprised by the finish. (3/5)
The WWE Cruiserweight Championship was on the line next - Austin Aries challenging Neville. Being a heel has been a real boon for Neville from a character perspective, but I'm not entirely sure Aries (or Jack Gallagher, for that matter) are the ideal babyface foil for him now that he spends so much more time on the mat. If only there were a sympathetic, undersized luchadore like Rey Mysterio in 96' to balance out Neville's more grounded villainy, but alas...As for this match, I thought it started a bit bland but really picked it up as it went on. Austin Aries is the only guy on the roster who should be hitting a suicide dive as his puts everybody else's to shame. A "Let's Go Neville/Austin Aries" chant started at one point as we saw a super stiff forearm in the corner followed by a sunset flip powerbomb from Aries. The finish pointed to another round between these two who, just based on appearances, look more like a tag team than a pair of rivals. (2.5/5)
The WWE Tag Team Championships were on the line next - The Hardys defending against Sheamus and Cesaro. I wasn't sure what to expect from this as I haven't found that the Cesaro/Sheamus pairing has bore nearly enough fruit as the Cesaro/Kidd team or even the Cesaro/Swagger tandem of years past. The Hardys, meanwhile, are mega over, but certainly not the young stallions of 17 years ago. Wisely, these guys stuck to the things they did best and had a hell of a match, maybe the best tag bout I've seen from the RAW brand since the peak days of The New Day. The crowd was amped and definitely "smart," chanting "Delete" early on, and its worth noting how different the Hardys are from other nostalgia acts of the past few years (The Dudleys, The New Age Outlaws) by coming in with absolutely nothing fresh to offer. Cesaro was an absolute beast, stepping his game up knowing that this match was actually going to be given a real spotlight - unlike the meandering matches with Anderson and Gallows and Enzo and Cass and all the other one-note tag teams that made up the division in 2016-17. Bonus half-point for a great, somewhat surprising post-match beatdown. (3/5)
I dug the next match as well - Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss for Bayley's RAW Women's Championship. I'm a Bayley fan and was impressed with Bliss's work on SmackDown last year, but let's be honest, the RAW division was all about Charlotte for the past few years and for the last half of her run, she consistently provided a Match of the Night caliber outing. With the pressure on, in front of her home town, Bayley and Bliss didn't disappoint...but I wouldn't say they necessarily knocked it out of the park either. Being undersized, I'd like to see Bliss cut more corners to dominate her opponents, even one with a "fan-turned-star" gimmick like Bayley. Not everything here was executed gracefully, but that's okay with me - it looked like a wrestling match with real struggle because of it. I wasn't surprised with the finish but didn't think it was telegraphed at all either - another positive on my scorecard. Three years ago, I would routinely, rightly or not, rate women's matches on a different scale then the mens' matches based on the fact that, historically, women have been given less time to develop their skills, less time to showcase their talents, and often been saddled with tasteless gimmicks or stipulations or storylines. That might need to change because, in 2017, an average women's match is looking a lot like an average men's match - which is something that would've been almost unthinkable ten years ago, let alone 20. (3/5)
The first half of the Randy Orton/Bray Wyatt House of Horrors match was next. Woo boy. Randy Orton showed up in a limo...shirtless...because that's definitely the best option for a match taking place in an old haunted house. Orton entered the house and Wyatt arrived via a sneak attack from the coat closet. They proceeded to brawl in what I believe was the living room from the "Everlong" video and then made their way into a hallway where Wyatt hit Orton with a choke through what I assume was a glory hole designed for Braun Strowman. Orton survived that ploy and wound up in a room filled with dolls hanging from a ceiling - kinda like a setting you might see on every 7th or 8th episode of Criminal Minds. All the while, "Track #22" from Time Warner's "Spooky Halloween Instrumentals" CD played. If this was supposed to be purposefully kooky, it wasn't kooky enough and if this was supposed to be straight-up eerie or scary or hardcore, it wasn't that either. You can go two ways with a match like this - one is to shoot it straight and not pretend there's an invisible camera crew filming a wild fight in a strange locale (see Taker/Mankind in the Boiler Room Brawl at SummerSlam 96') or you can go full Final Deletion and make it comically absurd. Playing it down the middle meant that this didn't even fall into "So Bad-It's Good" level of corniness, though, maybe in 20 years people will look back at it and enjoy laughing at it the way we do the Dungeon of Doom sketches today...
Samoa Joe vs. Seth Rollins followed. I was one of the few that didn't totally despise Rollins/HHH at WrestleMania and this match was, in some ways, better - but Rollins has a bad habit of having matches that run long and feel like they run even longer. His selling was better here than against Triple H but still noticeably imperfect (especially compared to how excellent of a job Reigns would do later). At least on the grandest stage of them all, guys wrestle like gods and we can more readily accept it "because WrestleMania." The problem might be that so much of Rollins' offense relies on his legs, whether he's going off the top, supporting himself for Falcon Arrows, or using his balance to escape precarious positions. Joe's targeted offense looked effective and nasty, but I'm not sure if bringing him up from NXT to be fed to Rollins is maximizing his talent or the audience's interest in him. Joe didn't come out looking too bad, but a loss is a loss and, at this point, the gap between him and Reigns, Braun, and Brock at the top of the card seems so wide it may be insurmountable. Rollins may have two big wins behind him this month, but he's so unexciting that seemingly no matter what he does, it's just a lateral move. Another above-average match due to the sheer talent, but not a must-see contest. (3/5)
The culmination of Orton/Wyatt was next and, though one would expect that the fight being back in the ring would help, the change in locale just emphasized how far over the shark this entire feud/storyline has jumped. Despite leaving Orton for dead under a fridge in the House of Horrors, the Viper miraculously appeared behind Wyatt looking no worse for wear and ready to engage in Round 2. Out of the ring they went as the crowd chanted desperately for tables, but, despite a clear No DQ stipulation in play, neither guy bothered to utilize any of the myriad of weapons usually stored under and around the ring. Orton basically had the match won until his SmackDown rivals, Jinder Mahal and the Singh Brothers, showed up. This match firmly established how impotent Bray Wyatt is, cementing the fact that for all his "special powers" and enigmatic talk, he poses less of a threat to Randy Orton than 1/3rd of the 3MB and a pair of 205 Livers. I've read that Wyatt actually only has 3 televised pinfall losses since 2015 (not counting PPVs) - which is remarkable - but that statistic rings hollow when it is almost impossible to name anyone of significance he's consistently beaten in that same time frame. What huge victory does Wyatt have that defines him? If it was this year's Elimination Chamber match, the past month has effectively eradicated the cred from it. Even in a victory, Wyatt was the big loser here. (1/5)
Main event time - Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns. Reigns came into this match bandaged up and hurt, drawing sympathy from at least a portion of the crowd as a loud "Let's Go Roman/Let's Go Braun" chant erupted. Early on, Braun sent Reigns right into a table, a spot the crowd had chanted for in the two previous contests. People can knock Roman all they want, but there's something to be said for how much the crowd came alive for this match in comparison to some of the previous bouts. After tossing Reigns around on the outside, Braun tried to finish things off, attempting a pin and then applying a body lock. Reigns eventually got free and got on a bit of a roll, hitting a big Samoan Drop for two. Roman used his cunning, quickness, and experience to combat Strowman's size advantage on the outside, Braun nearly getting counted out at one point. Back in the ring, Roman hit a HUGE Spear, but only got two for it - the crowd's reaction a loud mix between disappointment and excitement. Roman called for a Superman Punch but ended up caught with a big boot until, escaping Strowman's clutches, he connected with not one, but two of em'! Attempting a third, again Reigns got caught and dropped to the mat with a huge running powerslam for 2.99! Great near fall there as I could've have been the only one who bit on it and Reign's kickout was perfect. Strowman scooped him up and dropped him with a SECOND Powerslam, this one enough to end the contest. I wouldn't put that on the level of a Sting/Vader classic (or even Lesnar/Goldberg III from WrestleMania earlier this month), but it was a damn good sub 12-minute match with a quality sympathetic performance from Reigns. I would've preferred something a bit more devastating and brutal in the post-match than a stairs shot (a classic powerbomb through a table is never bad), but overall, even with its somewhat short duration and fairly tame post-match, this was the show's high point. (4/5)
With a Kwang Score of 2.44-out-of-5, the 2017 edition of Payback wasn't too dissimilar to the 2016 edition - another Match of the Night main event featuring Roman Reigns, some solid midcard matches (the Women's Title and Tag Team Title Matches on this year's show, Miz/Cesaro and Owens/Zayn from 2016), and at least one potential Worst Match of the Year candidate (2016 offered Ambrose/Jericho in a slog, while this year we were treated to the ridiculous House of Horrors match). Followers of the current product couldn't have been too disappointed with the event, but I don't predict many will point at this show as one worth re-watching five years now. That might sound like a tall order, but its one the WWE can and does achieve every now and again.
FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver
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