Chris Jericho def. Kevin Owens (C) – United States Championship
Surprising finish, yes. But just like WrestleMania, it didn’t reach the level of their feud.
Well, you can colored me surprised. I was surprised when the recent smart money results had Jericho winning, because I saw no reason for him to not only win, but because his reported stint with WWE was set to end soon. So it will be interesting to see how WWE plans to either write off Jericho or take the title off of him. I wouldn’t think that WWE is going to do Styles and Jericho again at Backlash, but hey what do I know? Anyways, this match suffered from the same issues that these two had at WrestleMania. While the in ring action was pretty solid, the fact of the matter is the in-ring body language and mannerisms didn’t equate to the hatred the two had for each other.
If you ask me, the two looked like they were visibly mailing it in. All the moves really weren’t hit with urgency or passion, and it looked more like a practice session as opposed to a final product. This wasn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because the teases towards the end were pretty good. I also liked the hint of psychology added towards the end, with Jericho attacking the one body part that spared KO at WrestleMania, being his finger. It also played into the finish, so I’m glad it also wasn’t just random either. However, and I said before, the match was really just average to me. I really thought these two would go all out, but this match ended up being of lower quality than their WrestleMania match. It was a good match, and the crowd was hot for the finish, so this was far from a failure, but I really wanted a little more. Ah, well. ***
Austin Aries def. Neville (C) by DQ – WWE Cruiserweight Championship
This match was sort of hard to predict, because I didn’t think either man should lose here, so a big part of men believed that WWE would undergo this route and have a non-finish. Of course, this disqualification finish practically guarantees that the feud will continue, and Neville in all likelihood will lose the championship in his next title defense against him when it haps. As for what we got in the ring, it was a mother solid bout from these two. It was a notch below what they produced at WrestleMania, but it was more than passable. I can’t quite understate how valuable Neville has been to the Cruiserweight Division. I can’t imagine how lost they would be without him.
Not only has Neville put on the best matches to represent the CW division, but he has served as the perfect foil for Austin Aries and Jack Gallagher, giving those two some of their best matches. So I completely understand why WWE would want to continue to keep running with Neville as the champion for the time being, because he absolutely deserves an extended reign. Austin Aries’ time is coming, but I didn’t think that Payback was the appropriate time, so I’m fine with the decision. While I was expecting something to the extent of their WrestleMania match, I still did enjoy myself here. A great heel tactic by Neville to prevent himself from tapping out to save his title was the perfect way to protect both men. Austin still gets another shot and doesn’t take another loss and Neville keeps the championship. I thought TJ Perkins would get involved, but I’m not complaining. Everyone wins. ***1/4
The Hardy Boyz (C) def. Cesaro and Sheamus – RAW Tag Team Championship
Very great to see that The Hardy Boyz are still capable of working at a high level. I thought that from the get-go, both teams showed great chemistry and familiarity with each other. I also believed that the singles matches that each man had with each other helped them develop their tendencies in the ring and work it into a tag team dynamic. Towards the end there were some great near-falls and hereat action outside the ring that influenced the outcome of the match. I believe both teams did a great job in isolating their respective man, and I liked Jeff Hardy busting out his desperation moves in order to escape the double team tandem by Cesaro and Sheamus.
The heel turn by Cesaro and Sheamus could be seen from a mile away as they teased good sportsmanship on the previous episodes of RAW prior to the show, so that was no surprise, but the heel turn was well done indeed. Sheamus and Cesaro showing their frustration and losing to the original greats in the tag team division has gotten to them, and this led to them being a heel tag team. In addition, this may bring about the Broken gimmick from the Hardyz which is rumored to be coming sooner than later. So we shall see. Perhaps I’m overrating the match, but I really enjoyed myself here and though that both men worked extremely hard and they put on a very enjoyable match. Bravo. ***3/4
For the first time in what seems forever, the quality of the matches on PPV seems to be gradually increasing with each match. A pleasant surprise. Let’s see if WWE can keep this up.
Alexa Bliss def. Bayley (C) – RAW Women’s Championship
Wow, another shocking end result. I had read, and actually reported on the site that there was no scheduled title changes to take place here at Payback, and that the only match that hadn’t been fully decided on was this particular match right here. I was certain that they were going to hold off on Alexa winning for the simple fact that Sasha Banks and Bayley had a rivalry going down the line, and Alexa was more in a placeholder spot. In addition, Alexa beat Nia Jax and Sasha Banks on her first match on RAW, so I didn’t think they would continue to have her dominate, but I am pleasantly surprised. Consider that this woman, who wasn’t even drafted on the live show, has now won the women’s championship on both brands for a combined total of three times, trailing only Charlotte and tying Sasha Banks.
The match was also pretty solid. It wasn’t anything particularly spectacular because of the length of time, but in time frame that we got, this was perfectly acceptable. It’ll be interesting to see how Sasha plays out in all of this. Good on Bliss for capitalizing on opportunity, as she had been tearing apart Bayley on the microphone. ***
Seth Rollins def. Samoa Joe
I said that the winner of the match was going to be tough to predict because both men really couldn’t afford a loss here, and that the sonly outcome that I can see was Seth getting a fluke win, and that’s exactly what had happened. The actual match was focused on the knee of Rollins, just as it was in his match against Triple H at WrestleMania. I loved Samoa Joe’s methodical effort in order to neutralize Seth’s offense, and Seth tried to fight through it and did so for the most part. Samoa Joe works a slow, but physical pace, and I wanted to see how that would contrast with the up-tempo pace that Seth likes to give in the ring. Overall, it worked for me, but not in the way that I thought it would.
I thought that while the attention Seth’s knee was great, and while I loved Seth’s consistent selling of the knee after each attack from Joe or each high risk move Seth did, but the match to me had a very slow, labored pace. Whenever I thought the match was going reach the point where it really got going, I was never able to fully get into it. I was also sort of miffed that the bad knee didn’t factor into the finish. Seth did get the fluke win, and one of Joe’s shoulders were clearly off the mat. My hunch is that Joe brings this up and the feud between the two continues. While the match in terms of the in-ring work was fine, it never got to the level I though it could reach with two of the best NXT had to offer. Can’t fault them for effort, but it didn’t just reach that second gear for me. ***
Bray Wyatt def. Randy Orton – House of Horrors Match
This didn’t work for me. I was willing to give it a shot, and I said that this match was going to be either really, really, good or really, really cringeworthy. There was no in between. When I read this match was going to be a House of Horrors match, I was expecting all of the action to take place inside the House, because otherwise it’s just a regular match. Sometimes, different and weird can be very good things in WWE, but it has to be done right. This was the bad type of weird to me. Everything was just weird and didn’t click. This was more like a commercial for a WWE Studios movie as opposed to an actual match, because whatever they did in the ring lasted around 5 minutes. Actually, what they did in the ring wasn’t really a match and was more so a brawl.
The break in between the segments also hurt the flow of the show as well. There was nothing interesting or redeeming about this match and the only thing that this match managed to do was get some heat on Orton’s next challenger, Jinder Mahal. I really couldn’t care less about what Wyatt does at this point, because this was everything I feared it was going to be. Basically, this was Broken Matt’s stuff in TNA without any of the interest. I almost don’t want to give it a rating, because this really wasn’t even a match, but because there was a pinball finish, I have no choice. DUD
Braun Strowmann def. Roman Reigns
There was no way that Roman was going to win this match because of obvious reasons, but I think what was going to make or break this match was Roman’s selling. I noticed it first when Roman delayed his entrance and then he was gingerly clutching his left arm to his side. He also had the whole left side of his body practically bandaged up like a mummy. Braun dominated most of the match as we expected, and Roman got more offense in than I would have liked, but it still worked for me. All of the moves that Roman hit were out of pure desperation and Braun was methodical in his destruction taking it either outside or inside.
I liked their match at Fastlane a bit better, but Roman was limited in this match because he had to sell his injuries, so the decrease in quality wasn’t a surprise. In spite of that, Braun continues to amaze me with his speaking and ring awareness for a man his size. Roman’s selling in the match was great for me though. The labored breathing, the ginger walking, the motionless stances and everything else was perfect. I think he really laid home the foundation for how you should sell an attack. Him spitting up blood, or whatever he was spilling was just the icing on the cake for me. The post match ambush was brutal as well, and backstage, while it was funny that Roman dodged Braun’s attempted assault, I didn’t think it was necessary, because if Roman has internal injuries and coughing up blood everywhere, he shouldn’t really get any more over Braun. Nonetheless, while it couldn’t reach great levels because of the limitations in the match, it was fine for what it was. ***
Conclusion:
This show was headed into a very good direction, but unfortunately, the House of Horrors segment bogged it down and the show was never able to recover. This didn’t have a PPV feel to it and it was more so like a very special edition of Monday Night RAW with a sprinkle of Smackdown with the Orton/Mahal bit. From the title changes to the quality of the matches, this show didn’t have anything you wouldn’t find on Monday nights, which was what made this PPV a bummer. The quality of the matches were no higher than what you could find at the house show, and a lot of the finishes were sort of weird to boot as well.
RAW exclusive PPV’s has generally not been all that good, and while this wasn’t horrible, this wasn’t great either. I wouldn’t watch the show in its entirety again, and if there is anything that I enjoyed from start to finish, it had to be the tag team match. I wouldn’t completely crap on the show, because the good was good enough to make the PPV respectable, and the bad on the show wasn’t to the point where it made the PPV unwatchable. However, just like Fastlane, this whole PPV was just very dull. So unless you want to see the title changes for the sake of curiosity, you’re better off spending your time somewhere else. Thumbs in the middle for Payback 2017. Until next time.
