Payback Review

Well, last night was interesting wasn't it? I said heading into the PPV, that while the outcomes in certain matches won't be what people want- I was expecting last night to be fun. Well, I suppose I was half right- in that half of the PPV was ridiculously entertaining. Then as the PPV progressed WWE just ever so steadily reverted to type, with the result being the last hour. There's definitely a lot to talk about as a result of last night, so I won't ramble any longer.

Pre-Show: Dolph Ziggler v Baron Corbin
I'd said in my Predictions, while I predicted Corbin to win, that Dolph winning was a definite possibility. Had I known this was on the Pre-Show, I'd have said it was a certainty. Especially with the way they did it, Corbin didn't need to win last night. Would I have wanted him to win, definitely. However, the story here makes perfect sense. Dolph is a seasoned veteran, while Corbin's still quite inexperienced- and Corbin lost by making a "Rookie" Mistake. That could of course all be for nothing depending on how they then follow up on this, but I've got no issues with the finish.

The match was decent enough, with the finish in mind they had to put Corbin over as the dominant force in the match. That's fine by me, because to his detriment Dolph's a great seller for everyone- but for the most part he was limited to "desperation" moves. So, in short decent match- that should lead to a better one. Also, Baron Corbin's for want of a better way to describe it "Connect Four" Entrance is pretty good in my opinion.

Pre-Show: Kalisto v "The Pre-Show Stopper" Ryback- US Title
I'd said in my Predictions that I was the one person who still likes Ryback. Well, I think some people will be hopping back on the bandwagon with me after last night. From the minute Ryback came out, he was a complete mega-star last night. As soon as Ryback went down on one knee to do the "It's Clobberin' Time" Punk thing, I just fell in love with him all over again. In short, when Ryback's in "Zero Fucks" mode as he was last night- he's ridiculously entertaining. I for one, can't wait to see more of "The Pre-Show Stopper".

Not only was Ryback entertaining outside of the ring last night, in-terms of "expectation vs reality"- this was the best match on the card last night. Everyone was expecting Owens/Zayn to be amazing, most people probably forgot this match was even going to happen. This match was just really, really fucking good. It's not a secret that Ryback's not the best worker in the company, but once he's comfortable working with someone as he is with Kalisto now- he really "clicks" with whomever he's facing. Kalisto played his role really well, I would have preferred for him to drop the Title- but I can't really complain too much after the match we just had.

Also, for all of the talk of Ryback being dangerous to work with- he saved Kalisto from certain death last night when he went for that Plancha. I think it's balanced out a bit now.

The Vaudevillains v Enzo & Big Cass- Tag Title #1 Contender Match
Wrestling's wrestling, we all like to have a bit of a bitch about it- but any normal fan respects every single person who comes out to wrestle. End of the day, they're putting their bodies on the line to entertain us. They don't have to, and nobody should get injured trying to entertain us. As is the nature of Wrestling, and pretty much any sport injuries do happen. However, I can't remember a scarier injury in quite a while.

I'm not going to dwell too much on this, you've all seen what happened. I'd just like to make the point I made last night as well. Michael Cole, for all of his faults, is fucking amazing in these sort of situations. It obviously has a lot to do with his run as a War Correspondent, but the way he handles these sort of situations is just perfect. He doesn't get a lot of praise, well, ever, but he deserves a lot after last night.

I don't know where they go now, and I'd be interested to know what the plans for last night actually were. Either way, with Enzo getting a Concussion chances are The Vaudevillains will progress to feuding with New Day now. So, all we can hope is that this hasn't de-railed Enzo & Cass too much and they're back ASAP.

Kevin Owens v Sami Zayn
I said in-terms of "expectations vs reality" Ryback/Kalisto was the best match on the card, but this was just the out and out best match last night. But does that really surprise anyone? This match, was just simply really fucking good. I wasn't surprised that Owens won, but I was really surprised that he won clean. It was good, in the sense that it was a means to an end with what happened after- but I was just really surprised by it. It's obviously not the last page of this chapter of these two's feud, and I'm just looking forward to what we get next.

The Miz v Cesaro- IC Title
What we're getting next, it would appear is a Fatal 4-Way for the IC Title with Owens, Zayn, Cesaro and of course Miz. Which I'm fine with. I saw (I think) Bryan Alvarez say something along the lines of "We've got 3 great wrestlers in a feud for the IC Title, and yet Miz is Champion". You'd think a Wrestling Journalist with his experience would understand the logic behind it. Having someone the crowd don't want as Champion, in the way in which they don't want Miz as Champion makes the eventual Babyface win so much better. Besides, Miz has been fucking great this year.

The match was pretty good I thought, Owens was great on Commentary- I liked the finish without loving it. I thought when Owens and Zayn came up on the Ring Apron they were going to enter and bump into Cesaro and Miz. Then we'd get them pairing off (Miz & Zayn, Cesaro & Owens), and we'd get the now world famous punching spot with all four guys before it broke down into what we got.

This first hour, aside from the Enzo injury was one of the best first hours of a PPV in quite a while in my opinion. At this point of the night, I was absolutely loving it.

Dean Ambrose v Chris Jericho
I was desperate for Jericho to bury another Stupid Idiot last night, but with his tweet today basically saying he's finished his current run it makes a lot more sense. Of course, if I'd known he was done after last night I wouldn't have predicted him winning as I did.

I was actually quite disappointed by this match, and I can't even really work out why. The match just sort of felt really flat to me. Neither guy did anything wrong, the story was good, the wrestling was good- I just couldn't fully engage in the match for some reason. If Jericho is indeed done for now, and the tweet isn't a work- I'll be interested to see where Ambrose goes next. As we saw at the end of last night, AJ's getting another match with Roman, The IC Title picture is filled with guys Ambrose could have feuds with, The Wyatts are on the shelf. There's just not an obvious feud for him, so we might just end up having Ambrose Asylum segments to keep him on TV like they did with Miz for a while.

Charlotte v Natalya- Womens Title
The problem with this match, and just the feud in general. Nobody actually believed Nattie was going to win the Title. That just has an impact on how the crowd approaches, and reacts to the match. I think we were all expecting shenanigans, but I doubt many people were predicting exactly what shenanigans took place.

When Little Naitch was the Ref, I think people thought there may be some Ref Shenanigans- and when Charlotte put Nattie in the Sharpshooter it just clicked. I instantly just burst out laughing, it was absolutely hilarious. They literally just went, well we've got Bret here- might as well redo the Screwjob. That's literally the only reason they did it. I hope we don't get a Rematch, we probably will- and heading into Extreme Rules after Ref Shenanigans it'll probably be Last (Wo)Man Standing. But the sooner we get Charlotte back in the mix with Sasha and Becky the better, because then there'll at least be some jeopardy in these matches. It's the WWE's own fault as well, if they hadn't spent half a decade burying Natalya the crowd might see her as a threat to the Title.

Who got control of RAW?
Vince came out, spoke about the history of WWE, Stephanie came out and pled her case, Shane came out and got a load of Cheap Pops, Vince put them both in charge. That's literally 1 and a Half lines in this Review, and yet it took probably around 20-25 Minutes from the moment Vince entered to Shane and Stephanie's Handshake. There's a lot of talk about a "new era", and the first hour in particular where we got proper transitions between segments etc. it felt like one. This segment might as well have had Shawn Michaels show up in the middle of it, just to shout "NOW... BACK TO REALITY".

It was hilarious in just how bad this segment was, and that's including Shane. Shane's not immune from criticism just because he's relatively fresh in his return, and his Promo wore thin just as quickly as Stephanie and Vince's did. We literally had a 20+ Minute segment, with the big pay-off being that both Shane and Stephanie are in charge. You know what that means right? The Dysfunctional McMahon Family are going to be the focal point of RAW's going forward. NEW ERA!

Roman Reigns v AJ Styles- WWE Title
I think I said in one of my recent RAW Reviews, that there's some people I see on Twitter who build up their own unrealistic picture of what should happen in WWE and when what happens doesn't live up to their unrealistic expectations they get pissed. I legitimately saw people getting pissed that Roman pinned AJ, it's just like what did you honestly think would happen? Regardless of how it happened, Roman was always going to pin AJ.

Up until the Count-Out, I was really enjoying this match. It's the best Roman had looked in a while, basically because he wasn't trying to play the plucky underdog. It's not exactly an out there statement to say AJ makes the better Babyface, and these two worked really well with each other for the most part. Once the Count-Out happened, I basically just groaned. The Main Event of the first PPV of the "new era" just had to have the McMahon's getting involved, didn't it?

This basically just turned into an overbooked mess, we had 6 people other than Roman and AJ make some sort of appearance in the match. 6. I was slightly caught off guard by Gallows & Anderson not playing more of a role in the final outcome, I will admit. Given the proximity of the next Takeover and Extreme Rules, my money's now on Gallows & Anderson debuting with Balor and it building to AJ/Finn at Summerslam.

We of course got the announcement of the AJ/Roman rematch after the match ended, and as of last night it's an Extreme Rules match. Whether it stays like that remains to be seen though, because the idea came from Shane I can see Stephanie undermining him and going to Vince for an executive decision on the whole thing. Even with the announcement of an Extreme Rules match last night, I'd be putting money on it being a Steel Cage Match at Extreme Rules. Because, of course Cages are impenetrable and nobodies ever broken into one- meaning it's perfect to keep Gallows & Anderson and The Usos out.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy last night, because there was definite positives from last night. The problem is, when the Main Events are anti-climatic that's what everyone remembers. If there was an amazing Main Event, and a bad Undercard people would feel as though they've got their money's worth because they've left it on an "up" note. As it is, people are leaving disappointed- and with a general negative feeling toward the product heading into RAW.

Thanks for reading as always, the Reviews will of course be back tomorrow for RAW- where hopefully we get a bit more storyline progression. I think that's actually the thing that annoyed me most from last night, it's not the fact Roman won clean(ish)- it's that they didn't progress the storyline at all. AJ's wrestling Roman again next month, and all of the other outside factors are as they were heading into last night. Thanks again for reading, and I'm sure we're thankful that for Enzo it's just  a Concussion.