Payback Review

WWE Payback brought to you live from Baltimore, MD:

PRE-SHOW: 

Match 1) R-Truth vs Stardust: 

• Well this was a surprise match that I didn't know was on the card. R-Truth was actually kinda over with this crowd. He had lots of crowd interaction with his rap and his "whats up" chants. The match wasn't terrible the guys worked hard and put on a decent short match to open the pre-show. On a side not what on earth are they doing with Cody??? He has been floating in no man's land for a while now and that needs to be fixed, he is to good to be a low card guy. 

Winner: R-Truth 

• They played an ad advertising for the next on air podcast and it will be another Stone Cold podcast. He will be interviewing the one and only Paul Haymond. This will be a great podcast, these two have done the Stone Cold podcast together before and it was great so I cant wait to see this one. 

Match 2: Sandow and Axel vs Ascension: 

Wow...... just wow. That was one of the funniest and saddest things I have ever seen. Im am really glad that Axel finally went all in with the Axelmania gimmick. The two of them coming out together was hilarious. The match was just one big comedy bit and it worked if thats what they were going for. It was good for a laugh and thats about it. The fact that Cole said this was Ascension's biggest win tells you exactly where they are at on WWE programing. They have done nothing since coming up to the main roster which is ridiculous considering how dominant they were in NXT. On another note where do you go from here if you Axel and Sandow? Hopefully this is the end of this gimmick and Sandow can get back to being Sandow. 

Winner: Ascension  

Payback Main Show: 

Match 1) Sheamus vs Dolph Ziggler: 

• This was a good back and forth battle between two guys who tried hard to entertain. Both guys had some good offense. The crowd seemed really into the whole match and the near falls were really believable considering I had no idea who was going to win this match. I was not a fan of Sheamus the "power heel" taking the butt to the face half way through the match, how can you build a monster heel if he is being made a fool by the baby face? Sheamus had a nice recovery by beating Ziggler down for the rest of the match. The blood pouring out of Ziggler's head really sold the beat down and made Sheamus look like a bad a$$. That was the finish we needed maybe not the one we wanted if you are a Ziggler fan. But that was a solid match over all. 

Winner: Sheamus 

Match 2) New Day vs Cesaro & Tyson Kidd for the Tag Titles in a 2 out of 3 falls match: 

• New Day comes out and cuts a promo bashing Baltimore and a few baseball players from Baltimore. I really like the new Heel New Day. They are honestly one of my favorite parts of WWE programing now days. I could watch both these teams wrestle all day. Great back and forth action in the first set of the match. Lots of back and forth action followed by the big swing and boot from Kidd and Cesaro. 

Kidd & Cesaro win the first fall. 

• The second part of the match kicked off with lots of flying around by Tyson Kidd. He was flipping everywhere until Big E planted him on the outside. New Day took control and began to beat down Tyson Kidd with quick tags. Big E hit Cesaro with a huge  spear through the ropes! Its always cool to see a big guy go flying. After beating down Tyson some more New Day picked up the 2nd win. 

New Day win the 2nd fall 

• The 3rd and final part of the match kicks off with Cesaro and Kidd making a huge come back Cesaro started cleaning house and throwing out uppercuts like it was going out of style. Cesaro had a small botch when trying to pick up Big E but he played it off well. Xavier Woods sneaks in while the ref is distracted  and hits Cesaro with a roll up for the sneaky win. 

• That was a great match that had lots of back and forth action. In my pre-show predictions post I called this the match of the night and to this point it has been and the bar has been set high. Those guys put on a great story telling match there. And the right team went over in a clever finish. 

Winner: New Day 

Match 3: Ryback vs Bray Wyatt: 

• Man I feel like Im a member of New Day or something because I am being way to positive about this show so far but that was a pretty good match for two big guys. They guys came out and brought it, and that was one of the better Ryback matches I have seen. Both men did a high flying move and both guys busted their butt in this one. Ryback hit an exposed turnbuckle which was followed by Sister Abigail for the Bray Wyatt win. The right man went over here because Bray really needed a win!

Winner: Bray Wyatt  

Match 4) John Cena vs Rusev in an I quit match for the United States Championship: 

• This match started off kinda slow with Rusev focusing on Lana more than Cena ( I cant blame him I would too). Rusev beat down Cena for a good part of the match. The Ref had to ask John if he quit like 100 time in the first 5 minuets of the match. It was kind of ridiculous. The match started to kinda pick up as John made his come back. They finally got around to using some props about half way through the match which helped pick up the pace and made the match seem a little more violent. Rusev dropped the ball when he tried to throw John through the table and pretty much missed. They had a nice fire works spot where John Cena threw Rusev down on the intro set. Which cause Lana to come running up to the two men. After both men worked their way back to the ring and the fight continued. After John Cena hit Rusev with the STFU using the ring ropes, Lana rushes in and says I quit for Rusev. This was a decent match with a terrible ending. You could see that ending coming from a mile away which was disappointing. 

Winner: John Cena (Lana Quits for Rusev) 

Match 5) Bella Twins vs Naomi and Tamina: 

• This match was a an ok match from the ladies. It just suffers from a case of the who cares. I cant really seem to get into the feud between these ladies for some reason. Maybe its because the Bella's were heels like a week ago? Or maybe its because I miss Paige? Its one of those two or maybe both. 

Winner: Naomi and Tamina

Match 6) Neville vs King Barrett: 

• This match was a little slower paced than some of their other matches. Neville had a botch moved at the beginning but was able to recover and brush it off pretty well. On a side not I like the position in the pay-per-view for this match. Prior to the show I was certain this match would have been toward the start of the card. It was cool to these guys get a late spot in the show. That being said this was a very lame ending to a decent match. Barrett walking out for the 10 count was dumb but they saved it by having the post match angle with both men getting some offense in. 

Winner: Neville by count out

Match 7) Randy Orton vs Roman Reigns vs Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavy Weight Championship: 

• This match was absolutely brilliant!! It delivered in so many ways and was action packed from start to finish. Every man had there chance to shine and get their moves in. My favorite part of the match was the mini Shield reunion in the middle of the match! The guys worked together long enough to hit Randy with the Triple Powerbomb. That was followed up by a hilarious moment where Rollins tried to do the ole Shield fist bump which Dean and Roman wanted not part of. Seth ended up winning the match by hitting Randy Orton with the Pedigree. Which I never saw coming. It was a great match with a bit of a sloppy finish. This match proved my prediction wrong and it beat out the tag team title match for the match of the night. 

Winner: Seth Rollins 

• Great pay-per-view tonight! It really delivered and had multiple great matches. My favorite match from tonight had to be the World Heavy Weight Championship match followed closely by the Tag Team Championship match. If you didn't get to watch them go back and watch them cause they were awesome. We didn't get the heel turn everyone was predicting but it actually worked out for the better and honestly Roman Reigns seemed to have a lot of fans in the crowd tonight. Speaking of the crowd they were great through the whole show. I hope you enjoyed Payback and my coverage of it!  

• I leave you with my moment of the night, a mini Shield Reunion!!!!!