WWE Payback Review: What did you think?

    Good Morning to all of you, I hope you are having a wonderful day and that wherever you are, the sun is shining. Being Irish I do not get to see the sun very often but surprisingly, today it is out in full! Last night I stayed up to watch WWE Payback and I can say it was a solid pay per view, no Balor and No Bullet Club turning on AJ but it still had its moments in the midst of the all the chaos.

Ryback vs Kalisto(United States Championship Match)

Ryback, the big guy how far you have fallen but hey at least you made fun of CM Punk in Chicago. Ryback took a knee and checked his watch just like Punk before shouting Feed Me More. Kalisto and Ryback put on a good match with Kalisto getting the win over his bigger opponent. I must say the finish bothered me a little, Ryback has Kalisto in a military press slam position on the top rope, Ryback drops Kalisto as Kalisto jumps high into the sky, selling the impact like he had been hit by a bus. However, Ryback goes up to the top rope and tries a frogsplash and Kalisto pops up like nothing happened and hits his finish for the win. They took this impressive looking move by Ryback and made it seem like nothing in a matter of seconds. Psychology was way off in this match but at least Kalisto's reign as champion continues for now!

Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler

Corbin vs Ziggler was a match that many people had as an easy win for Baron, he is the new guy, the new monster and Dolph being the veteran would put him over and we would all complain and say #pushziggler. But this was not that night, Corbin was a monster tearing apart Ziggler with some nice offence but Corbin was overconfident and this would lead to his downfall as Ziggler would roll up The Lone Wolf for the victory. I was surprised this wasn't on the main show but I was even more surprised about the ending with Corbin being pinned in his pay per view debut. The likely outcome is a continuation of this feud and we will see the eventual destruction of Ziggler. For Ziggler's sake if he is to be destroyed by Corbin, he should take some time off and reinvent his character. For so many years Ziggler has been a great performer who always busts his ass in the ring but character wise, I have no idea what he is about, I mean is his gimmick that he likes to have the best matches? What is that? He comes to the ring and shakes his ass because he gets girls? Does he get the girls? Does he do all these things for no reason? I can't answer these questions so maybe it is time for a gimmick change for Dolph?

Vaudevillains vs Enzo & Big Cass(Finals of Tag Team 

Tournament)

  Opening match goes to a no contest as Enzo Amore suffered a nasty concussion. Gotch threw Enzo into the ropes and Enzo smashed into the second rope while knocking his head off the mat with a sickening whiplash effect. Enzo was immediately unconscious as he fell to the floor and it was a very scary situation as he lay prone not moving as he was worked on by the doctors. Thankfully, it was only a concussion for one half of the realest guys in the room and hopefully they will return to our screens sometime in the near future.

Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn

The promo packaged hyped up the history between these two men with the story being that Owens could not live down the fact that Zayn manged to make it to the WWE before him, it ate Owens up inside and he would do anything to provide for his family which meant that he would even take out his best friend. For me, this was the match of the night and it was not even their best work with one another. Zayn was the great underdog babyface coming back time after time and looking great even in defeat while Owens proved that he was the better man. From dives to the outside to nasty looking bumps on the apron these two stole the show in my opinion. Owens won clean in the middle with the pop up powerbomb and declared he would become the next intercontinental champion. Zayn may have lost but he had a great showing and was moments away from victory.

The Miz vs Cesaro(Intercontinental Championship Match)

Miz is so good in his role as an annoying chickenshit heel, his reign as champion and his promos is something that I cannot get enough of at the moment. Maryse, Miz's real life wife fits so perfectly as they have chemistry together and Miz hides behind her so much, it is just so much fun. Cesaro, the man so many get behind and every time WWE starts building him up, they pull the rug from underneath him and he fades into obscurity. For so long fans have wanted Cesaro to reach that upper tier but this was not that night. Miz focused on Cesaro's injured shoulder throughout the match but the Swiss Superman was proving too much for The Awesome One. Miz steals the victory as Kevin Owens who was at ringside doing commentary gets assaulted by Sami Zayn, they brawl onto the apron distracting the referee as Cesaro makes Miz tap clean in the middle. Cesaro knocks Zayn and Owens off the apron as they distract the referee allowing Miz to sneak in for the roll up. Hopefully this is building towards a fatal four way for the title.Post match Owens lays out everyone and stands tall with the championship. Good match with Cesaro losing not momentum as Miz had to cheat to beat him.

Dean Ambrose vs Chris Jericho

The Lunatic Fringe and the self proclaimed Best In The World locked up and I really was not feeling this match. It just seemed dull for the most part and the ending did not come off the way they intended or at least I hope it didn't. Jericho tried for the lionsault but Ambrose put his feet up and Jericho lay awkwardly on top of Ambrose while he waited for Ambrose to hook Jericho's arms. Dean grabs on the hold as they stumble to their feet and Jericho looks to fight out of it but Ambrose is too strong and plants Jericho with Dirty Deeds for the win. Ambrose needed the win as he have suffered a string of high profile losses to Brock Lesnar and Triple H and Jericho will be over no matter what, he has that connection with the fans so this will not hurt him and he won at Wrestlemania so the right man won in this match.

Natalya vs Charlotte (Women's Championship Match)

  This match I can only speak of the ending, an ending which was just in such poor taste. Maybe WWE caught wind of the comments Bret has made in the last number of weeks concerning the WWE product or maybe this is their way of building up Natalya for an eventual run with the title. Anyways, the match did seem dead at points as the crowd were not really reacting to Nattie even with Bret at ringside. The ending was a throwback to the Montreal Screwjob as Charlotte locked in the sharpshooter on Natalya and the referee rang the bell without Natalya tapping. Only saving grace I guess was Charles Robinson was the referee, a referee who was referred to as Lil Naitch in WCW as he was Ric's own personal referee so from this standpoint I can understand why he would Charlotte but this ending was poor to this match. A good match but Roadblock was the best these two have had together.

AJ Styles vs Roman Reigns(WWE Championship Match)

Great match from these two as both sold for one another and both made each other look amazing. There was no Balor Club and there was no turn on Aj but this was still a great match. Some concerns would be Reigns taking Styles' finish four times and kicking out every time, it is a sign of the way wrestling is now where finishers have been reduced to mere normal moves and I wish there was a return to where a finishing move finished a match by hitting it once! As well as that when a finishing move is used so often for nearfalls, I find it hard to buy into the idea that a roll up could be used to win a match. Apparently, there are also rumours that security guards were handing out free Roman Reigns signs to balance out the crowd reaction towards the guy. I really feel bad for Roman but creative do him no favours as he comes off as bland and almost robotic in his actions and promos. It was announced they would have a rematch as Extreme Rules so it is good to see Styles is being treated like a main eventer for now in WWE as he is headlining two consecutive pay per views. Overall a good show with some dull moments but it was not a bad show so let us roll on to Extreme Rules. See You Next Time!