Tonight is Payback! Yay! The buildup to this match has been so great, with champions losing, Daniel Bryan 
getting injured, a bunch of ineffective brawls and just an overall lack of interest stemming from all Raws leading to this event, I’m so dang hyped for this broadcast! And of course, to start things off, we gets El Torito vs. Hornswoggle for the 10,000th time because WWE’s booking is at an all time lazy level. Let’s get to it!
Hornswoggle vs. El Torito in a Hair vs. Mask match
Hornswoggle is wearing a jersey, since I guess they’re at the home of the Bulls in Chicago. So yes, that means lots of CM Punk chants tonight. Mostly a comedy match with some fun spots. There was a spot where they did a bunch of dives to the outside, including Torito hurricanranaing Slater into all of Los Matadores and the rest 3MB. Hornswoggle tears off his match, but there’s another mask underneath. This confuses Hornswoggle, which leads to a middle rope moonsault from Torito and he picks up the win. Fun stuff while it lasted. **¾
Hornswoggle voluntarily went to the barber chair and, although he didn’t like it one bit, didn’t put up much of a fight as his hair is chopped off.
There was an angle set up between the Rhodes brothers and Rybaxel, so that’s probably being added to the card. They had a backstage segment where Cody talked about how he was the root of their problems, but that’s all behind them as tonight they’ll beat Rybaxel. One would think that a turn is still totally happening, but on the other hand this is WWE booking in 2014, so they’ll probably be a team forever at this point.
Sheamus vs. Cesaro for the United States championship
There is a “Mountie for Jinder” sign. I have no idea what this means. Do they want to repackage Jinder Mahal as the Mountie? Paul Heyman comes out and says he wants to advocate a Paul Heyman guy…fans chant CM Punk. Heyman says no, he’s at the Blackhawks game. Does his shtick, eventually brings out Cesaro.
They have their match, which I thought was really good to be honest. They have good chemistry together, and both have been working hard as of late. Ok, this was a great match with tons of heat. Very stiff and crisp throughout. Cesaro goes for the swing, which gets a giant reaction, but as he throws him down Sheamus rolls him up and gets a flash three count. Kind of anticlimactic, but still a great match with tons of fun spots throughout. ****
I should note that Sheamus’s concussion problems, which by the way were a big part of Raw, were not mentioned once or was brought up during the match.
Goldust and Cody Rhodes vs. Rybaxel
I am enjoying all these signs in the crowd. “Dino Bravo for 2015 HOF” they say. Hot tags in between to start. Goldust gets worked on by both members of Rybaxel. Finally Cody tags in and does the babyface comeback. Disaster kick attempt but get powerbombed into Goldust. Goldust manages to break up the pin attempt, however. He gets clotheslined as Ryback walks into the crossroads but Axel breaks it up. Cody goes for the disaster kick again but Ryback counters with shellshock for the pinfall. Very solid match. ***¼
Cody is upset after the match. Goldust confronts him, but Cody gets a mic. He says he needs a better tag partner and leaves. In other words, no, WWE has no idea what they want to do with this storyline.
Big E vs. Rusev
This didn’t last a whole lot longer than other Rusev matches. Big E put up a fight, including a cool spear into the outside, but a superkick and accolade later, and that’s it. *¾
Kofi Kingston vs. Bo Dallas
This is really random. Ugh. As soon as the bell ring THE DEMON KANE comes out. I just want to see Bo Dallas please. Kane destroys Kofi Kingston forever. Bo then comforted Kofi, saying he’ll be back on his feet in no time. That’s pretty nice of him. Very inspirational.
RVD vs. Bad News Barrett for the Intercontinental championship
BNB’s bad news of the day was that this would be RVD’s last paycheck because he was going to put him on a permanent summer vacation. They had a good match. RVD missed the frog splash and Barrett goes for the bull hammer elbow, but RVD counters with his rollup. Barrett gets his elbow posted on the outside, but manages to dodge a split legged moonsault from RVD and hits the bull hammer for the pinfall. Turned out to be pretty good towards the end. ***¼
Stephanie comes out. I missed this part due to various circumstances, but I got the gist of what happened. Stephanie wanted Bryan to vacate the title and dressed him down. CM Punk chants broke out. Stephanie said they want him to quit like CM Punk. I bet she’s been waiting for months to get that one in. Daniel says he hopes that her children are watching just to see how their mother is acting like. Brie calls her a bitch and says she can’t fire her because she quits. She then shoves Stephanie down to the biggest pop of the night. So Stephanie is thwarted again and has to find another way to get the title off of Bryan. It sounds fine enough but I just so wish this was over already.
John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt in a Last Man Standing match
Usos come out to even the score when The Wyatts try to gang up on Cena. Cena looks like he’s going to lock up, but then realizes what he’s doing and decides to brawl to start this contest off. Lots of weapons used including chairs, steel steps, and so on and so forth. Cena grabs the stairs and throws them right at Wyatt which causes his arm to slice open. Usos and Wyatts collide into one another with a bunch of high spots that send them out. Cena gets the AA on the floor but Harper and Rowan return and the Usos do too. Cena and Wyatt suddenly disappear and the Usos and Wyatts do a bunch of table spots. Cool table spots, but um, Cena and Wyatt are having a match here, guys.
Cole, like a tattletale, points out Wyatt’s been down for over 10 seconds but with the chaos the referee didn’t notice. They end up brawling over to the pyro/setup area. Cena gives an AA on top of a table through some sort of storage thing then puts another storage thing on top for the victory. This was fine for a while, but then became convoluted with the Usos and Wyatts. This feud had ended, at least. Maybe. Probably not. **¾
Paige vs. Alicia Fox for the Divas championship.
This got more heat than usual since the Chicago crowd here is great. Again, Paige gets no offense whatsoever for the first part of the match, but then rallies back and quickly gets the win with the scorpion cross lock. Nothing of a match, although not terrible. This is not going to get Paige over. Especially when you don’t have her do promos. *¼
But of course, we know what this is really all about, Alicia Fox’s fit after the match. Well, she just screamed and ran to the back in a huff. Even that didn’t deliver. What a pointless segment in retrospect.
Evolution vs. The Shield
For a no DQ elimination match everyone is sure nice enough to stand on the apron and make a tag. Batista’s gear is so…BLUE I can’t even fathom it. Batista’s run here was a flop, no bones about it, but man the outfits so were not. Reigns and Triple H were tagged in and they stood there waiting for a big reaction but didn’t get it. After Ambrose is worked on forever, they finally tag Reigns back in and he runs wild. Evolution takes apart all 3 members individually, including a triple powerbomb by Evolution with Reigns eating a table. Long period of Evolution domination, using every weapon in the book. Rollins gets on the titantron and does a huge dive, sending all of Evolution down to the floor.
Batista spears Rollins and goes for the Batista bomb, but Rollins floats over and Reigns hits a spear. Rollins covers and eliminates Batista. Orton jumps Rollins with an RKO, but Ambrose returns and hits the dirty deeds DDT to eliminate Orton. All that’s left is Triple H. Reigns hits the superman punch but Batista hits him with a spear. Orton slides in the sledgehammer. Triple H slams Ambrose with it, but doesn’t see Rollins fly off the top rope, and he’s sent down. Reigns follows with the spear, and that’s it! All of the Shield survive. Great match with some good storytelling. ****
FINAL THOUGHTS: This was a good show with some great matches. The main event delivered, the US title match was great and nothing was completely awful. Some people might not like Cena overcoming the odds again, but let’s just be happy that feud is over…maybe. As summer starts, WWE needs a reboot creatively. Too many feuds have dragged on for too long, too much filler is making the midcard seem irrelevant and it’s time for a few changes, as well as a few call ups as I’m sure tomorrow is going to be rematch heavy. Tomorrow might be the first signs of that, and I hope it’s in a more positive direction than in the last few weeks.
Recent Comments