Welcome to a special 4am Monday Morning edition of What Would Matt Do, with a focus on WWE Payback. It’s been a while since I’ve done a “live” review of a WWE Pay Per View, so let’s get this going!
Match 1 : Chris Jericho vs Kevin Owens (c), United States Title Match
What happened : A fantastic match, quite simply put. The chemistry that Jericho and Owens have in the ring is natural and you can’t teach that sort of chemistry. How the match was put together, from start to finish was simply fantastic. The finish of the match was sublime – at WrestleMania, the fingers of Owens saved the match for him. This time however, they cost the match for Owens. This result see’s Jericho move to SmackDown with the title – Nakamura vs Jericho anyone?
What Would Matt Do : Nothing, leave it as it is. Go back and watch it again.
Match 2 : Neville (c) vs Austin Aries, Cruiserweight Title Match
What happened : Another match for the Crusierweights with very little build outside of the Payback pre-show. Which featured the match for all of 27 seconds. Most people wanted to see Aries win the title, and for decent reasons too. Neville has done a lot for the Cruiserweights and 205Live, but maybe Aries could provide something else. However, the main cause of problems for the Cruiserweights is lack of exposure, and this hurt them badly once again.
What Would Matt do : PROMOTE THE MATCH!!! I don’t apologise for that being in capital letters at all, I was wanting to make sure you knew I was shouting. People won’t care about Neville, Aries, Perkins or any Cruiserweight unless they get the time for it. As for the match, Aries should have got the pin, or even submission victory.
Match 3 : Cesaro and Sheamus vs The Hardy Boyz (c), Raw Tag Title Match
What happened : This match had it all – high flying spots from a 39 year old, the Tooth Fairy picking up some business and a cheeky DELETE from Matt Hardy. This match worked really well for me, plenty of fun and action to be watching. The heel turn at the end from Cesaro and Sheamus was fantastically good fun too. What made me annoyed is that this was more high flying than the previous Cruiserweight match.
What Would Matt Do : Like match number 1, nothing. This match was fantastic, from start to finish. And post finish too.
Match 4 : Alexa Bliss vs Bayley (c), Raw Women’s Title Match
What happened : To begin with, Bliss was in charge of the match massively. When Bayley took control of the match, Bliss showed AMAZING ring awareness to stay in the ring – it was a fantastic spot in the match. Bayley was able to show off her skills and attributes and Alexa was able to pull out a victory in Bayley’s home town. As I write this live, this has so far been the match of the night.
What Would Matt Do : I’d like to have seen the finish go a different way. The Sasha Banks heel turn is on the horizon and I would have loved it to happen in Bayley’s home town. The crowd would have been insane and would have really made Sasha look as bad as Judas.
Match 5 : Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton, House of Horrors Match, Segment 1
What happened : The first part of the match was certainly unique. It was like the Hardy Boyz were able to do Final Deletion but on a WWE budget. The House of Horrors itself was a different atmosphere, unlike anything WWE have done since the Attitude Era. The balance of offence and defence from the Orton and Wyatt was presented well, as were the different rooms featured.
What Would Matt Do : In this first part of the match? Nothing. I dread to think how much darker it would have been if it had been produced in the Attitude Era.
Match 6 : Seth Rollins vs Samoa Joe
What happened : This match was sandwiched between the House of Horror match segments, so I’ll be honest. I had a hard time focusing on it and not writing various puns on Twitter from the first segment. The match was physical and hard hitting as predicted. Submissions, hard hits and a fun finish from Rollins.
What Would Matt Do : I would have liked to see Joe work more on Rollins’ leg and make a point of hurting it earlier on in the match. Story telling with Rollins gives him things to talk about in promos, more t-shirts that can be sold and makes him an even bigger babyface.
Match 5 : Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton, House of Horrors Match, Segment 2
What happened : Wyatt made his way to the ring and Orton had magically appeared behind him when he blew his torch out. From the start Orton was in control and the match was physical, both in the ring and out. Then, words that I never thought I’d type happened : Jinder Mahal came and helped Bray Wyatt to score the win. The Singh Brothers were there two, which helped their cause also.
What Would Matt Do : Like multiple matches, nothing. Using Jinder Mahal to help Wyatt win kept Orton strong, furthered storylines and helped Wyatt too. Whilst being the weaker of the two segments, it was fantastic story telling overall.
Match 7 : Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns
What happened : Another hard hitting and physical match. If you had said that after he debuted he would have a match like this vs Roman Reigns on PPV in the main event, I’d have laughed. Strowman is the outlet for the anti-Reigns fans, and this is vital as they have been hijacking shows and matches, a lot. Reigns threw everything at Strowman, but Strowman was able to get the win, eventually. Post match, with the beat down, Strowman looked strong again.
What Would Matt Do : Make Strowman look stronger during the match. Reigns had far too much offence in this match and it didn’t help to further Strowman’s cause at all. Thank god for the post match beat down and destruction of Reigns.
Closing thoughts on WWE Payback
This has, by far, been the strongest PPV that WWE have produced this year. Near enough every match told a story that was interesting and had the crowd hooked, both live and at home. If you didn’t watch the PPV, go and watch it now. Seriously, stop what your doing. Go watch it and enjoy. I’d love to pick a single match of the night, but there were so many candidates I’m not going to single one out. Just go watch the PPV and enjoy.
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