Hiya!

Hey, Disney+ in the Philippines, what’s the deal? I thought you were doing better with your WWE service as you guys actually would broadcast the pay-per-views live and then promptly put them up for replay the next day. You didn’t do that for Payback. I know Payback is essentially a D-lister when it comes of WWE pay-per-views but I still wish you were more prompt with making it available. This is why I wasn’t able to see the entire thing until Tuesday evening, making me rush through watching the event.

Anyway, I did watch Payback and here are my thoughts on what happened during the show.

The first match of the night had Becky Lynch take on Trish Status in a Steel Cage match. I just found out Trish Stratus is almost 50 and I can’t imagine looking as gorgeous and fit as she did here! I hope my genetics are as good as hers. What’s even more amazing is, considering this is her first Steel Cage match, she more than held her own against the younger and more experienced in these kinds of matches in Becky Lynch. The two pulled off some really amazing spots, like that superplex while Trish was hanging from the top of the cage and Trish delivering a bulldog to Lynch from the top rope. Some clever callbacks, like Trish delivering Victoria’s Widow’s Peak and Lynch performing a Twist of Fate, were also included for the more hardcore fans like me!

The finish came after Zoey Starks, Trish Stratus’ protoge, got involved and broke up a pinning attempt by The Man after hitting Trish with a Manhandle Slam. Zoey and Becky start wailing on each other and Trish’s protoge gets the upper hand with a clothesline and Trish takes this opportunity to start climbing the cage. Lynch recovers and hits a Manhandle Slam on Zoey before climbing after Trish. Lynch drags Trish back from the top of the cage and hits a Manhandle Slam from the top rope to get the pinfall victory.

After the match, Trish is upset with Zoey and starts berating her. Zoey tries to apologize but Trish slaps her in the face in response. The WWE Hall of Famer orders Zoey out of the cage but, instead of walking out the door, Zoey slams the cage door shut. Trish shoves Zoey but Starks retaliates with her Z360 knee strike, knocking Trish out cold, effectively ending their partnership.

This was a really good match. I honestly didn’t expect it to hit the levels that it did because, well, I didn’t think Trish Status still had it in her. She definitely proved me wrong and she put her body on the line in this match. I also do like Zoey Starks broke up with Trish Stratus and, hopefully, this does allow both Becky Lynch and Zoey Starks to move on to new feuds. Great way to start out Payback.

The second match of Payback started out with John Cena inserting himself into it by making himself the special guest referee between The Miz vs. LA Knight. It’s a shame they had John Cena just have the promo between himself and The Miz. It would’ve been amazing to see LA Knight talk to Cena before the match as well. It would’ve been the highlight as, even though I just watched the match, I can’t really remember anything special that happened. I guess you can say John Cena grabbing onto both The Miz and LA Knight to make a rope break kinda was but it really didn’t lead to anything. It felt rather standard.

The finish came after John Cena stopped counting a pinfall attempt because he noticed Miz’s hand using the bottom rope for leverage. The Miz starts complaining to John Cena, allowing LA Knight to go for his Blunt Force Trauma finisher. The move is blocked, however, and The Miz goes for his Skull Crushing Finale finisher. LA Knight gets out of the hold and charges at the A-Lister. Miz ducks a punch and LA Knight almost hits John Cena by mistake and this allows Miz to hit the Skull Crushing Finale for a 2-count. Miz then mocks Cena by signaling for the Five Knuckle Shuffle but LA Knight recovered and hits his Yeah! elbow. One Blunt Force Trauma Later, John Cena is raising LA Knight’s hand in victory. LA Knight does get in Cena’s face for almost causing him the match several times but they both shake hands in the end.

This match didn’t really get out of 2nd gear. Like I said, nothing of note really happened and having Cena as the special referee didn’t really add to the match. The match also went on for a little too long and could’ve been much snappier. If it was on RAW or Smackdown, I would say it’s a good match. On a pay-per-view, even a B rated pay-per-view like Payback, I still expected more.

The next match saw Rey Mysterio defending Smackdown’s United States Championship against Austin Theory. I do think it was a weird decision to have Austin Theory drop the title to Rey Mysterio but, after this match, I do see why as their chemistry together is pretty good. They did put Austin Theory’s power up front as he was able to counter some of Rey’s moves using it. Austin also did a good job of selling to Rey’s moves. I don’t know why Austin Theory went after Rey’s mask though. That seems a bit out of character.

The finish came with Austin Theory and Mysterio slugging it out in the middle of the ring. Theory gets the upper hand with a knee to the gut. Mysterio does retaliate with a 619 but, after he went for his slingshot splash, The Now got his knees up in time to counter the move. Theory then set Rey up for the A-Town Down but the master of the 619 flips Theory into the most devastating move in all of sports entertainment, the rollup. Rey retains the United States Championship.

This was a fun and decisive match between the two. As much as I like the pairing, I think the feud has run its course. Austin Theory should move on to something else now while Rey can feud with fellow LWO member Santos Escobar, who actually should have gotten the title shot against Theory while the latter was the United States champion. Good match to close out the storyline, though.

The next match had Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens defending their WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championships against The Judgement Day team of Finn Balor and Damien Priest in a Steel City Street Fight. Despite the fancy name, it’s just your typical No Holds Barred match where there are no DQs. Still, this had a lot of stuff to get entertained with as they pulled off a ton of spots here. I kind of wish I knew about hockey teams because there were a couple of references to them. Still, I understood them but the spots themselves were glorious. Things like Zayn and Owens walloping Balor with kendo sticks while he was stuck in a trash can, Priest hitting a falcon arrow on Zayn through some chairs, Owens’ swanton dive through Dominik Mysterio who got involved in the middle of the match, the faces donning hockey gear and beating The Judgement Day with hockey sticks. Just so much stuff!

The finish did come off as a little too much as it started with Balor’s supposed friend, JD McDonagh, breaking up the pinning attempt by Zayn. Owens takes him out with a popup powerbomb on the announcer’s table. Rhea Ripley comes charging out of nowhere to spear Owens through the ringside barricade, taking both of them out. Back in the ring, Balor goes for his Coup de Grace double footstomp to Zayn but the latter rolls out of the way. Zayn then hits an exploder suplex and a Helluva Kick to Balor. Zayn goes for the pin but Dominik runs in with Priest’s Money in the Bank briefcase and nails him with it. Balor limply rolls over, pins Sami to become the NEW WWE Unified Tag Team Champions along with Damien Priest. The Judgement Day then celebrate with all of their titles, making them the winningest faction in the WWE today.

This was an extremely exciting match which was a ton of fun to watch. It was a mix of really extreme action but with some kookiness to keep things relatively lighthearted. As mentioned, the finish was a little overcomplicated but it was nice to see everyone in The Judgement Day get involved, which was important for this match to really show how they’re unified as a unit for now.

Speaking of Rhea Ripley, the next match had her defending the Smackdown Women’s Championship against Raquel Rodriguez. This was something I was looking forward to because you rarely see women wrestlers who rely on power moves in a match together. The action was pretty good as both Rodriguez and Ripley got to showcase their power, like when Raquel Rodriguez basically deadlifted the Enforcer into a delayed suplex. However, there were a couple of botched spots, like when Raquel tried to do an inverted stungun to Rhea but couldn’t quite get her high enough, leading to both of them just slumping to the mat.

The finish came when Dominik came out to aid his Mami. Rhea draped herself on the ring apron and Dirty Dom tried to drag her out but Raquel pulled both of them into the center of the ring. Rodriguez then hits Dominik with her Texana Bomb powerslam but this distraction allowed Ripley to recover enough to hit her challenge in her previously injured knee. This gave the Enforcer enough time to hit Raquel with the Riptide pumphandle slam to get the pinfall victory and retain her Smackdown Women’s Championship.

This was a fun match and the botches didn’t really hurt it all that much. I will say Raquel Rodriguez was good here but there were times when she came off as rather awkward, as if it took her a couple of seconds to do what was supposed to happen. The finish did come off as anticlimactic as the run-in came off as very predictable. The instant Dominik approached ringside, I already knew what was going to happen. Still, this was a good match overall.

Payback’s main event saw Seth “Freakin'” Rollins defending the greatest prize of the RAW brand, the World Heavyweight Championship against Shinusuke Nakamura. I didn’t like how the commentators had to force feed the audience how Seth Rollins had a messed up back so much. I get it. It’s part of the story but at least it did play an important factor here as Nakamura did focus on the lower back as much as possible. Some really good spots and near finishes here but it did take its time to get in gear. I also can’t say it was actually memorable as I never really felt as if Rollins was in any real trouble. Even the top rope Landslide by Nakamura didn’t feel as devastating as it should have.

The finish did come after the aforementioned Landslide spot. The Artist then kicked Rollins with a Kinshasha. The Visionary tries to rally with some slaps to Nakamura but Nakamura stomps him back to the mat. Nakamura goes for a suplex but Rollins floats over and counters with a Pedigree. The Visionary then goes for Curb Stomp but The Artist reverses it with a kick. Rollins tries for a rollup but Nakamura counters with a pinning move of his own. Rollins rolls through, however, and hits a Curb Stomp to Nakamura, allowing him to crawl over to get the pinfall victory, retain the World Heavyweight Championship and stay on the top of the RAW show.

This was also a good match but it was undercut from the lack of suspense. I never felt like Nakamura was a legitimate threat to Rollins’ title. Maybe if there was some more buildup, I would’ve cared more. It’s a same, really, as the match itself was exciting, all things considered.

Overall, I did like this year’s Payback. I do like there was a title change this time around, making it feel more relevant. It’s weird that the worst match of the night, in my opinion, was the one that had LA Knight in it as I’m a big fan of the guy. Still, it wasn’t a terrible match and the other bouts more than made up for it.

Byee!

What did you think of this year’s Payback WWE pay-per-view? Let me know in the comments section below!