PAYBACK 2016

[RIPPA]

Card

Roman Reigns vs. A.J. Styles for WWE title

*Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho 

*Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens 

*The Miz vs. Cesaro for IC title 

*Charlotte vs. Natalya for women's title (Ric Flair and Bret Hart in the corners)

*Enzo & Cass vs. Vaudevillains for a tag team title shot

*Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin 

*Kalisto vs Ryback for the U.S. title (preshow match at 7:30 p.m.) 

[SirSmUgly]

Owens and Zayn can have a really good match against one another in their sleep at this point, but the rest of the card wasn't too great until the main event, and that main event was excellent despite the jibber jabber. I want to see Reigns/AJ for thirty minutes straight up because they have fantastic chemistry with one another and running the old Over the Edge '98 gimmick on that match took away from what it could have been. As did running yet another Survivor Series '97 gimmick on Nattie/Charlotte, for that matter, though obviously I expect much less from that match. 

By the way, Reigns's timing on the near fall where he got his foot on the rope was perfect - I totally bit on it. Hell of a match, easily the best Reigns singles match ever. 

[ChrisM]

I'm not a Reigns fan, but damn that was  a hell of a match. He and AJ had surprisingly good chemistry.

Really good show, overall, aside from Enzo nearly dying. 

[Patrick B.]

If nothing else, I can take sadistic pleasure in Ziggler beating Corbin.  Mwahahaha.

[EVA]

AJ/Roman were on their way to a great mach before all the nonsense.  But I guess we have to drag this out another 3 weeks.

[Raziel]

That was pretty impressive that AJ and Reigns recovered from that mid-match McMahon overbooking, and still had a great match.  No issues with them having another one at Extreme Rules, looking forward to it.  

 

Screwy finishes and overbooking aside, this was a pretty damn solid PPV.  Every match was in the "very good" territory, even the tag match before the injury.

 

Thank a dieity that Enzo only ended up with a Concussion.

[Charlie M.]

A lot of good wrestling on the show. I didn't think any match was bad but nothing was GREAT either. AJ/Roman was too disjointed because of the booking. I think they could have accomplished the same thing without stopping/starting the match twice.

I think the Montreal finish is a way to write Ric off TV. I'm convinced with that performance that Charlotte doesn't need him anymore. Her heel work during the match was great.

Hope Enzo can make it back soon.

[Kyuubi]

That was probably the best Roman Reigns single's match that I have ever seen. Well Daniel Bryan and Reigns may be better. They have good chemistry. 

I have to watch the rest of the show because I caught the last 3 matches.

[Critts]

I'm not the biggest Ryback fan but his "The Pre-Show Stopper" belt was awesome. 

[Wyld Samurai]

I think AJ really proved  that he could go with a bigger guy and make it believable. 

[MGFanJay]

Dolph-Baron was nothing. Ryback-Kalisto was a lot of fun - but the wrong guy won. Ryback winning off the super press slam would've been great. Team SAWFT vs. Vaudevillains was scary for all the wrong reasons. Enzo's bad landing looked scary at first, then the slow-mo kind of made it seem not too bad - followed by JBL going into WWE Speak Mode. That really hurt it, but then it was clear he was actually hurt and that took the wind out of the show briefly.

The Owens-Zayn match was near-perfect though. Sami is the best babyface in peril since Ricky Morton - using just his fingers to elicit sympathy. Great match here and I was glad to see Owens win and even happier to see him do commentary for Miz-Cesaro. This cut out a ton, and I'm not rewatching it ever, but Owens was amazing on commentary. Shocked that Miz won, but they seemed to set up a 4 way feud for the belt too. Roman vs. AJ was excellent overall. The overbooking was all predictable - and logically built into the match based on what happened in prior weeks and tonight. AJ looked super-strong in defeat, and came off like a credible World title-level guy - which was more than I expected.

http://jayreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2016/05/wwe-payback-2016-live-coverage.html

Screens -  

http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/hf8ilm6xo7du948ik3jtzkjmj96dc76u

 

[HumanChessgame]

When I'd heard the finals of the tag tournament were going to be at Payback instead of last Monday I thought that was a bit odd, as it would make more sense to have a title match on the PPV instead of the night after.  I guess they wanted the Vaudvilians to get a PPV payday and the exposure out of it though.  I hope Enzo is able to make it back soon.  It seems pretty obvious he and Cass were going to win the match, it makes me wonder if they had planned on hot shoting the titles on them tomorrow night?

Rest of the show was solid to good, though Jericho-Ambrose went longer than it needed to.  The screwjob finish to the women's match was also pretty stupid.  Regardless of what people think about Roman, that was probably the best match he's had so far and easily could have been even better if it wasn't for the dog and pony show finish.

[Swift]

Not a spectacular show, but a really, really solid show. I enjoyed every match on there tonight apart from maybe the women's match which I found a bit botchy and I disliked the rehashed screwjob ending. Show was helped by an excited crowd too.

[mattdangerously]

Thank God Enzo ain't S.A.W.F.T.

[pipGofern]

Redoing the Montreal Screwjob for a finish?

McMahon vs McMahon family drama?

And awesome main event serving as a back drop for the McMahon feud?

It's like 2001 all over again.

[Hagan]

One of the better WWE PPVS. 

- Corbin/Ziggler was a fun sprint.

- Ryback was ALL TIME GREAT tonight. From mocking Punk, to having the "pre-show stopper" on his tights, he was on fire. 

- I honestly thought Enzo was dead when he hit. Terrifying injury and made me think of Perro. Hope he can come back soon but concussions are tricky. Would be awful if this derails his career.

- Owens is the best act in the company and Zayn is a great underdog. Fantastic 40 minutes from the match into the Miz/Cesaro stuff. 

- I had no interest in Ambrose vs Jericho but they ended up having a very fun, compelling match. 

- Women's match was okay, but the finish was silly. I guess it builds to a submission match at ER. 

- Main event was wild. Smart that Guns/Gallows didn't turn on AJ. Honestly, it's too soon for that and why sign the Bullet Club if you're just going to run them in a feud against each other? Build them up as trios with AJ as noble babyface Sting and G and G as tweener heel Lugers. If and when Balor comes up, or Rollins comes back I think you can tell the next step in the story. 

[Greggulator]

Very enjoyable show.

Hoping Enzo's able to get back from that. What a terrifying crack of the head he took. Gotch went over after and thought it was a sell, it looked like, and Enzo's eyes were just flat-out gone. It stinks because that act is gold and they're a hot feud with The New Day away from becoming a really big thing.

Sami/KO ruled. Exactly what I hoped their match would be -- just straight-up hatred and guys trying to one-up each other. KO is such a magnificent bastard. Moving from that segment, bullying Saxton, and then into the announce table and into the end of the very solid Cesaro/Miz match (Miz is fantastic right now) so those four guys are beefing with each other was a really great way to tie that group together. It feels like they could be the new Smackdown Six. All four of those guys are great and in entirely different ways.

Dean/Jericho was solid. Nothing insanely great but a good professional wrestling match. Jericho is so great at his heel stuff. He has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. That was a really cool ending, I thought.

Woman's match was awesome and NXT worthy. Charlotte has really figured it out and is a great heel right now. She really knows her character and how to wrestle in it. I'm happy that match had a screwjob (didn't even realize it was Charles Robinson, so kudos for the 20 years of continuity) so we get another match. Natty's gotten a lot better.

I thought the Main Event was really great. They had a lot to do in that match and they clicked. Like... that's a really hard match to put together. The crowd was going to shit on Roman, and they did, and he had to wrestle as a subtle heel. He was really good at that -- great reactions to the crowd and Flair-style last-second bottom rope saves. Then they also had to write in the Bullet Club coming in at some point. And they also want to come up with an ending that protects AJ but also doesn't make Roman go flat-out heel.

I thought the "No CO" into "no DQ" thing was a really good way to add those guys in without having to do a ref bump. And after the DQ, it was a Chekov's Gun (as someone on Twitter said). You knew the interference was coming, but not exactly sure when and where it was going. They had a really fun car crash segment to get to the end, too.

Those dudes worked stiff as hell, too. Kudos to them for putting together a super good match that was a really tough spot.

[Eivion]

I loved the show. No match was quite great, but Sami/Owens & AJ/Reigns both came close. I thought every other match was generally good. Charlotte/Nattie would have been better w/o the screw job rehash for a finish, but Charlotte looked great. Miz/Cesaro was good fun, and I loved how they integrated with Owens/Zayn along with Owens awesome job on commentary.

[nate]

The super duper slow mo they did from the analysis team showed Enzo's eyes rolling back on his way from the apron to the floor.  When his eyes were open but he wasn't moving after the accident happened initially, the worst was feared.

[Wyld Samurai]

I like Nattie. She sold like a champ. It was odd to see Flair so inanimated.

Charlotte's moonsault was just gorgeous.

Bret... amazing to see him.

But could have at least cheered or clapped or work the crowd a little for Nattie?

[Swift]

2 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I loved the show. No match was quite great, but Sami/Owens & AJ/Reigns both came close. I thought every other match was generally good. Charlotte/Nattie would have been better w/o the screw job rehash for a finish, but Charlotte looked great. Miz/Cesaro was good fun, and I loved how they integrated with Owens/Zayn along with Owens awesome job on commentary.

Was it an awesome job? I felt he stepped all over the commentary so that the match in the ring became secondary. I also got the impression that Cole was legit annoyed with him.

[sydneybrown]

Shows you how great this show was since we're treating what looked like a near-death or at least possible paralysis as an afterthought.  That was the scariest WWE moment I've seen in a long time. 

Aside from that hideous McMahon jerkoff segment, I thought this was a really good show.  Kevin Owens is flat-out my favorite heel right now. 

[Greggulator]

Just now, Bald Henry said:

Was it an awesome job? I felt he stepped all over the commentary so that the match in the ring became secondary. I also got the impression that Cole was legit annoyed with him.

He put over Cesaro like a monster in that match while also being a total narcissist. And his dismissal of The Miz ("only one because of his wife") is great because Miz is a slimebag heel and KO can't even deal with them. I also loved how he said "Sami can beat both these guys, ergo I can." He put everyone over while still coming off like the worst human garbage person we've ever seen.

KO really is the best act in the company right now.

[Skeeball Wizard]

Anyone else find it a bit weird that Vince was talking about his kids brutally murdering each other on a supposedly PG show?

[nate]

2 minutes ago, Bald Henry said:

Was it an awesome job? I felt he stepped all over the commentary so that the match in the ring became secondary. I also got the impression that Cole was legit annoyed with him.

But his job wasn't to do "commentary'. His job was to keep being the jackass heel to 1) build to a program, 2) wait for Zayn to get a small comeuppance.  At least he was entertaining doing so.  If Cole had anything to be annoyed about, it's that Owens is more fun to listen to.