WWE Payback 2017: Best and Worst Moments

WWE Payback, Source: WWE.com

WWE Payback was Raw’s latest pay-per-view. Here are some of the best and worst moments from the show, featuring a House of Horrors match and more.

WWE Payback took place in San Jose this Sunday. A lot of things happened over the course of the night. Some were good, some were not so good.

One of the big unknowns heading into Payback was the House of Horrors match. All we knew heading into Sunday was that Bray Wyatt was facing Randy Orton. The WWE Championship was not on the line, but it clearly didn’t matter to Bray. Would he be able to get his revenge on The Viper?

There were several championship matches on the card at Payback, as well. Neville defended the Cruiserweight Championship against Austin Aries in a WrestleMania rematch. Bayley had the support of her hometown as she defended the Raw Women’s Championship against Alexa Bliss. Cesaro and Sheamus challenged the Hardy Boyz for the Tag Team Titles, while Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho squared off for the US Title.

Of course, one of the most anticipated matches of the night was Roman Reigns taking on Braun Strowman. For the past several weeks, Strowman has been carving a path of destruction on Monday nights, including hospitalizing Reigns via ambulance flip. Did that destruction continue at Payback?

Must Read: WWE Payback 2017 Review

Please read on for the best and worst moments from WWE Payback 2017.

Best: Unpredictability, Part 1

Before Payback, I wrote about ways that the show could exceed expectations. My big concern was that every match on the card seemed like it had a foregone conclusion. On paper, there was too much predictability.

With the first match of the show, any notion that everything would be going by the book was blown right out of the water. Kevin Owens dropping the US Title was something that no one was predicting, for a variety of reasons. But, lo and behold, here we are with Owens taking the loss.

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Sending Chris Jericho to SmackDown is an odd choice, for sure. But as far as the Payback pay per view itself, Jericho winning the United States Championship set a great tone for the rest of the night. All of the smarks (myself included) who thought we knew better and had the whole show plotted out in our minds were proved wrong. And that adds another layer of excitement to the show.

Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered if every other match the rest of the night would have gone exactly to the plan we thought we knew. By getting the unexpected result early on, you question yourself and wait for another unexpected result.

The way the finish worked was brilliant, too, and shows how good Owens is as a competitor. Besides continuity with the WrestleMania match (which built off of a Michelangelo parody, if you can believe it), KO sold an injury to his finger – both on offense and defense for the submission. Beautiful stuff. 

Worst: Unpredictability, Part 2

Sometimes, though, doing the unexpected bites you in the rear end. That’s what happened with the Cruiserweight Championship match.

Most people probably assumed that the championship would change hands. Neville has been champ for over three months, which in this day and age is a lengthy run. Austin Aries has been absolutely killing it since returning from injury. And the two had a pretty solid match to kick off the WrestleMania pre-show.

All those signs should have pointed to a title change here, right? Give Aries a chance to carry the championship, get some fresh matches in the title picture with some new heel top players, and everyone is happy. Instead, a great match ends in a way that – on paper – should have been interesting and great, but in reality was dumb.

I do enjoy Neville having to show some kind of vulnerability – that’s ultimately a good thing for his character. The fact that he felt threatened enough to bail on the match like he did shows that he’s smart enough to do whatever is necessary.

However, a similar finish was just done about a month ago at NXT TakeOver: Orlando, when Asuka retained the NXT Women’s Championship over Ember Moon. That one was a bit different, as the referee inexplicably didn’t call for the disqualification. Regardless, it just seems like a recycled finish here, as opposed to something fresh – like ending the feud that’s been going on for months.

Best: Undercard Stepping Up Big

There were seven matches on the main card for Payback. If we’re being honest, the three “main event” matches for the night were Rollins vs. Joe, Strowman vs. Reigns, and the House of Horrors.

The four undercard matches all were better than average, if not great. Aside from the finish, the Cruiserweight Championship match was excellent. And I wrote above about how great the United States Championship match ended up being.

Those two were followed by a pair of championship matches that both delivered in a big way. First, the Hardy Boyz were successful in defending the Tag Team Championships against Cesaro and Sheamus. It was a terrific tag match, with both teams getting a chance to do big things throughout. Matt and Jeff looked great, and showed why they’re a legendary tag team. And Sheasaro put up a hell of a fight, before a post-match heel turn that will do wonders for their run as a team.

There’s really not enough praise that I can heap on the Women’s Title match that would do it justice. Alexa Bliss is on another level right now in terms of performing. I’ve long been singing the praises of Bliss going back to NXT, and seeing her get the recognition she deserves is awesome. Bayley did a great job of making the match feel big, as well.

The entire undercard seemed to be trying to put the crowd in a good mood, knowing what was still to come… 

Worst: House of Horrors

This is the result of not having a long term plan that gets stuck to. There are times when making a change is necessary and a good decision. The ending of the Orton-Wyatt story was not one of those times.

The worst thing about the payoff to Orton and Wyatt was the lack of the championship being involved. Of course, that was a necessity given the Superstar Shake-Up – but why would you split up a big feud ahead of its ending? The whole thing was dumb, but a compelling House of Horrors match could have saved it.

Instead, we got a disaster. The first visual of the whole thing was Randy Orton – king of the “T-shirt but no pants” look – riding in a limo wearing pants and no shirt. It’s so completely illogical that you can’t help but laugh.

The only thing that could be considered a “horror” in this thing was the weird baby dolls hanging from the ceiling of the one room. Otherwise, it was worse than any lame county fair haunted house that goes up around Halloween. The frustrating part is that it could have been so much better.

When the action returned the arena, it was similarly stupid. Orton escaped from under a dilapidated Frigidaire to – I’m assuming – teleport to the arena? Wyatt took his limo, so did Orton ride the ghost tractor to get back?

I’m also glad that WWE decided to use a Raw PPV to build to a SmackDown PPV, with the Jinder Mahal appearance. 

Best: Great Storytelling

If we’re judging just on storytelling and psychology, the Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe match is a clear cut Match of the Night.

The story itself was a pretty simple one: Rollins still has a weak knee, and Samoa Joe is out for blood. So clearly, Joe was going to attack the knee. If Rollins was going to have any chance at winning the match, he was going to have to find a way to overcome the knee issue.

The bigger wrinkle to that story? The vast majority of Seth’s offense is centered around the knee in some way, shape, or form. Both his old finisher – the Pedigree – and his new one – the ripcord knee strike – involve using the knees. Rollins likes to utilize kicks – and has to plant on the knee. High flying moves? You’re going to land on the knee hard. All of this spells trouble against a veteran and a monster like Joe.

But Rollins is – both in kayfabe and in reality – one of the most talented superstars in WWE. So he managed to weather the storm enough to find a way to pull out a victory. Yes, he did cause more “injury” to the knee himself with the frog splash, among other moves.

However, Rollins was able to win the match without his big knee crushing signature maneuvers. In fact, it was basically using Joe’s own momentum against him – Rollins was smart enough to know that Joe wouldn’t let go of the Coquina Clutch because of the punishment inflicted with the hold. By the time Joe knew what had happened, Rollins won via pinfall.

It’s great storytelling, and works as both a way to possibly end the feud as well as possibly extend it if necessary.

Source: WWE.com via Twitter

Worst: Obvious Rematch Forthcoming

Okay, let’s get one thing straight: I am not saying that Braun Strowman absolutely annihilating Roman Reigns was one of the worst parts of Payback. Not by a long shot. In fact, the match itself was really good, for what it was. Reigns may have gotten a little too much “Super Roman” offense in, like the Samoan Drop with supposedly busted ribs. But overall, the match was decent.

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What is one of the worst parts of Payback is the blatantly obvious setup of (yet another) rematch between Reigns and Strowman at the next Raw pay per view. Team Red’s next big show? Extreme Rules on June 4.

If you don’t think Reigns vs. Strowman in a Stairs match is gonna happen, you’ve never watched wrestling before.

There’s five weeks between now and Extreme Rules. That’s plenty of time for someone with Wolverine’s accelerated healing properties like Roman to rest up and be at close to full strength for another match. And the beatdown with the ring steps is telegraphing this next step pretty heavily.

Don’t get me wrong, Braun Strowman should be getting plenty of chances to shine. And for better or worse, Reigns is the new face of WWE – at least on the Raw side. If you’re going to showcase another talent, going up against the face of the company is a good way to do it. I just don’t like the way that the main event of Payback was just a stepping stone to something else.

Next: 25 Greatest WrestleMania Moments in WWE History

What do you think were the best and worst moments of WWE Payback?