WWE Payback 2016 Review

“The First Pay-per-view of a New Era” That is one of the most unintentionally hilarious things that I have read. The show itself was really solid but the booking of the final two matches really hurt it. The PPV opened with the finals of of the #1 contenders tag title tournament. Enzo & Cass wrestled The Vaudevillians, but just 3 minutes into this match, Enzo would get legitimately knocked out after Simon Gotch tried tossing him outside the ring. Enzo smacked his head on the rope, followed by his head smashing against the ring mat, and finally falling to the outside. This was tough to watch as Enzo looked like he was dead and none of the other wrestlers had any idea what to do. Not a great start to this show. Thankfully we got an excellent match between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn as a follow up. Owens/Zayn always have good to excellent matches together and this was no exception. I honestly forgot how massively over Zayn was at this point and it’s baffling it took 4 years before he won any title. Miz vs Cesaro for the IC title was a good match. Honestly this felt more like it was done to help set up the Fatal 4 Way at the Extreme Rules PPV. Kevin Owens on commentary was hilarious and him wearing JBL’s cowboy hat made me burst out laughing. Ambrose vs Jericho is a pretty underrated match. The storyline behind this entire feud was awful as it revolved around talk shows, light up jackets, and a potted plant named Mitch??? The first match between them however was really well worked, had some nice near falls, and I liked the finish that had Ambrose reverse the lionsault into a Dirty Deeds. Charlotte vs Natalya for the women’s title was really solid until the horrible finish. The Montreal Screwjob being recreated just screams “New Era!” Doesn’t it guys?!? It sucks because this was legitimately a good match but the stupid fucking finish really left a bad taste in my mouth. Main event is Roman vs Styles for the WWE title. I thought this was really well worked, but man was this needlessly overbooked. Two false finishes happened that resulted in Shane Stephanie turning it into a No DQ match, and Anderson, Gallows, and the Usos all got involved. Roman retained after all this nonsense and a rematch was immediately announced for the next PPV. Strongly worked but the booking really brings my overall rating down.  Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.