7 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 18)

By Scott Carlson / April 19, 2016

2. A Card To Outdo Mania?

WWE couldn€™t have been happy when many of the critical reviews of WrestleMania weekend favored NXT TakeOver: Dallas over Mania itself. While Mania had the grandeur and big name part-timers, NXT brought the in-ring quality that couldn€™t be topped. But it looks like WWE is trying to put together a show that would top Mania from an in-ring perspective.

So far, Payback in two weeks will feature AJ Styles battling Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Cesaro challenging the Miz for the Intercontinental Championship, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens settling their score, and Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho fighting for talk show supremacy. There also will be a Women€™s Championship match between Charlotte and Natalya, and a tag title #1 contender€™s match between Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady and the Vaudevillains.

That€™s a pretty decent card right there, with several guys who dominated the independent scene for years taking top spots on the show and matches that could be pretty damn entertaining. It€™ll be interesting to see if a PPV with no John Cena or other big-name part-timers (Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Triple H) can do decent business, but it looks like WWE is trying something different.