WWE Payback 2023: 10 Nightmares That Could Come True
Triple H wouldn't do this at WWE Payback, would he? Actually...would he?!
Being brutally honest, Payback feels like the kind of PLE the creative team doesn't want. Build for some matches has been lukewarm at best, and there's just an undeniable secondary vibe to the whole thing. However, it is fair to say that not every show can be WrestleMania. 'B' level PPVs are gonna happen.
Right, that's more than enough 'look on the bright side' nonsense. This article deals with the absolute worst of the worst that could happen in Pittsburgh this coming Saturday. It's the sort of booking that'd make Payback more ECW December To Dismember 2006 than WrestleMania X-Seven.
Wrestlers treading water (one even going backwards), aspiring stars looking like borderline enhancement talent on a grand stage, WWE booking split stories for the sake of it, unwanted title changes and a cheap return crowd pop for the local market that destroys a modern era must have - it's all here.
Be warned, you're going to pull funny faces reading some of this. Will all of it occur? No, of course not (fingers crossed, at least!), but several of these nightmares could come true over the weekend.
Start. Getting. Scared.
10. Raquel Rodriguez Looks Like A Jobber
Rhea Ripley's combined televised Women's World Title defences since winning at WrestleMania have amounted to just 21 minutes and 6 seconds. Those matches? Zelina Vega at Backlash and Natalya twice at Night Of Champions and on Raw respectively.
She's a wrecking machine Mickey from the Rocky movies would be proud of, basically, but that doesn't inspire hope for Saturday's bout vs. Raquel Rodriguez. It'd be totally crap if Raquel (who matches up well physically with Ripley) was thrown in the same camp as "underdogs" the Judgment Day brute has destroyed since winning the belt.
That'd be unnecessary, and it wouldn't even add anything to Payback's card.
WWE shouldn't get into a nasty habit of presenting Rhea as Goldberg circa 1998. She's far too skilled a worker for that sort of thing. Occasional squash matches are perfectly fine, but not against somebody the promotion still has high hopes for like Rodriguez. It's really important she looks competitive.