10 Booking Directions Heading Into WWE Payback 2017
6. King-Sized Mind Games
Neville vs Austin Aries is exactly what the Cruiserweight Division needed to breathe some life into its formerly unsuccessful feuds.
Both
performers were given significant build, came across as important and fleshed
out characters, and even despite their presence on the WrestleMania 33 pre-show,
they put on a match that effectively summarised everything that the
Cruiserweights could and should be.
After winning a number one contender’s Fatal Four Way on 205 Live, Austin Aries is back in the title picture once more, but this time he needs to psychologically crack Neville in order to beat him in the ring. Aries’s character has been built around his love of mocking and belittling opponents (a strange set of character traits for a fan favourite) through ‘journalistic interviews’ and verbal jabs - but as The King of the Cruiserweights demonstrated on Sunday, he never quite managed to get under Neville’s skin as intended.
For Aries to have any chance of dethroning the King, he needs to wage all-out mental and emotional warfare on Neville, whilst taking the feud from fun and zany to a new level of intensity and brutality.