5 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE Payback 2017

5. Hometown Blues

alexa bliss bayley
WWE.com

Seriously, what is WWE’s obsession with having wrestlers lose big matches in their hometowns?

Sunday, the victim was Bayley, competing in front of a couple dozen friends and family in San Jose, California. The Raw Women’s Championship was on the line, and despite having a huge cheering section behind her, the Huggable One lost after having her head slammed into a post and then getting DDT’d.

And just like that, Bayley’s strange, backwards odyssey took another weird turn. It was strang enough when she defeated Charlotte prior to WrestleMania, and then retain in a fatal four-way. But the hometown fangirl losing in front of fans that could readily identify with her? She’d held the title for less than three months.

Sometimes you have to wonder whether it would be better to just say you were born in Parts Unknown.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.