6 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Payback 2016

1. Lifelong Friends Steal The Show

kevin owens sami zayn
WWE.com

Coming right on the heels of Enzo Amore€™s injury, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens needed to right the ship and get the PPV going properly with a strong performance. Not only did they do that, but they absolutely knocked the match out of the park.

Both men hit each other with everything in an all-action assault, going 100 mph from the opening bell. Zayn showed that aggressive fire that has made him a guy fans rally around, even as he€™s getting beaten down €“ because they know he€™s going to fight back. Toward the end of the match, both men countered each other€™s signature moves, ending with Owens hitting a superkick as Zayn went for the Helluva Kick, then finishing Sami off with the Pop-Up Powerbomb.

Owens might have won this match €“ and then declared in a post-bout interview that he had won the feud and was the better man €“ but this is far from the end of this rivalry. If this was their first offering, fans should rejoice when the next bout comes around.

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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 fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.