6 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Payback 2016
6. Overshadowed
Its tough to call this a negative, but it will get a tentative down for the purposes of this column.
Cesaro put in a great effort in his Intercontinental Championship match against Miz, falling short when the referee got distracted breaking up a fight on the outside, and Miz took advantage. Theres no doubt that WWE booked the ending the way it did to keep Cesaro from taking a clean pinfall loss in a title match. He got a visual tapout when the ref wasnt looking and later hit his finisher on Miz after the match.
However, the one thing that was concerning was that the Swiss Superman who has been on fire since returning was somewhat overshadowed by Kevin Owens and disappeared from the fray shortly after the match.
KO was dominant on commentary during the match occasionally putting over Cesaro for his toughness and then would indirectly cost him the title. Afterward, Owens booted Cesaro out of the ring, and that was it for the Swiss 007.
It looks like Owens is reinserting himself into the IC title hunt (possibly along with Sami Zayn), which is great in one vein, but what does that mean for Cesaro?