6 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Payback 2016

1. Firing Blanks

roman reigns wwe champion payback
WWE.com

So after all the rumors, speculation and anticipation, WWE delivered nothing.

Fans wondered what Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows would add to the mix in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. Would they actually cost Roman Reigns the title and help their buddy AJ Styles win? Would they turn on their friend? Would they team up with former NXT Champion Finn Balor and kick off a new era in WWE with the Bullet Club debuting as a stable?

None of that exactly happened. Anderson and Gallows interfered, but their efforts weren€™t enough to change the outcome of the match, and they got taken out by the Usos. The duo was effectively neutralized (along with the Usos) after Reigns hit an impressive dive from the ring to the floor. Balor never showed, and Styles essentially lost an interference-laden match after carrying Reigns to something watchable.

And thus, the Roman Empire is upon us. Learn to like it or else.

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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 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.