In the lead-up to Payback, Kane emerged as the central antagonist to Seth Rollins title reign, setting him up in a triple threat match, then opening the door to add Dean Ambrose to the match. The sight of a conflicted Kane being pushed around by a spoiled champion got fans to jump behind the Big Red Machine for the first time in what felt like eons. It felt like we were on the verge of Kane stepping out from his corporate suit and re-emerging as an individual force again. Alas, we got the status quo Sunday night. After weeks of going from the least interesting character in the WWE main event scene to a central figure, Kane bucked all conventional wisdom and remained a loyal company man. An argument could be made that his loyalty to Triple H and the Authority superseded his hatred of Rollins, but Kane almost seemed gleeful to interfere in the Fatal Four-way, which he did so liberally throughout the match. Kane could have at least appeared somewhat conflicted or resigned to getting involved, but it was easy to lose count of the number of times he interfered. While we could see Kane and Rollins at each others throats again as soon as Monday, it feels like a lost opportunity at Payback.
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.
