8 Things WWE Got Right At WWE Payback 2017

8. The Good Guy Beats The Bad Guy

chris jericho us title
WWE.com

Going into WWE Payback 2017, Kevin Owens retaining the WWE United States Championship seemed like the lock of all locks. Owens only just won the championship by defeating Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 33 after all. With KO fresh on SmackDown Live and Jericho about to leave on a Fozzy tour, Owens winning this match and thus the rivalry seemed like the only option.

In what was the biggest shock of the evening however, Chris Jericho managed to defeat Kevin Owens and win back his US Championship. Was it the right long-term booking decision? Probably not, but in terms of the Y2-KO story it was absolutely correct. It was Jericho who was betrayed by Owens in the most heinous manner - there is no way the bully could have ended this story on top.

The match was better than their WrestleMania encounter too. This felt far more like the grudge match that should have taken place in Orlando. The finish was great, Owens once again surviving by the tip of his finger only for Jericho to destroy that finger. It was also nice to see Jericho win a big match with the Walls of Jericho.

Fozzy's tour is still going ahead, so expect Jericho to drop the championship back to Owens on Tuesday night. This match was the end of this story however, and the WWE Universe got the ending it needed.

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Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.