9 Best Quotes From WWE Payback 2016

5. Difficult Week For Ric

WWE Payback McMahons.jpg
WWE.com

“You can’t do that to a father/daughter team. As if Flair hasn’t had enough trouble this week.” — JBL as Bret Hart slapped the sharpshooter on Ric Flair and Natalya applied the same hold on Charlotte after the Women’s Title match.

Yes. Bret and Natalya salvaged a modicum of dignity by applying stereo sharpshooters on Ric and Charlotte, following the bout Charlotte had won via Charles Robinson’s tribute to Earl Hebner. As the sharpshooters were on, JBL sneaked in the above reference to Ric’s episode at Logan Airport in Boston and, possibly, his ill-advised instruction to Natalya at the April 26 SmackDown taping.

On the post-Payback Raw, Robinson claimed that Natalya had verbally submitted to Charlotte at Payback. Prior to this, WWE had established that Robinson was biased towards the Flair family by screening footage of Robinson consorting with and impersonating Flair in WCW in May 1999. Who could have imagined that this period of Robinson’s career, which coincided with the creative and commercial decline of WCW, would be incorporated into a WWE story line 17 years later?

Later on the programme, Stephanie McMahon announced that Charlotte would defend the title against Natalya in a submission match in which Ric would be banned from ringside at Extreme Rules.

Will Natalya gain full retribution for this latest affront to the Hart family at WWE’s next Pay-Per-View on May 22?

Contributor
Contributor

The former editor of Power Slam: The Wrestling Magazine, Fin Martin has been writing about pro wrestling for nearly 25 years. His latest eBook, The Power Slam Interviews Volume 1, is available worldwide from Amazon, iBooks and Kobo. In his spare time, he enjoys walking in the Lake District.