WWE Payback 2016: 10 Reasons It Was Better Than WrestleMania 32

6. The Superb Interplay For The Intercontinental Title

Kevin Owens Sami Zayn Payback.jpg
WWE.com

As good as it was, the Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania only existed to shoe horn as many performers as possible onto the card. Zack Ryder was the shock winner, something that feels like a lifetime ago already.

Ryder is no longer the champ, nor is he in the mix for the title.

Instead, The Miz is heel champion, and he faced Cesaro at Payback one-on-one. The match was ticking along nicely, complete with hilarious guest commentary from Kevin Owens, before Sami Zayn and Owens himself became involved.

Then, the plot thickened, and it works going forward.

Coming out of 'Mania, Ryder's win was treated like more of a fluke than anything. The next night on Raw, he was defeated by Miz and pushed aside once more. That wasn't satisfying, it rendered the pay-per-view win meaningless.

At Payback, the scene was set for a 4-way encounter between The Miz, Cesaro, Owens and Zayn, along with other singles matches between that quartet.

That's a more meaningful situation than what fans got at WrestleMania.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.