WWE Payback was a decent watch if you have the WWE Network, but if you paid for it on pay per view, you're probably feeling left short. The wrestling was never terribly poor, but it was invariably dull, it felt like the whole show we were waiting for something bigger to happen. The main events of Cena vs Wyatt and Shield vs Evolution did try their hardest to deliver, but were impaired by the fact they felt too much of the same. It was nothing you won't have seen before. The biggest positive coming out of the show is that it appears to have ended several big feuds, leaving the path clear for some fresh momentum going forward. The opener on the Network was Hornswoggle vs El Torito in a mask vs hair bout. Torito won and Hornswoggle's hair was shaved off. This was a perfectly acceptable light hearted match and even had one spot in which the little bull hit a hurricanrana on Heath Slater. The official pay per view opener was Sheamus vs Cesaro and as a traditional wrestling match it was the finest action of the night. It was full of technical wrestling and hard hitting uppercuts, there was mostly boos for Sheamus and light cheering for Cesaro. We had several near falls and a Sheamus submission attempt, before Cesaro caught the Irishman for multiple repetitions of the Cesaro swing. However, recovering from this, Sheamus cradled Cesaro for the pin. That's the right result to go with, Cesaro has bigger things in his future than a US title run. Next up was Cody Rhodes and Goldust vs Ryback and Curtis Axel. This was definitely a case of 'Sunday night Raw' syndrome, it's the kind of mediocre filler you expect on Monday nights, not on an expensive pay per view. All four men didn't do a whole lot wrong in the wrestling stakes, but when you are given no creative push, how interesting can you really make it? The dull action was rounded off when Ryback shell shocked Cody for the pin. After the match Cody and Goldust appeared to break up, with Cody blaming himself. Rusev vs Big E was nothing more than a short match to put the heel over, not too different from some of the squash matches we have seen on TV. It's somewhat surprising to see Big E used in such a feeder role, this match could have been worked better as a big man vs big man contest. Instead it was very basic and instantly forgettable. Kofi Kingston was about to have a match with Bo Dallas when Kane came out before the start. The Big Red Machine proceeded to decimate Kingston for no apparent reason. A pretty pointless piece of filler which was designed to maintain Kane's monster heat and give Dallas some exposure. The Intercontinental title defence of Bad News Barrett against Rob Van Dam was decent but didn't have any major spots. It was obvious that the undercard had been diminished in favour of giving the two big main event matches more time. Barrett won with the bull hammer elbow. Next up was Daniel Bryan's title segment. Stephanie McMahon came out to boos, before Bryan emerged with wife Brie. There was very loud Yes chants and this felt like the biggest ovation Bryan had received since his Mania peak. There was also loud CM Punk chants (with Payback coming from Chicago). Stephanie killed these calls when she commented "come on Daniel, these people want you to quit, just like CM Punk did." That was good quick witted thinking from Stephanie. The segment culminated in Brie Bella quitting, which negated the whole situation. Brie then slapped Stephanie, leading to her running to the back. It was a decent segment but again it was far more of a Raw moment than a PPV moment. You can't really blame WWE too much, Bryan's injury was obviously unavoidable, so this was fairly good use of him in the capacity they could. The last man standing match of Cena vs Wyatt was certainly good when looked upon as the best match of their series. In saying that it felt a bit disjointed toward the end and had way too many things happening at once, with Harper and Rowan battling The Usos in a tables spot which overshadowed Cena and Wyatt at one point. It was mostly pretty good with an effective mixture of aggressive wrestling moves and strong visual weapons spots. Cena launched a steel steps from in the ring on to Bray's head at ringside. That was pretty sick, those steps are hard and heavy, Cena lobbed them with a fair bit of force. The finish was Cena hitting the attitude adjustment on Bray through a stage box. He then tipped another box over it which kept Wyatt down for the 10 count. That was the right finish, Cena needed the victory to end the feud and now both men can progress to something bigger. Bray is in no way hurt by the loss and is considerably stronger having gone through this whole Cena feud. In the death spot it was Paige vs Alicia Fox. The Champion retained with her scorpion cross and Fox ran to the back in defeat. This wasn't the right result, as one reader commented on the WhatCulture Payback preview "the reset button needs hitting on Paige" who was rushed into the Champion position way too quickly. The main event of Evolution vs The Shield had two main problems. Firstly it was a rematch and thus less interesting than the first time around. Secondly we had just sat through a long and spot heavy Cena vs Wyatt match. We had already seen steel steps and tables being smashed, so it really diluted the weapon spots for the show closing main event. Regardless, all six men put forward their strongest foot, and delivered the kind of strong brawl you would expect. The action transitioned to through the crowd before we got the first big spot: Rollins diving off a 12 foot stage screen to take out Evolution. It was basically the same spot from Extreme Rules. This led to a Shield comeback after Evolution had spent the first 20 minutes of the match basically battering the good guys. Shield won in three straight falls: Reigns speared Batista, Ambrose pinned Orton and Reigns speared Triple H for the pin after Rollins nailed him with a top rope knee dive. The two main events felt like a satisfying watch but the booking was off at times. WWE with this event basically threw together two unwanted rematches and then threw a load of weapon spots across both contests. That doesn't make for a strong watch and it resulted in an overall so-so feeling at the end of the pay per view. We now look forward to the intrigue of seeing what comes next, with a raft of fresh feuds surely in store at Monday Night Raw.
