Payback results *WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS*

In short:

Pre-Show
Sheamus b. Damien Sandow

Intercontinental Championship
Curtis Axel b. Wade Barrett (New Champion)

Divas Championship
AJ b. Kaitlyn (New Champion)

United States Championship
Dean Ambrose b. Kane (by countout)

World Heavyweight Championship
Alberto Del Rio b. Dolph Ziggler (New Champion)

CM Punk b. Chris Jericho

Tag Team Championships
The Shield b. Randy Orton & Daniel Bryan

WWE Championship
John Cena b. Ryback (2-1)

I think the PPV fell completely flat, the crowd started very hot and then faded badly after the Del Rio/Ziggler match which was a very odd match. Del Rio was acting very much like a heel throughout the match, but yet cut a face promo afterwards but WWE focused on the bad reactions. It made very little sense. Can Ziggler work as a face with AJ and Big E? Was his concussion injury real? If it was, would WWE really have risked doing all those dangerous, head-related, moves in the match? Could this be writing Ziggler out for even longer, hence the title drop? It has left many unanswered questions, but in a bad way rather than a good one.

The Intercontinental match was pretty good, as an opener it was quite good and was nice to see a title change. 

The World Heavyweight Title match was also quite good, apart from the oddness it was a good match. 

The United States Championship match was very disappointing I thought, the ending was underwhelming, the match was slow and the crowd wasn't into it at all. Dean Ambrose has a lot of work to do if he is considered to be a viable star like Punk or Bryan.

The CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho match only continued the weirdness, without any kind of swerve or shock, Punk literally returned as normal and won the match normally and clean with no consequences. Weirdly he was presented as a face, which we will see how far that continues on Raw, particularly as a face Punk doesn't really work with Heyman as his manager. 

The Tag Team match was fine, Daniel Bryan stole the show once more with an excellent display. Neither Orton or Bryan turned heel which meant the match fell very flat after it ended. It was hinted at but nothing came of it, perhaps something will happen on Raw.

Finally the main event, another quite good match between Ryback and Cena, but it didn't really feel like hell and I don't buy the feud between them as being that intense. The ending fell flat with the delay in saying Cena had won. 

Overall I'd give the PPV 5/10, it wasn't awful, disastrous or dreadful, the matches were in general quite good but the PPV needed something more, it was crying out for a swerve and WWE just decided to let it fall flat. Some odd booking was to blame and WWE kind of killed a red hot crowd.

WWE seem to think that hinting big angles and swerves but then not having them is exciting or a swerve in itself, but it's just frustrating and makes the product appear stale and WWE out of tune. I think that PPV has only continued the worrying trend of this summer, where the WWE is failing to deliver.

The RVD return isn't that exciting either, he's well past it and people will only be disappointed when they realise he simply can't do the things he used to be able to do. Also announcing his return a month in advance is a bit of anticlimax, would have been much better to have him as a surprise announcement, the place would have exploded. I think that and the Punk announcement shows how insecure WWE are at the moment, it's to get people to buy it, where as in the past they could be secure that their loyal fan base would buy the PPV and they can surprise them.

I didn't even entertain the thought of purchasing this looking at the card, and after seeing the write-up, if I could go back, I wouldn't entertain it all over again. WWE is so far below par right now its unreal. With all the talent at its disposal I'm not sure how. 

Michael McGillicutty is a champion now? 

What the hell is going on when Michael McGillicutty and Dean Ambrose win singles titles before Heath Slater? It's a joke. 

Utter tripe.

Rumours have been flying (mainly started by hero) about Dolph having been welnessed which was the reason for the 30 day ban.

Now that he has lost his belt at the first attempt, should we actually be believing the rumour>?

Sounds decidedly average

I shall continue my trend of just reading up the show reviews and not wasting my time watching

Adam D wrote:Rumours have been flying (mainly started by hero) about Dolph having been welnessed which was the reason for the 30 day ban.

Now that he has lost his belt at the first attempt, should we actually be believing the rumour>?

That's what occurred to me as soon as I read it.
After such a well-received cash-in, to go and lose it at pretty much the first time of asking, would suggest he's been a bit of a bad boy.

It certainly does add weight to my wellness thought.
Win the title, very soon afterwards taken totally off air for a month (surely an appearance via VT or on commentary in the meantime) and when returns immediately drops the belt.
Something doesn't add up on it.

has a superstar ever benefited more than del rio due to the welness policy?

Think he has Ricardo slipping steroids in his opponents tea?

Totally forgot this PPV was on

Sounds like I didn't miss much, I'll watch it later to confirm as much

Is it possible that Ziggler's 2nd reign was worse than his 1st?

The only thing is, if Dolph has failed the Wellness policy, the only way suspending him makes sense is if they announce it. If they're not going to say he failed, then there is no reason to suspend him.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is something more than either just an injury or just a Wellness policy failure. He's been taken off TV for a month, lost the title in essentially a squash match and it was almost as if he was being written off again. 

I didn't think Dolph would ever have a long title reign, and losing it on his first defence would have been okay, but how many times did he actually appear with the title before he lost it? Twice? Very odd.

These are just my thoughts on it;

I reckon there are different levels of 'Wellness' within WWE.

The transparent ones that WWE publish in order to show a healthy image of the company dealing with abuse and putting them across as a company that has cleaned up its image from days gone by.
The middle ground guys like Ziggler & Orton, ones that they want to push but because they keep failing wellness violations they keep stalling, these violations now though aren't made public but dealt with in house through stalled pushes and dropping down the ranks at times until considered trustworthy again.
And then the 'untouchables', guys who don't ever have to take a wellness test, HHH, Vince, Cena etc.

WWEs wellness policy confuses me for a company whose matches aren't competitive.

But who does that benefit? I don't believe WWE are genuinely interested in the health of their wrestlers, so the only thing that happens when they privately suspend stars for their Wellness policy violations is that they lose a star for no reason.

I can see them not pushing guys who break the Wellness policy because journalists can always snoop around and find out again. But to privately suspend them defeats the point.

GSC wrote:WWEs wellness policy confuses me for a company whose matches aren't competitive.

It was put into place after Eddie Guerrero died.

Also steroids aren't actually legal outside of medical reasons, so it is breaking the law.

Also Hero, just looking but WWE have to hand over any findings from their Wellness program as well, so a private suspension really does serve no purpose.

Just wish to state this is all hypothetical speculation before I go any further...


And that's why they have a 'public' one to which anyone they don't care about is fed to the lions, the ones they do have an interest in get a slap on the wrist backstage and derailed and then the ones they can't do without never have to bother.

If the Wellness policy was straight up legit then I have no doubt some of the 'bigger' names within WWE would have to have been released by now.

Hero wrote:Just wish to state this is all hypothetical speculation before I go any further...


And that's why they have a 'public' one to which anyone they don't care about is fed to the lions, the ones they do have an interest in get a slap on the wrist backstage and derailed and then the ones they can't do without never have to bother.

If the Wellness policy was straight up legit then I have no doubt some of the 'bigger' names within WWE would have to have been released by now.

I agree, but taking Dolph off of TV for a month to cover a Wellness policy failure makes no sense unless they make it public, by hiding it, they may as well have kept him on TV and punished him by having him drop the title. By having him not even appear on TV makes me think there is something more to it, I don't think it's just a concussion though.

Saying that, no dirtsheets have said anything like that, WWE are awful at keeping things quiet so if there was more to it I think there would be rumbles about it.

http://www.wwe.com/videos/cm-punk-has-a-talk-with-his-friend-paul-heyman-wwecom-exclusive-june-16-2013-26123862

One of the Bleacher guys (Justin La Bar) was tweeting about it being a reason since PayBack but that's been about it from the dirtsheets. It just seems very very odd. Perhaps it's just WWE taking it off him for the tweets he's done recently that have been at times not toeing the company line.

At one point I thought maybe they were trying to turn Ziggler face and del rio heel like what happened in the Austin hart submission match. Continuous punishment but refusing to give in.

Bluebird_ccfc wrote:At one point I thought maybe they were trying to turn Ziggler face and del rio heel like what happened in the Austin hart submission match. Continuous punishment but refusing to give in.

It was just handled so oddly, as this did seem the case, but then Ziggler can't really be a face with AJ and Big E, and then Del Rio cut a face-like promo, with heel tendencies and they focused on the booing crowd.

It was very weird and I think it killed the PPV and it fell completely flat as it was just very odd.

Crimey wrote:It was just handled so oddly, as this did seem the case, but then Ziggler can't really be a face with AJ and Big E, and then Del Rio cut a face-like promo, with heel tendencies and they focused on the booing crowd.

It was very weird and I think it killed the PPV and it fell completely flat as it was just very odd.

I agree. I was hoping AJ and big E would turn their back on Ziggler for not taking the easy road of 'cant continue' thus keeping the belt. Maybe that's what they will argue over next time we see them all.

I thought the intercontinental triple threat match was a good start but I'm pretty sure in previous matches whenever the victim of the figure four shoulders are down the ref starts counting a pin attempt? That technically means the miz and Curtis axel are both intercontinental champs... Although I'm pretty sure were not meant to remember that are we?

I thought Del Rio wrestled a very heel match,  when you constantly attack the head of a guy whos just.had a high profile concussion then thats a very heel tactic, I liked it though, it's realistic, if your opponent has a weakness then it should br exploited,  I also thought the promo he cut was very heel like, it came across to me as a big "get it up you" to the crowd.

I also thought Dolph came across as very ballsy which usually is a signal that they're looking to turn a guy face, sure he had AJ in hos corner but she didn't come across as very compassionate while Dolph was getting helped to the back, with AJ winning the womans title I can see her believing her own hype and starting to think shes bigger and better than Ziggler, this could either just explode tonight or take course over the next few weeks, either way I can see Big E destroying Dolph when he takes issue with AJ's attitude

I also thought Punk came across as very face like, while he's always going to geta face rreaction to the very partisan Chicago crowd I felt the WWE intentionally showed us his face tendancies

I thought it was a very decent PPV and shouldnt be judged on the Main Event

I actually thought the Main Event was quite good, everything else was the underwhelming part. The PPV just fell totally flat.

I thought the Main  Event was ok-ish, predictable to a point I think I even called the finish for the Ambulance

I thought it was a very decent  B PPV thats left the door open for them to explore many different avenues

Had a fiver on Dolph, I wouldnt have cared if it was a good PPV but I just didn't enjoy it. Still its the first time in a while I've not been pleased with the product.

Awful PPV, had so much promise but once again delivered so little. It was very odd and so many things made so little sense. Punk vs Jericho was just weird. Like, it was happening, but why was it happening? What was the actual point? What was the point of teaming Orton with Bryan if nothing was actually going to happen? What in the hell was the point of Ziggler holding the MITB breifcase for almost a year only to drop the title in his first defence in a match that seemed to take place in an alternate universe.

I know some WWE apologist is gonna come along and tell me that any PPV that leaves you asking so many questions must be a good PPV but these are not good questions at all. Last night made no sense whatsoever. Even the triple threat match which I enjoyed made no sense, why is Axel the champion when Miz had the figure four locked in, I have seen refs starting a pin fall count on numerous occasions when that hold is locked in so surely Miz should be champion along with Axel? The whole night was just weird.

There was not a bad match on the card. I thought it was a pretty good PPV, better than Extreme Rules. There were some good moments in Curtis Axel winning his first title whilst paying homage to his Dad, the double - turn which nobody predicted with Ziggler and ADR. A better than average Divas match, btw AJ Lee is absolutely stunning! The return of Punk and the announcement of RVD was a nice surpise. The only match that fell slightly flat was Ambrose and Kane. Hopefully this is the end of Ryback/Cena.

The standard of matches were pretty good i thought, but the whole PPV needed that WOW moment which it didn't have sadly. 

The Opening IC Title match was class and it was my favorite match of the night. The ending was superb and it could open up a feud with the miz and axel. 

The return of RVD announcement was actually decent i thought, the crowd was buzzing and so was twitter. A lot of excitement for Money in the bank. 

Kane vs Ambrose was crap. Very slowed pace, i would actually blame Ambrose, he really disappointed me last night. 

The tag match was great, Bryan again stealing the show. It needed an Orton heel turn though, but WWE Bottled it. 

The world title match was just confusing. Del Rio acting like a heel but Dolph acting like a face, yet he was with Big E and AJ. Just confusing. I wonder what will happen on Raw. I guess we will know more then.

The CM Punk return pop was epic as expected. But i would of still preferred him to return as a surprise. The match itself was decent tbf, there was a moment where i thought Heyman would screw Punk but it didn't happen. See whats next for Punk on Raw i guess. 

Finally the main event was standard. I didn't have high expectations for it, so i can hardly say im dissapointed. The ending was quite good, but apart from that a bit boring.

Well i thoroughly enjoyed that, even the main event wasnt too bad but my expectations were low. I like the finish and I like how Ryback was used again.

A lot of the negatives seem to be basically that things werent done straightaway. I think there were signs of things to come for Del Rio, Ziggler, Punk, Orton at the very least. All of those could be changing their characters a tad based on how they acted.

Generally all the matches were of a good standard. I really enjoyed Dolph v ADR till the finish but that was my own disappointment, it actually made sense. It was wonderfully portrayed in the storytelling of the match and the commentary. I think Punk's match was the same, both wrestlers and the commentators sold the condition of Punk and the importance of the match brilliantly.

Kane v Ambrose was good if not a little frustrating, just a bit nothing-y in the end. Id have preferred Ambrose to have baited him into a DQ to show himself as devious.

I really enjoyed the tags and thought the triple threat for the IC was a fantastic match considering I usually had triple threats. All three looked brilliant and the finish was executed perfectly.

I'm no WWE apologist, it just seems to me people scream for stories in wrestling then moan when either the story isnt booked exactly how they demand or that every PPV doesnt give them the payoff for the story.

Chris - are you happy that the WWE are now hiring TNA Rejects?

CenaNuff wrote:Even the triple threat match which I enjoyed made no sense, why is Axel the champion when Miz had the figure four locked in, I have seen refs starting a pin fall count on numerous occasions when that hold is locked in so surely Miz should be champion along with Axel?

It's obviously the route they're going to take, Miz and Axel to feud...another "big" guy for him to go over...the classic both having claim to a title.

I do agree that once the Ziggler match happened it just killed the momentum of the show, I thought it started really well with Sandow looking strong and then the MOTN imo with the triple threat but the Ziggler/Del Rio match was a bit of a sucker punch that we never recovered from...Bryan and Punk were awesome yet the Punk match wasn't too good until the end.

For people saying the Orton turn never happened I think they laid the foundations for it with him pulling Bryan in front of Reigns.

I can't remember a good pay off to a storyline tough in a very long time.

Adam D wrote:Chris - are you happy that the WWE are now hiring TNA Rejects?

He's hardly a TNA reject though is he, TNA would have him back in a heartbeat. Jeff Hardy or Kurt Angle aren't WWE rejects, Knox and DOC are. There's a clue in the name, reject.

Adam D wrote:Chris - are you happy that the WWE are now hiring TNA Rejects?

Been waiting for an email along those lines, the crowd loved it though and he'll work a much more convenient schedule

Calling RVD a TNA reject is like saying Hogan was a WWF reject when he went to WCW haha

Not sure I agree with that one Viper, he was so shoddy in his late TNA work that he kind of is a reject to some extent, I'm gonna say in TNA's defence I doubt they were too desperate to have him back

Did you see that reaction he got last night? Being a poor wrestler doesn't mean you get a great push or get over with the fans...Goldberg proves this point.

For some reason I couldn't post my comment outside the quote box, sorry for any confusion.

Does the same occasionally.

Im still the only person in the world who isnt desperate for Orton to turn, but if they do it they have to get it right so the little moments they have thrown in lately work to that goal.

The Punk thing is probably a little annoying but the Chicago fans wanted him. All it did for me was excite me that CM Punk was back. I was also intrigued by his indifference at times to Heyman. He seemed genuinely annoyed that Heyman was on the edge of the ring and I'm sure he said "I can do this on my own" after the match to him.

Del Rio was confusing but it at least had very good ring work and they had a real plan in the ring. I dont mind if he turns back heel but thats generally cos I dont care about him. I suppose the best way to get Ziggler over more as a face or to buy into his popularity at least was to give him that match with Alberto. I also quite like that he lost when he was injured, it makes it more realistic as a sporting concept. Did I want him to lose? No, but I would be surprised if hes out of the title picture now unless it really was a wellness.

xviperx wrote:Did you see that reaction he got last night? Being a poor wrestler doesn't mean you get a great push or get over with the fans...Goldberg proves this point.

I saw it and I instantly knew that not even 2% of those people had seen how god awful he was in TNA. I will mark out for the entrance music only. Im optimistic that he will have a decent run with less pressure and him wanting to make it good on one last pay day but he could easily flop in singles work.

Why is everyone confused by the Alberto Del Rio v Dolph Ziggler match? I think its glaringly obvious what is happening here - a double turn. Ziggler carrying on despite being concussed and out of it. Del Rio contantly hitting him with cheap shots and being proud of it. It worked as the crowd booed Del Rio and cheered Ziggler (admittedly they were doing this anyway but it got even louder as opposed to just Ziggler smarks hating Del Rio). And the promo Del Rio cut after the match was a heel promo and definitely not face. He basically said "I deserve to be cheered by you all because Im brilliant". I fully expect a face Ziggler to overcome the odds and reclaim the belt at Money In The Bank - great booking.

Payback was a great PPV.

Does anybody think they've built Ryback into a complete and utter joke. They had him destroying everybody left, right and centre showing him as very much the alpha male in WWE when it comes to strength and power but he's yet to win a title match after, is this the 5th time of asking? And also lost his match against Henry at Mania

How are we seriously expected to take this guy seriously?



The return of RVD doesn't interest me. Never thought he was all that anyway, and his music aside I don't really care he's coming back. I see a minor push for a month or two but then when WWE realise the fans don't care he'll end up like Tensai being paired off with somebody

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes with Ziggler, I think a face turn really would suit him, wereas ADR nobody really cared about, the only reason he got cheered was because of Ricardo. Where does an ADR heel turn leave Swagger now?

I really want an Orton heel turn, but for the purposes of the giving Shield people to feud with I'm happy for him to remain face for the time being, anything so its not them feuding with Cena and him destroying them singlehandedly

I totally agree Gazzy, his PPV record is awful...I can't remember the last time he actually won a PPV match let alone a title match...I'm sure it was last year's M.I.T.B but I could be wrong.