Sunday, June 16, 2013
Allstate Arena
Rosemont, Illinois
World Wrestling Entertainment was holding its new Pay-Per-View, Payback. A new PPV that honestly had no real expectations leading in to the event except, the Main Event for the WWE Championship, Randy Orton turning Heel and CM Punk making his return. In the weeks that followed several other matches were made as rivalries ensued and were renewed. During these weeks the Main Event went from being an Ambulance Match to a 3 Stages of Hell Match, Fandango was replaced in the Triple Threat Match for the Intercontinental Championship Match by the renewed Joe Hennig(Curtis Axel), Katilyn's admirer was discovered to be AJ Lee and Team Hell No became Team RK-NO. Then with that the card was practically made and on that night these were the results....
Pre-Show: Sheamus vs Damien Sandow - Singles Match
The Pre-Show Match a match of usually jobber proportions, yet this time we saw the fall of Sheamus. Sheamus recently was moved down to mid-card and upper mid-card status as he's been bumming around the mid-carders. His opponent for this pre-show match was Damien Sandow a man who deserves a great push in the industry. I heard this match was short, but Sheamus had to hit 3 Irish Curse Backbreakers before hitting the Brogue Kick. Several knew Sheamus would win, but a lot felt Sandow should've won. Hopefully in the weeks that follow Sandow will gain the push he deserves.
Match 1: Curtis Axel (with Paul Heyman) defeated Wader Barrett (c) and The Miz -
Triple Threat for the Intercontinental Championship
With Fandango recieving a concussion a week before the match, several along with myself hoped for the WWE to place the renamed Joe Hennig, Curtis Axel in the Triple Threat. WWE delievered us that exchange and Curtis Axel was practically handed the Intercontinental Championship on a silver plater. During the actually match thou Curtis Axel had to deal with some heardals. Paul Heyman would manage Curtis Axel amazingly on to avoid and allow Miz or Barrett to do all the work for them. Curtis' "greeness" did actually show as he seemingly looked to botch some moves or was very laggy. The Miz manages to hit a Skull Crushing Finale on Curtis Axel, but unable to score the pin as he and Barrett battled for the bout. Miz went to lock-on a Figure-Four Leglock on Barrett, but Curtis dove in to cover Barrett for the pin stealling the Championship. Overall the fans wanted this outcome, and we now know WWE believes Curtis Axel is the true future of the WWE as is his birthright. I do have to agree with some of my friends that a lot of Curtis' "green" is still present and is greatly affecting his matches, but in all due time he'll get to where he and we want him to be.
Match 2: AJ Lee (with Big E Langston) defeated Katilyn (c) -
Singles Match for the Divas Championship
Months before this match took place AJ became No. 1 Contender for the Divas Championship and Katilyn gained a secret admire. This was all revealed to be AJ playing mind games with her former friend leading into their championship match. Katilyn now on a mental breakdown opened the match with her taking out AJ, she brawled about with AJ physically destroying her. At one point AJ locked a Black Widow-Octopus Strecth on Katilyn, before she broke out and almost de-pants AJ. This lead into the final moments of the match, AJ attempted to use her belt on Katilyn before Katilyn countered and attempted a Spear. AJ avoided it as Kaitlyn bounces off the turnbuckle and AJ locks another Black Widow force Katilyn to submit. This match wasn't a match of greatness, but had a lot riding on this match as two former best friends were against each other. The brutality was expected from Katilyn and people expected more from AJ, but she didn't seemingly actually fight back until using resourceful reversals. I thought Katilyn could fight through the all the mind games like most superstars or divas but couldn't. I felt like her reign was too short and poorly run since she has great potential much like her successor AJ Lee.
Match 3: Dean Ambrose (c) defeated Kane via countout -
Singles Match for the United States Championship
Honestly all I can say about this match was it was probably the most horrible match on the entire card. The match opened good, but didn't carry well for the rest of the match. It was slow with pacing, but was entirerly too slow. I felt it wasn't the best we could get from both superstars for this match. Even the outcome was horrible as it ending via countout for Dean Ambrose to retain. This was by far my most hated match for the entire night, it left me bored and tired.
Match 4: Alberto Del Rio (with Ricardo Rodriguez) defeated Dolph Ziggler (c) (with AJ Lee and Big E Langston) - Singles Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
How can I say this correctly with out using ranting, but this match was pure highway robbery! Dolph Ziggler was coming off from an concussion injury, valiantly tried defending the World Heavyweight Championship. Ziggler seemed to be playing on the concussion early on in the match, but overly became prevalent that it was actually affecting him, probably a storyline issue. Well anyways, Ziggler went down swinging and was defeated by repeated kicks to the head. Del Rio, became the new Heavyweight Champion and actually turned Heel as Ziggler hint to turn face for the fact people were outraged at Ziggler's defeat. I for one was overly disappointed that Ziggler lost possibly due to a storyline write in, I thought that they wouldn't have him drop the belt so damn soon. Along with the double turn that was unexpected, that really throws a monkey rench in wondering how this will affect the storyline in the weeks to come.
Match 5: CM Punk (with Paul Heyman) defeated Chris Jericho - Singles Match
The Best in the World returned defeating Chris Jericho once again put their rivalry at 3 - 0! Punk, made the home town crowd go nuts upon arrival and throughout the entire match. However the match itself was almost an instant classic if it didn't move so sluggish. Punk and Jericho paced themselves throughout most of the match and made it as if they were overly ring rusty. I felt that the ring rust and slow pace of the match ruined it to most extent, and how they played up CM Punk's face turn was well done as he felt the power of the people. The most amazing part is Punk hit 3 GTS on Jericho throughout the match, two of them were immediately back to back for the end result. Overall this was utterly the best match on the card in my personal opinion!
Match 6: The Shield (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) (c) defeated Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton - Tag Team Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship
So this random Tag Team Championship Match had people knowing the new team of Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton would lose. Just throughout the entire match the two teams put on a good showing. When Bryan was tagged in he unleashed the Dragon as usual, but was overtaken by the Shield. As chaos ensued Orton seemingly threw Bryan at the dogs as Roman Reigns hit his amazing Spear right into Bryan allowing Rollins to gain the pinfall victory. This match was well worked and was really exciting. I personally enjoyed it, but knew that coming off the Punk/Jericho match it wouldn't recieve much cheers until Bryan became the American Dragon once again. Everytime Bryan unleashes the Dragon everyone is left in awe, a great thing that WWE is surely making its money off of.
Match 7: John Cena (c) defeated Ryback -
Three Stages of Hell match for the WWE Championship
Stage 1 - Lumberjack Match, Stage 2 - Tables Match, Stage 3 - An Ambulance Match
Super Cena, prevailed yet again! John Cena managed to squash the entire roster, put Ryback through a table and sent him through the roof of an Ambulance in one night! This was a successful showing from the overrated John Cena, it actually made me like somewhat for how insane the match got. The lumberjack match was done well by having the lumbjacks brawl amongst themselves and allowed Ryback to gain the first fall. Whereas, the second match Ryback and Cena destroy each other and several tables before Cena actually put Ryback through one. That lead to Ryback putting Cena through an announce table before the third match could take place. Then during the final match of the Three Stages of Hell, Cena and Ryback destroyed the Ambulance by breaking off a door and destroying the fender. It was so outrageous I was actually amused by this complete and utter nonsense for a Main Event featuring John Cena as the WWE Champion. Overall for the actual Pay-Per-View it had a lot hate towards it going in from fans and myself, but leaving Payback I for one thought it did amazingly well for an off shoot brand new show from WWE.
