This entrance is crazy.
This entrance is crazy.
Heel Reigns is awesome
I still don't like him. At least that's the point now though.
Fiend will be fine. This is by far the best version of Reigns. Great ending to a great PPV.
WWE has went all out making their product more interesting. Hopefully people give them another shot.
Payback 2020
Date: August 30, 2020
Location: Amway Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Samoa Joe, Byron Saxton, Michael Cole, Corey Graves
We’re back on pay per view less than a week after the last one ended, because that’s a thing that needed to happen. This time around we have the big main event of the Fiend defending the Smackdown World Title against Braun Strowman and a surprisingly heel Roman Reigns, with Paul Heyman in his corner. That sounds like it could have some serious legs so let’s get to it.
Click on the link below for the full review.
At Least Someone Is Happy
Charles Robinson was the real MVP of the main event
https://imgur.com/0BhkMD3
From the very beginning of this show, I kept asking myself at various points throughout what the point of having this PPV was exactly. Nothing that happened here isn't anything that couldn't have gone down on Raw or SmackDown. Truth be told, I think some of it should have been saved for TV.
Probably the only real surprise of the night was Keith Lee scoring a clean pinfall victory over Randy Orton in about 7 minutes. I'm not going to complain about anything because WWE most definitely needs to, and has needed to for quite some time, start pulling the trigger with some of the talent. Lee is a unique talent and a lot of fun, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him win here. I was expecting the old "he gave it a gallant try" and "pushed Orton to his very limit" but came up short. Orton loses absolutely nothing in losing this match; the man's one of the WWE's biggest stars of the past 20 years with 13 World Championships to his credit. WWE should use that star power to help build up fresh talent more often.
Payback was just there all in all. None of the matches were anything beyond pretty decent. I'm glad they got the US title off Crews as it's been obvious since early on in his reign than he's going nowhere. A problem I have, however, with Lashley as US champ is that he, like the rest of the Hurt Business, is in his mid 40s. Again, there's so much fresh talent waiting around to be used but they put the title on a guy who, frankly, has been pretty misused since he came back to WWE. Lashley could have been a major player in WWE this time around but I can't help but see the guy as damaged goods when you get right down to it.
There are new Women's Tag Team Champions and all it took really was WWE ignoring continuity. However, continuity isn't important to Vince McMahon and hasn't been for a long while, just so long as he gets the result he wants. Apparently, the result he wanted was for a team that's never existed before this past Monday, who teamed together for the first time at this show, to defeat a legit team with fantastic chemistry consisting of two of the top female talent in company history. If the point of this is to simply use it as a stepping stone in the eventual clash of Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax, then it's unnecessary. They're already two alpha females: the 270 lbs. female member of WWE's Samoan dynasty vs. the butch MMA cage fighter. They don't like each other, they wanna fight and that's really all you need sometimes.
I look for Mysterio's feud with Rollins to end here in the next month or so. Becky Lynch is due to give birth sometime in December, so Rollins will be taking a few months off to spend time with his family. If they plan on keeping Dominic on TV, if they think he's ready, I can see them keeping his old man around in his corner as a guide/mentor. As for Murphy, I think he'll probably get lost in mid-card limbo, which is a damn shame as he's another one of these young guys who has a ton of talent. Remember the praise he got during the singles matches he had against Roman Reigns and John Cena a few years back? That guy is still in there.
Now that Matt Riddle has beaten King Corbin, it's time to move him on. As with Keith Lee, it's good to see that WWE looks like they're moving forward with Riddle. He's beaten Corbin, there's nothing left for him to do there so move him to something better.
As for the triple threat main event, it was fine for what it was. I'm glad that the Fiend didn't take the fall though I do admit that it still stings to have Wyatt lose the Universal Championship after just 1 week. If Wyatt wasn't such a creative guy, if he wasn't so damned entertaining at what he does, he'd be damaged goods. I think Strowman has been damaged to a fairly significant degree; his time as Universal Champion was pretty forgettable and I'm of the opinion WWE made a mistake not pulling the trigger with him years ago against Brock Lesnar. They could have really established Strowman as the next truely great monster super heavyweight we've seen in American circles since Vader. Reigns has been MIA for much of this year due to concerns over the Coronavirus, understandably so, and it does irk me to see him just come back and step into his old spot as if he'd always been there. However, the fact that he's aligned with Paul Heyman definitely soothes the sting of the entire situation. Rather than be outraged at WWE for "screwing" over Bray Wyatt, again, and Reigns just getting his old spot back while he's spent the last 6 months home sitting on his ass, Heyman's presence is obviously interesting. So now, we just have to wait until the big explanation of everything this coming Friday on SmackDown.
"What Do I Know Of Cultured Ways, The Gilt, The Craft And The Lie?
I, Who Was Born In A Naked Land And Bred In The Open Sky.
The Subtle Tongue, The Sophist Guile, They Fail When The Broadswords Sing.
Rush In And Die Dogs - I Was A Man Before I Was King."
Conan Of Cimmeria
This show isn't getting enough credit.
The Thunderdome looks incredible. Roman Reigns is a heel aligned with Paul Heyman. Big E and Keith Lee are getting pushed to the top. How are you not at least a little more excited lol.
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