More feedback to Payback
Thumbs in the Middle: Some good matches but nothing particular great or important. If all these matches were the undercard of a real draw like Hogan, Austin or Rock; or a compelling face that people wanted to see him win like Bret, Punk or Bryan; or a major feud like Hogan vs Savage, Austin vs McMahon or Austin vs Rock; we will be living in a perfect world. Sadly, that’s not the case. It’s a “B level PPV” that feels and delivers just like that. Nothing special. Nothing that would make people pay to see it, even if it is for just $10.
Best Match: 4-Way Main Event
Worst Match: Cena vs Rusev. This match had no psychology at all. No transitions, just spot after spot, most of which weren’t that impressive to make people believe that it was the finish. No submission attempts, until two random spot at the end. No focusing on a body part to tell a story. Not even a good old fashioned brawl of kicks and punches, although in this case that was probably a blessing in disguise as Cena’s punches are beyond hideous these days. Then they went almost half an hour but ended up doing a 2-minutes RAW match finish. To makes matters worst, just a few moments earlier Cena didn’t lose the match because he “couldn’t say I Quit by himself” then Lana say it for Rusev. My God what a load of crap. Really, that’s the best they could do to blow-up a Cena feud? The best they could do to split of Rusev and Lana? Which by the way it’s a stupid idea to begin with. They are a winning combination, but WWE wants to spit them just because. She is about tho join the Ricardo Rodriguez and Zeb Coulter club. Not to mention every other face manager in the history of the business. Somebody’s IQ needs to be checked.
Didn’t watch the Pre-Show:
1. Sheamus vs Ziggler. Good opener. Result was a given once Ziggler got his “kiss my ass” revenge. Ziggler got busted imitating Daniel Bryan’s headbuts; and Bryan got busted imitating Tomohiro Ishii. Please do not try this at home! ***1/4
2. New Day vs Cesaro & Kidd. Very good match. Lots of action and cool spots. It’s a shame that they have to rush things up, otherwise this could have been the best match on the show. ***1/2
3. Wyatt vs Ryback. Just okay match. This feud is good for both. They need to trade wins but at the end Wyatt should come on up strong for a mayor at SummerSlam with someone like Sting, Kane or Big Show that ends up with a face turn. **1/2
4. Cena vs Rusev. This was bad for so many reasons. They still tried hard though. *1/2
5. Naomi & Tamina vs Bellas. Filler match. Nobody cares. 1/2*
6. Neville vs Barrett. Like the match before, totally out of place. This was a Superstars match on a PPV. Neville is an incredible talent but they have him doing the same spots over and over and almost never wins. Geek alert! *3/4
7. Rollins vs Ambrose vs Reigns vs Orton. Overall great. Slow start, hot middle, flat finish. What’s the deal with Rollins using the Pedigree? Are they planning on a match with Triple H? To me there is only one logical conclusion to this story: a Shield 3-way at Mania. Rollins as champion with either Reigns or Ambrose (most likely) using the MITB contract to make it a triple threat. Anything else is a wasted opportunity. ****
Leonardo Mendez Toledo
Hi Dave,
Just thought I would give some feedback on the Payback PPV. I give the show a thumbs down, it felt like an episode of Raw with some enhanced time for matches, but not much more then that. The best match would probably have to be the main event fatal 4 way for the world title, and the worst match probably the “I Quit” match between Cena-Rusev, probably because it was just too predictable with these two, feels like they have the same match each time they wrestle just with a different stipulation. It was good to watch visually on the network however, since I was watching the network stream on a Sony Blu-Ray player with Wi-Fi for the first time and the network is one of the Apps on the Blu-Ray. But other then that, most of the matches just seemed like they were not really building to anything. I think WWE should remember that sometimes less is more with their PPV’s or Network specials since they just did Extreme Rules and King of The Ring, this show, and
now the Elimination Chamber at the end of the month. They really should stick with about 6 PPV’s a year in my opinion so that they have more of a special event feel, rather then a monthly card. And they really need to improve on the commentary as well. Jerry Lawler was excellent with Jim Ross, but he seems to be having a hard time following the lead of Michael Cole, and JBL seems to be doing his own separate commentary show and must be watching something else on his monitor. Maybe he is watching PPV’s on the network from the 90’s, since almost every comment he makes is a 90’s reference. Not sure what he is doing. I know that WWE is capable of producing good shows and good commentary, but with so many shows lately I think the quality value is dropping with too many shows taking place, but just my opinion of course. I was more entertained with a 1 hour long version of Ring of Honor over the weekend with a main event of the Brisco’s fighting War Machine
in a great tag match then tonight’s 3 hr show. It’s a good thing I watched on the Network, as the only “Payback” I would have wanted is if I had purchased this show on traditional PPV for 50 bucks, lol!
Thanks,
Jon Southerland
Clovis, Ca.
WWE Payback Feedback
Thumbs up
Best Match: Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose vs Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton
Worst Match: I fast-forwarded through the Bellas match and enjoyed everything else so I won’t vote for this
This was a fun show to watch that is probably ok to miss as well. The New Day are really great in their role. Ryback and Wyatt over-delivered and I was impressed by some of the spots. This wasn’t the best of Rusev and Cena but was fine, I llok forwad to what is coming for both. Neville continues to much improved since coming to the main roster. The main event was fun, esepcialy the stuff with The Shield.
Dave Musgrave
Oshawa, Ontario
ROH Global Wars Night 1
Thumbs Way up
Best Match: AJ Styles, Young Bucks, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows vs Roderick Strong, The Briscoes and War Machine
Worst match: None
I liked every match on this show but have to say that the ten-man main event might be my match of the year
Dave Musgrave
Oshawa, Ontario
Thumbs up PPV – Payback was really well paced. I watched it all. Corey Graves is unbearable as is the pre and post show. JBL shitting on everyone is not cool.
Best match: 4 way – Coulda been better if no outside bullshit was involved.
Worst match: Stardust vs Truth
Surprisingly, I enjoyed the Ascension. I was hoping the mega powers would start to play different groups throughout the weeks but I guess that push is over. Ascension looked good. These guys can go, they just need to be put with Cesaro and Kidd.
Tag match was good. I enjoyed the super racist finish where the ref thinks all black people look alike. Irony being in Baltimore.
Good show, but was hoping to see Luke Harper and The Vintner rejoin with Bray.
Girls was a match. It was fine.
Great pacing, great matches across the board. THUMBS UP
Dan Veltan
Thumbs in the middle.
Best match: Rollins vs Reigns vs Ambrose vs Orton
Worst match: Wyatt vs Ryback
So-so show. Surpassed expectations but not good enough. Nothing overly
offensively bad. Controversial finish to the New Day vs Cesaro/Tyson
Kidd match.
Network stream on PS3 & Android skipped back 10 seconds about a dozen
times but was fine overall.
Regards,
Mark Ageyev
from Ireland
How you doin’ Dave,
Thumbs In The Middle
Decent show. Thought Cena-Rusev was really good and had close to as good an I Quit match as you can have under PG conditions. I put it in the same category as Hell In A Cell in-terms of being incredibly hampered by the restrictions in place after all we’ve seen in the past. Thought Rusev’s selling was fantastic during the match and it was a typically nicely paced, well-worked Cena match with an intelligent finish.
I’d be interested to know what happened at the end of the Ziggler-Sheamus match, whether they were told to go directly to the finish after Ziggler got busted open pretty bad. It seemed a little peculiar to go straight from Ziggler having a close nearfall with superkick, to Ziggler selling and Sheamus making somewhat of a miraculous recovery and hitting the Brogue Kick. As this is the second time this has occurred in the last couple of months I’m expecting a headbutt ban. Preferred their last match to be honest.
I thought Cesaro & Tyson-New Day was technically fantastic and I’m loving Cesaro as a face, but it was incredibly rushed which irritated me a great deal, although that wasn’t entirely their fault. Wasn’t expecting what we got from Ryback-Wyatt, it featured a lot of nice big spots, but was largely an exhibition of moves. Didn’t think they sold when they needed to, didn’t build to things, didn’t take the extra couple of seconds necessary before doing certain things to increase the reaction for particular spots, and as a consequence the match didn’t garner the response from the crowd it could’ve etc. Which I felt was a shame given the work-rate.
Brie appeared to have a close-call during the Divas match. I think she just managed to get her hands down and tuck-and roll, match was ok but had a bit of clunk. Barrett-Neville finish was bad, but I’m understanding providing they have plans to do the blow-off on one of the next two PPVs. Main event was a bit of a cluster, overbooked and rushed. It got going from The Shield spot onwards, but largely there was just too much going on at too great a speed.
Best Match: Cena vs. Rusev ***3/4
Worst Match: Bella Twins vs. Tamina & Naomi **
R-Truth vs. Stardust **
Axel & Mandow vs. The Ascension **
Ziggler vs. Sheamus ***1/2
New Day vs. Cesaro & Tyson ***1/2
Ryback vs. Wyatt ***1/4
Barrett vs. Neville **1/4
Rollins vs. Ambrose vs. Reigns vs. Orton ***1/2
Thanks Dave
Tom (griffo120)
.