Views From The Turnbuckle: Payback Preview, Kicking Off WWE's Summer Of Hastily Assembled PPVs
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Between mid-February and mid-May, WWE only provides two PPV events, Wrestlemania and Extreme Rules. For them to only have two PPVs in about a dozen week span is highly unusual, and it allows them to typically establish a lengthy, more proper build for the events. That is a luxury that wrestling fans no longer get to enjoy, as now that the post-Wrestlemania lull is fully underway, it is time for WWE to begin spamming PPVs left and right. After Payback there is Money in the Bank four weeks later and then Battleground five weeks after that. If that was not enough PPVs to satisfy you, WWE found it necessary to jam Elimination Chamber in-between Payback and Battleground, meaning that from Sunday to April 14th, there will be a PPV every two weeks. Could these things be made any less special?
The main event is a Fatal Four Way match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship involving Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. For whatever reason, there is historically a lack of really good Fatal Four Way matches. There are plenty of great Triple Threat matches, but I can't even think of one particular Fatal Four Way that was great. Not just in WWE either, I mean anywhere. I think the match on Sunday will be pretty good, but maybe having four guys in a one-fall match when it is every man for himself is a little too much.
WWE has no reason to take the championship off of Seth Rollins. He has delivered for them in the ring and on the mic, and the money match down the road is between him and Brock Lesnar for the world title. The Fatal Four Way is a perfect way for Rollins to steal a victory, which would fall in line with WWE's booking strategy for him. Some fans have voiced their displeasure at Rollins being booked as such a "weak" champion, but I don't have a problem with it. Rollins is still presented as a great athlete and a good technical wrestler, but he manages to pick up his victories more often than not via brains and not brawn. It is very similar to the way Edge was booked, and his career turned out alright.
After seemingly being regulated to gimmick street fights, Dean Ambrose came out of left field to squeeze into the main event. Ambrose still has a good-sized following of fans and has a babyface he has a unique appeal that is lacking in the main event right now. Unfortunately, the real reason he was brought into the main event is probably because they needed someone to take the pinfall that was wasn't Reigns or Orton. Even so, this is a big step-up for Ambrose. If he wasn't in the main event he might not have even made it onto the main card.
Reigns and Orton have formed an uneasy alliance on Raw, but obviously they are going to go after each other in this match. The booking should be pretty straight forward, all three man gang up and beat up Rollins, hitting all of their finishers on him, and then he slips out of the ring for a long period of time while the three remaining competitors fight it out. Reigns hits the spear on Ambrose and looks to have the match won, but Rollins gets back in the ring and steals the victory. Rollins retains and this sets up Rollins vs Reigns for the next couple PPVs.
In what feels like a wholly unnecessary addition to their rivalry, John Cena and Rusev will face off once again, this time in an I Quit match. Personally, I believe that John Cena shouldn't be allowed to participate in I Quit matches anymore. Finding someone more unlikely to quit than Cena is like trying to find a sports commissioner that has bungled more investigations than Roger Goodell, it simply cannot be done. On top of that, Cena has made a huge deal about being the United States Championship, even getting his own merchandise detailing his title reign, so yeah, he isn't going to lose this match.
I've already discussed the future of Rusev and his breakup with Lana, and this match looks like the vehicle that will push them over the edge. The best case scenario for this match is that Lana throws in the towel for Rusev. This would allow Rusev to lose the match while technically not saying "I Quit" and will give him an excuse to ditch Lana for good. The match will involve both men hitting each other with heavy objects, some recycled spots, and at least one moment with Cena screaming "NOOOOOOO!!!!" while the ref jams a mic into his face.
The best match on the night is probably going to be the Tag Team Championship match between The New Day and Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. Their match stole the show last month at Extreme Rules, and making it Two out of Three Falls will only make it better. The New Day gets some of the best heat out of anyone on the roster, and their title reign should last at least a couple months.
The rest of the undercard is kind of lacking. Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus will meet again after Ziggler picked up a surprise victory last month at Extreme Rules. Sheamus needs a victory to solidify his heel status, and since he didn't get it last month he almost certainly is going to get it Sunday. That being said, neither man seems to have that high of a ceiling after this match. Ziggler will feud with another midcarder, while the best thing for Sheamus is probably to be Cena's next rival for the US Championship, which would be good for his character but bad for his won-loss record.
Neville will make his PPV debut against Wade Barrett, who is finally working in the role he was born to play. Barrett was able to make a local news reporter gimmick seem pompous, so imagine what he can do now that he is a KING. The storyline of Barrett snarling down at the "lowly commoner" Neville is funny and works pretty well, and the match should be good.
Rounding out the card is a match with Curtis Axel (working a Hulk Hogan gimmick) teaming up with Damien Sandow (working a Randy Savage gimmick) teaming up to take on The Ascension. Not much to say about this match except that it doesn't matter because nobody in this match is going anywhere important anytime soon. Noticeably absent from the card is any Diva's action, and given their recent performances on Raw, that is probably a good thing. They might get added to the show late, but there is so little going on in that division that they can skip a PPV and it wouldn't hurt them one bit.
Payback could end up having some good matches, but the real issue here is that there is little potential for storyline development beyond the top two matches. Everything on the undercard truly belongs on a Raw, and because WWE has decided to have roughly 600 PPVs per year now, the rest of the summer is going to be chalk full of matches that don't really seem like they should be on PPV, but are going to be there anyways.
You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings