At Payback a few things were made clear- Roman reigns is certainly a big match player, AJ Styles will continue to be in the main event picture, Ryback has a lot of potential with this heel gimmick, Charlotte will still use her father’s influence and the McMahon siblings are still fighting for control.
The siblings kicked off Raw all pumped up, trying to put on a collaborative show and also trying very hard to upstage each other. Stephanie was all smiles still, reluctantly so, and also being her snarky self. She had a peace offering in the form of a reconstructed photo frame of Shane with his father that Vince McMahon actually had broken on the Road to Wrestlemania.
She was all smiles, even letting her brother go first, listening to the audience’s response to him, with all his ideas. Here are the 5 points to note from this show-
#1 The Kick Off
Kevin Owens is a great heel. He is so good on the mic. He walked in blatantly to interrupt Shane McMahon, the babyface authority figure that he loathes, and speak on and on about how lovely it is to see the siblings working together. And of course, he did not bother one bit about the reaction of the audience and what they had to say.
He wanted to be in the Intercontinental title picture and reclaim his contractual re-match. Cesaro came out to interrupt that thought as he was basically distracted off his match because of the rivalry between Zayn and Owens. Shane McMahon repeated his idea of having Owens face Cesaro again to determine the number one contender.
Cesaro won but chaos ensued afterwards where Zayn came to make the save for the Swiss Superman while he was beaten down by Miz and Owens, thus making it clear he wants the title too.
#2 The Other Women’s Feud
Lynch’s music hits the arena after what seems a long time. That means the feud with Emma has now made it to TV. The match was quite good. Lynch was all hyped and fired, while Emma walked with that heel swagger that has worked so well for her.
The audience reacted to them accordingly and it all ended with Emma poking Lynch’s bad eye while the referee was busy separating them, his eyes firmly away from the competitors. That led to an Emma victory but this feud between these two is far from over.
#3 Ambrose Asylum’s Ask Me Anything Edition
Ambrose was set for some investigative ‘journaling’ on his show as his guest Stephanie McMahon walked out to the ring. He made it clear that he did not buy into her all- smiling act. He first showed her a picture from Wrestlemania when she was, as Ambrose mentioned, ‘speared right out of your Tina Turner boots’ by Roman Reigns. She replied by saying that this taught her a very valuable lesson and all that jazz.
Then he brought the topic that is Shane McMahon and somewhere along that line the word loyalty came to the fore when Stephanie talked about how much the fans love Shane and are loyal towards him even if he wasn’t and left for 7 years. ‘Loyalty means everything to me’, she said.
Ambrose, then, seethed into that word, deconstructed it entirely talking about Stephanie’s job and how she’s never left, how she’s missed many moments with her family to do this job 24x7. Won’t that hurt when Shane McMahon comes back and then is equally in control of Raw as her. The build up to that question was amazing, thanks partly to McMahon’s stone faced expression.
She then went on to cancel Ambrose’s show. Ambrose was just simply walking away with his potted plant after having Stephanie reveal her true nature when she resurrected the Highlight reel. The two enemies met ringside while Brock Lesnar guy went ‘Control Yourself’ and then there was a brawl which ended with the plant being broken over Ambrose, signaling a pre- cursor for Extreme Rules.
In the mere 3 weeks of the Asylums existence, the plant certainly had developed a character given Ambrose’s love for it. The audience let a ‘No’ chant before its ultimate demise .
#4 The US Title Scene
The Battle Royal set to determine the new Number One Contender for the US Championship started off not looking like such a big deal until the final four were three former teammates in the League of Nations and Zack Ryder. And they built it well to make you believe that Ryder may just seriously have a chance at winning.
Sheamus was eliminated and so was Del Rio and then it was down to Rusev and Ryder and it was clear that this is all to build heat on Rusev as he moves on to win the title that he was a worthy champion to until Cena came out, took it away and made it better than ever.
Ryder was eliminated after gaining a lot of momentum. The picture of The Bulgarian Brute’s victory was complete after Lana walked out to be by his side.
#5 The ScrewJob
Earlier in the show, they showed a bit of Charles Robinson’s history with Ric Flair in WCW and why he was called ‘Li’l Naitch’. Later on, they had a segment where Charlotte and her father invited Robinson to the ring and did a bit of an exposition to that particular history by having The Nature Boy address the referee as Little Naitch.
Robinson was obviously still entranced by the legendary superstar and left the ring after this preposterous conversation. Natalya came down to the ring and the only point worth noting from her promo was how everything that was happening was about Ric Flair. Seriously, Charlotte’s entire reign is dependent on being a Flair.
That has got some major heat for her but Natalya did not come out of this segment looking like strong. Her promos are a bit slow and her ridiculing Flair, putting on his watch and jacket did not have the impact that it intended to have.
Later on, Stephanie McMahon made it clear that Flair will be banned from ringside during Charlotte’s match at Extreme Rules. What a babyface move!? Shouldn’t Shane have thought of that?
#6 The Main Event
Finally, we were off to the main event and there we had Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson and AJ Styles face off against Roman Reigns and The Usos.
Brothers Vs Brothers.
The match ended with AJ Styles scoring the pinfall for his team over an Uso. What matters most is what happened after the match. Gallows and Anderson dragged Reigns over to be attacked, broken and battered but Styles was not up for this dirty job.
A chair was bought forth and Styles was even encouraged by his best friends, his brothers to take out all his rage on the fallen champion. Styles was still playing fair, being moral. But Usos took advantage and take out every one of their opponents. That gives Reigns some new life and then he eventually puts Styles through the announce table.
Another pre- cursor to Extreme Rules and the night was over.
#6.5 P.S
Ryback was reportedly sent home and we may not see him on television for a long time. His contract expires with the company soon and this seems the reason why he’s away. Or is he in trouble? No official word yet. It seems both parties are in the negotiating process over the contract.
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