Payback was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on August 30, 2020 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the sixth event in the Payback chronology and the first to be held since the 2017 event.
The card comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman in a No Holds Barred Triple Threat match to win the Universal Championship. On the undercard, Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy, Keith Lee defeated Randy Orton, and Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax defeated Bayley and Sasha Banks by submission to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
Match Results:
Kickoff - Tag Team Match
The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan) def. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce)
Didn't watch, but as of this posting (9/1/20), the IIconics were forced to disband due to losing to the Riott Squad the following night in a rematch on Monday Night RAW. I'm all for that since Peyton Royce deserved to go on her own for a while now. She's clearly the more talented of the two in-ring. Let Billie Kay serve as enhancement talent on one of the other brands post-draft.
Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship
Bobby Lashley (with MVP and Shelton Benjamin) def. Apollo Crews (c) by submission
The first thing I uttered after the finish was "WTF is the FULL Lashley?" Decent match, I guess, but they did the right thing here and put the title on Lashley, who should have been challenging Apollo in the first place. MVP should have been the mouthpiece from day one. I don't need to see him still wrestling in 2020. Isn't the whole point of the Hurt Business is to rehab Lashley and elevate him back to his former greatness with Shelton Benjamin?
Singles Match
Big E def. Sheamus
These two guys tried here, but they had already had a series of decent matches over on SmackDown! so this was pretty much rehashing familiar territory. I was the under the impression that Sheamus still had some nagging back issues so I found myself cringing that he took that bump down to the floor from the ring apron off that Spear out of the ring spot that Big E loves doing. I'm surprised that dude hasn't sprained his wrists or something from doing that so much all of these years. I can totally get behind this Big E that's all business when the bell rings.
I'm going to keep saying it though - he needs to leave the goofy shit at home if he really wants to take this singles push somewhere though.
Singles Match
Matt Riddle def. King Corbin
I couldn't give a flying fuck about this. Corbin lost and that's all what matters in terms of sensible booking.
Tonight, I prove that Matt Riddle is a failure in a WWE ring.— THE KING (@BaronCorbinWWE) August 30, 2020
By the way…he’s already proven that he’s a failure at home. #WWEPayback
.@SuperKingofBros' reaction to King @BaronCorbinWWE's personal tweet ahead of their #WWEPayback match: pic.twitter.com/pUtrI9dlOw— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) August 30, 2020
Corbin won the match though when his tweet was read on-air and the exact moment where Riddle's happy expression sank right down the drain was priceless.
I see people complaining about bringing up his real life infidelity allegations into a WWE storyline but I'm looking at it like WWE bringing up Jeff Hardy's alcohol and drug abuse into storylines recently. It's nothing different for them. This is their brand of being "edgy" and "real" in 2020. It's definitely in bad taste but they think are exposing "insider" stuff by airing dirty laundry on television.
Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship
Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax def. Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) by submission
I didn't think this actual match was very good at all. There were tons of botches, not just from Nia Jax, but from Sasha and Bayley attempting to move her around the ring. The best thing to come out of this match was the very creative submission finish from Shayna Baszler by using Sasha's own arms to choke out Bayley for the win.
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| Man, that was an awesome finish. Can't say the same about the rest of the match leading up to it though. |
I busted out laughing that commentary wasted absolutely NO time in saying "NO BELTS BANKS" after the decision. I couldn't understand why Nia was overjoyed during the post-match interview when she contributed absolutely jackshit to the finish here. They should've handed both belts to Shayna and let her be a single woman wrecking crew - unless she has Marina Safir and Jessamyn Duke as her lackeys on the main roster (full-time) now.
Singles Match
Keith Lee def. Randy Orton
Can't say that anything here was memorable nor noteworthy, but in terms of the pattern is smart booking tonight, the right man won with Lee going over on Orton. I guess this confirms the rumors and predictions that Orton is going to take that title from Drew McIntyre, which would set Lee in a prime position to challenge for said title in the near-future.
Tag Team Match
Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio def. Seth Rollins and Murphy
This wasn't anywhere close as their match at Summerslam the weekend prior, but it's to be expected that these guys can't hit two homeruns in two PPVs mere weekends apart. On top of that, Rey Mysterio suffered an injury in this match, so that probably played a factor in that as well. This wasn't a bad match, but I was a little underwhelmed, especially given the high stakes of their previous match. Dominik still shined here like before, but Rollins and Murphy's antics are getting old at this point. Murphy ate the pin here, so it's obvious that this feud isn't over when it should be at this point. They could have given the Mysterio family the win with the feel good moment to capitalize on the name of the PPV but they didn't with Rollins not being the one to eat the pinfall here. I don't see why they should milk this feud out for a few more months. It's not like WrestleMania is around the corner or anything.
No Holds Barred, Triple Threat match for the WWE Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (with Paul Heyman) def. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (c) and Braun Strowman
The tale of the tape to setup this match all night was the cliffhanger reveal at the end of Friday Night SmackDown! was that Paul Heyman was now managing Roman Reigns. If there's any doubt in anyone's minds, but the "Big Dog" is now officially a heel. He was refusing to sign the contract for this match until it was tailored to his specifications. The story had the commentary team acting like there was any doubt that he was going to sign it to be a part of this title match. Strowman and The Fiend came off even bigger dumbasses in all of this when they were fighting in this match like it was a one-on-one contest until Roman Reigns came out and wrecked shop like this was a Money In The Bank cash-in.
Going into this match, I was convinced that Roman and Heyman were going to be revealed to being the masterminds behind Retribution, but in retrospect, I'm glad they weren't. What the hell does Roman have to be mad about? That wouldn't have made a lick of damn sense. I rather this reveal for Retribution be something big for a lot of NXT call-ups or misused main roster talents anyway.
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| Paul Heyman raising the hand of his new client in victory. |
Afterthoughts:
This wasn't a flat out god-awful show, but it wasn't a particular exciting show either, especially to serve up as a follow-up last weekend's NXT TakeOver XXX and Summerslam events. Despite the wealth of smart booking decisions on this show, it ultimately felt completely unnecessary. They could have done most of what they have done here later this month at Clash of Champions or on the weekly RAW and SmackDown! shows to pop a rating. As a result, I was left feeling like a vast majority of this show was a complete waste of time, especially for the majority of the undercard.
