I wonder how many other wrestlers on the roster could do that? Photo credit: WWE.com
Curtis Axel won via disqualification versus Triple H after Vince McMahon strolled down and called for the bell to be rung. But 'The Game' wasn't having that as he then restarted the bout, much to the disappointment of Axel and Paul Heyman. But once again Triple H's Father-in-law came back out and this time had Axel announced as the winner via forfeit.
So Trips stormed out of the ring and had Justin Roberts announce that the two would compete in a sixty-minute Iron Man match, but Vince wouldn't be having it and took the bell and told Axel to leave the ring. Backstage Stephanie McMahon begged her husband not to get physical with her much elder Father, so Triple H agreed if she went to talk to him.
Kane won via DQ versus Dean Ambrose in a fair encounter. I have no major issues with the match, both men gave worthy displays as they went back and fourth but it felt like there was that bit of excitement missing from it to really gain my interest.
The DQ occurred after Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns ran in and attacked Kane. Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton then evened the odds and helped chase off The Shield. After Bryan and Orton argued backstage over their altercation on last week's SmackDown (Orton RKO'd Bryan after he'd accidentally dropkicked him) with Kane trying to calm them down, Vickie Guerrero informed them that at Payback Orton and Bryan will compete for the tag titles while Kane will challenge for the US Title. After Orton and Bryan went off in a huff, an appreciative Kane gave Vickie a hug. It was a decent segment, and I'm personally enjoying this slow burning feud between Orton and Bryan.
The Miz defeated Cody Rhodes in a passable contest. Both men worked well together and provided nice sequences here. Admittedly it wasn't a particularly memorable match up but it was better than I was expecting.
As the Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett (who'd provided guest commentary) was about to capitalise on Miz's leg injury afterwards, Paul Heyman came out and announced that this Sunday his client Curtis Axel will join them in making it a Triple Threat for the IC strap, replacing Fandango after he suffered a concussion at last week's SmackDown taping. I think it's safe to say we'll be seeing Axel with the title this time next week.
Chris Jericho claimed that out of all the great pro wrestlers he's faced in WWE, his opponent at Payback CM Punk was the one that brought out the best in him. While I'm a fan of both their previous pay-per-view outings, I would've said that Jericho has definitely had superior matches against the likes of Rey Mysterio, The Rock, Shawn Michaels (my personal favourite feud Y2J's ever had) and more.
World Champion Dolph Ziggler then made his Raw return after suffering a concussion last month, and spoke about how close he was to having his strap taken away from him. In response Jericho challenged him to a match to shake off the ring rust, so Ziggler accepted, but with Big E Langston in his place.
Chris Jericho pinned Big E Langston in a largely average affair. Unfortunately more than a few sloppy moments hindered the match for me, although it picked up a bit towards the end. Alberto Del Rio decided to get some payback (no pun intended) by pushing his future opponent Ziggler into the ringside form behind (which seemed a bit cowardly and heel-like I thought). This caused Big E to become distracted and finally Codebreakered by Jericho for the one-two-three.
Antonio Cesaro bested Sin Cara in an enjoyable bout. Sin Cara and Cesaro managed to compliment each others styles and made it work well, and when Sin Cara comes across an opponent like that then we usually get something worth checking out, but unfortunately that's a rare occasion.
Randy Orton versus Roman Reigns ended in a no contest after both Bryan and Rollins interfered. The match itself had been a fair one, there was nothing remarkable about it but Orton gave a solid enough performance. How many DQ's and no contests are WWE throwing out at the moment?
Daniel Bryan pinned Seth Rollins in a tremendous back and fourth encounter. I've already gone on and on about Bryan's great form as of late so I won't again, but he and Rollins really worked hard here and provided a thoroughly engaging match, with stellar wrestling and an electric crowd behind Bryan. For the finish Orton managed to swipe Reigns from ringside as he was about to attack Bryan, allowing the victor to catch Rollins in a small package for the win. Afterwards Bryan and Orton seemed to put their differences aside, for now...
Big E Langston came out and revealed to Kaitlyn that he was her secret admirer, but as he then went to kiss her it was all revealed to be a ruse as he dropped the Divas Champion and AJ Lee skipped out and stated that she was behind it all.
AJ claimed that she wanted Kaitlyn to feel low and worthless like she did when she'd "abandoned" her after failed relationships with Punk, Bryan and Cena, and that she was finally going to take away her title belt at Payback. After having enough (I'm surprised it took her so long) Kaitlyn lashed out on her former best friend. It was some nice mic work from AJ here, and at least we're getting a Divas feud with some substance behind it.
Damien Sandow beat R-Truth in a pedestrian contest. I was struggling with the urge not to fast forward here to be honest, it was just pretty drab for me, with uninspiring action. Afterwards Sheamus came out and after congratulating Sandow, warned him that in the Payback Kickoff match they'll have he felt it perfect to kick off his head. See what he did there?
In an office backstage Stephanie managed to get Vince and Triple H together to figure things out. After some heated exchanges they then began to see each other's point of view, with Vince liking the idea of Axel versus his son-in-law and Triple H agreeing with Vince that he was probably bigger than a match with Heyman's client and didn't need to prove anything in the ring. So after a bit more arguing Stephanie returned and convinced everyone to have a group hug. I'm not sure even they know where they're heading with this storyline right now.
Rather than enter the ring for the booked 'Face to Face' with lumberjacks surrounding them, Ryback decided to stand on the stage away from John Cena, claiming it was for the champ's own safety. Ryback then went on to say that Cena never helped him against Shield attacks because he saw him as a threat to his position in the company.
Cena of course denied this and decided that enough was enough and attempted to chase his rival but was pushed back into the ring each time by the lumberjacks. This allowed Ryback to race into the ring and the two began brawling until the other wrestlers managed to seperate them. It was a decent and exciting end to the show, with nice work from Ryback on the mic I thought.
Overall it was an enjoyable show for the most part, with only a few quite forgettable or sloppy match ups letting it down a bit. My highlights were the opening and ending segments, Cesaro versus Sin Cara and the tremendous Rollins versus Bryan contest. And most importantly it had a strong finish heading into a PPV, something we haven't always seen from WWE this year on Raw.
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