Pantoja’s WWE Payback 2023 Review

WWE Payback

September 2^nd, 2023 | PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

For the first time in the Triple H era, I have zero interest in a WWE PLE. It’s like AEW and WWE are having a contest of who could have the weakest card this weekend. I won’t be ordering All Out but with Payback coming as part of a Peacock subscription, it won by default.

I was intrigued by the start of AEW Collision given the CM Punk drama today so I watched that for a bit at 8. That means I missed most of the opener and had to go back and watch it afterward for this review.

Steel Cage Match: Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus

This should be a top-tier rivalry but questionable booking, writing, and match quality has really dragged it down. Thankfully, these two greats weren’t about to let that hold them back. You could tell they had their working boots on, the crowd was way into it, and it felt like Trish was out to again prove that she’s timeless. I thought they did as good a job as you can expect in modern WWE with the stipulation. Becky viciously slamming Trish’s head into the cage repeatedly was a cool spot. Trish being this good after all this time is honestly ridiculous. Like, the woman was doing major spots like one of the better superplexes you’ll ever see in a cage match here. It’s madness that she’s doing at 47. GOAT. I also popped for her doing the Widow’s Peak and Becky busting out the Twist of Fate. My main problem here was the interference of Zoey Stark. I know she’s part of the story but the cage match is meant to keep heels out yet in WWE, it almost always fails and that kind of kills the gimmick. Anyway, Becky took her out and then beat Trish with the Manhandle Slam off the top in 20:02. A fantastic steel cage match between two of the best women to ever step foot in that ring. [****¼]

Post-match, Zoey Stark locked herself in the cage with Trish and laid her out with her finisher. Looks like Trish might be done with this run.

Now it was time for John Cena, the host of this show. He said that to make being the host special, he wanted to be the guest referee for LA Knight vs. The Miz. That brought out The Miz to trade verbal barbs with Cena before Knight joined us for the match.

LA Knight vs. The Miz

A promo battle between these two when they’re both on their game sounds sick. A match between them sounds less fun. LA Knight is kind of the definition of a dude who is fine in the ring. He will have serviceable matches. So that’s what this was. A serviceable match. It had solid back and forth, the crowd was into everything LA Knight did, and Cena didn’t overdo anything to take away from the action going on. Knight started hot before Miz turned the tide and took control by slowing an already slow pace. Knight started in with the comeback and it was all very average. This dragged on longer than it needed to and then Knight kicked out of the Skull Crushing Finale. Like, why? I know Miz isn’t a top guy anymore but you don’t need to kill finishers like that. Every company does it outside of a few people. Anyway, when Miz tried to mock the Five Knuckle Shuffle, Knight popped up and started in with his offense, capped by Blunt Force Trauma in 15:46. That should’ve been 8-10 minutes. It was inoffensive otherwise but dragged at points. [**¼]

After the bell, Cena got in Knight’s face and they bickered a bit but Knight accepted Cena’s handshake.

WWE United States Championship: Rey Mysterio [c] vs. Austin Theory

Austin Theory kind of fits into the LA Knight category. He has aspects that make you think he’s a star (he has a great look) but when the bell rings, things are kind of just there. This was your CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH special and they put on an average match in front of the logos. The crowd wasn’t really into it either, only really picking up the heat for Theory doing the chap heat tactic of going after Rey’s mask. I mean, it’s cheap heat but it works. Once that happened, Rey kind of picked things up with some of his most impressive offensive bits. It’s nuts that he’s still as good as he is. Theory hit a pretty sweet modified Blue Thunder Bomb for two but that was his highlight. He countered the 619 and rolled through for A-Town Down but Mysterio countered him into a pinning combination to retain in 9:47. Like the previous match, that was wildly average pro wrestling though it gets the edge for not going too long. [**½]

WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship Steel City Street Fight: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn [c] vs. Damian Priest and Finn Bálor

We got a solid brawl right from the start here and I dig that. If you’re gonna book a street fight then I want plunder from the word go. Finn stepped on and disrespected a Pittsburgh “Terrible Towel” which I also liked. Again, it’s cheap heat but it works because sports fans are so easy. Also, props to the guys for mostly wearing street fight gear. KO had jeans, Sami wore a shirt over his gear, and even Priest’s gear worked in the setting. WE got all the basic WWE weapons like chairs, trash cans, and kendo sticks. Dominik Mysterio got involved as they fought through the crowd. In a fun little moment, KO and Sami popped up in Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys with hockey sticks. It got a pop, the guys love hockey, and they even got to hockey fight Dom and kick his ass. That was perfect. KO got busted open and had a pretty great looking crimson mask. The next section of this match had bigger spots like a Blue Thunder Bomb on chairs and KO hitting Dom with a Swanton through a table off a railing in the crowd. That last spot left Sami alone with his challengers but he fought them off by sending Finn through a table. KO returned to the scene for a Stunner on Priest and Sami added the Helluva Kick to seemingly retain only for JD McDonagh to break up the pin. KO destroyed him with a powerbomb onto the announce table only to get taken out by a Rhea Ripley Spear through the barricade. Love that she got that spot. Sami fought off Finn until his next pin was broken up by a briefcase shot from Dom and Finn got the three count in 20:43. A few of the run-ins and such were a bit much late but that was so much fun that I don’t even care. Just a wild match with so much action and goofy stuff going on in the best way. [****¼]

It was now time for the Grayson Waller Effect. He did some generic dissing of the local town and then brought out his guest, Cody Rhodes. Grayson dissed him a bit and Cody straight up said “FINE SPEECH” like he’s John Cena. After running down the basics of the heel talk show segment, Cody said he wanted this time for something he managed to pull strings to get which is to bring Main Event Jey Uso to Raw. Didn’t see that coming but it can prolong Jimmy vs. Jey. Anyway, Jey came out to a great pop and Cody left to the entrance. Grayson ran down Jey a bit until Jey laid him out with a superkick. An interesting development but more Jey Uso is good, especially away from the Bloodline.

Women’s World Championship: Rhea Ripley [c] vs. Raquel Rodriguez

Things were pretty even from the start here with Raquel proving that se indeed couldn’t be overpowered by Rhea. Corey Graves made note of the difference between these two being that Rhea has the psychological edge and is willing to play mind games and go the extra mile. That was how Rhea took control, talking trash, being arrogant, and throwing hard shots. Raquel fought back with her generic offense before Rhea chop blocked her and turned things around. She got trapped with her knee in an ugly position but quickly managed to do that chop block and I liked the quick twist here. Plus, the move targets the injured leg of the challenger. The issue was that a lot of this moved slowly and nobody believed in Raquel winning so it felt like it took forever. Dom showed up and got taken out by Raquel, opening the door for a Riptide to retain in 17:21. Well, that was a match. I can say that much. Raquel isn’t ready for this spotlight and it has become increasingly clear that she’s not anywhere near the level of the top women in WWE. Anyway, this should’ve been a battel of two powerhouses but instead it was a slow, dull affair. [**]

World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins [c] vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Nakamura got a special anime style intro which was sick as hell. A lot of the early stuff here didn’t feel any different from your standard Rollins/Nakamura match. Not that they’ve wrestled a bunch but it didn’t have the added aggression that this feud is built upon. That changed after some Seth tope suicidas because Nakamura swung the momentum and got more vicious. He threw Seth into the barricade and all around ringside with reckless abandon. Seth’s back became a focal point as Nakamura went after it but it also was changing up Seth’s offensive game. For example, he had to switch from a superplex to a super rana to save the pressure on his back. I did like Seth using High Fly Flow and a Rainmaker given he’s facing someone who has history with both Tanahashi and Okada. Okay, maybe the HFF was just a frog splash but still. Even with Seth hitting pretty big moves like that, Nakamura remained in control and Seth really had to fight from beneath. He worked well in that environment and Nakamura did the heel stuff as good as he ever has but this suffered from a problem on this show which was going too long. It didn’t need to go 25:57 as parts of it dragged. Nakamura did hit Kinshasa and I thought he might actually pull out the win but once Seth kicked out, it seemed obvious that it was basically over. Seth eventually hit the Curb Stomp to retain in something of a flat finish. That was very good but never sniffed greatness. [***½]

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

A show with two tremendous matches, one very good main event, and three mid matches is a show I’d call good, especially since none of the lackluster bouts were terrible. Plus, we got a standout Trish performance, the Jey Uso return, and Judgment Day being awesome.