WWE Payback 2016 Part 2
Funaki, part of the Japanese announce team, botches his one line and the camera moves away. It was so hilarious, even funnier than if he got his “#1 announcer!” line correctly.
JERICHO vs DEAN AMBROSE
Jericho’s such an entertaining heel troll. He’s quite funny on Twitter. Love his douchey aging rockstar heel-garnering look of a long scarf and dinner jacket with no shirt. Also loving his 70s generic heel insult, shouting “you stupid idiot!”. Jericho, despite winning at Mania against AJ, took the loss in the four-way the night afterwards, and found a new person to feud with in Ambrose. Dean, fresh off his depressing feud with Brock, is in a similar position. (Ambrose got beaten up each week before Mania by Brock, and then lost decisively clean at Mania — the feud was low on the card and didn’t elevate him at all, the guy who still has to stick around every week). They use Shane O Mac renaming the Highlight Reel as the Ambrose Asylum as a trivial reason to pick a fight with each other. The feud hasn’t really started yet.
Both are accomplished, smooth wrestlers and the match really got cooking at points, but since it’s gotten little reason to care beyond both are great personalities and wrestlers, it felt flat to me. The crowd were up for it, and Dean got a much-needed win.
On RAW, Steph cancelled the Ambrose Asylum talk segment and reinstated Jericho’s Highlight Reel, and Y2J broke Dean’s potted plant, “Mitch”. WWE have this thing about testing excellent personalities with awful wackiness, I don’t know how much longer Dean can work his magic before people start dismissing him.
Nobody cares about you jackass. https://t.co/kMUKpYiNUg
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) May 3, 2016
WOMEN’S TITLE: Charlotte (c) vs Nattie
The Divas title is no more, as a new championship was awarded to Charlotte – the WWE women’s championship, a red version of the WWE title. Thank God, a million times better than the Divas title, feels like a legitimate title, and not a flowery girly accessory. Nattie’s wormed her way into the #1 contender’s spot and made Charlotte tap in a tag match. To counteract Ric’s interference, Uncle Bret will be in Mattie’s corner. I know he’s a bigger star but it’s odd that Jim Neidhart, her dad, isn’t in her corner. He’s alive and was seen in Total Divas.
Nattie has always been an excellent women’s wrestler but never truly successful (always down the pecking order for Divas) perhaps it’s because she feels awkward. Like the girl in class who seems nice but you’ve absolutely nothing to say to her. Great to see her at the top of the queue. She showed much more personality & confidence/swagger esp. in the opening exchanges. A very enjoyable bout, but then it happens. A Fucking Montreal Screwjob. Jesus Christ. WWE will just not let it die — I thought when Bret returned that’d finally be it’s end. Little Naitch even does the McMahon look to Charlotte (who doesn’t seem to cop it). Ring the bell, Charlotte retains, and Bret & Nattie get their heat back by doing stereo sharpshooters. Bret says he came up with that final spot (not the screwjob).
On RAW the heels denied any shenanigans (Little Naitch saying he heard Nattie verbally submit) and we’re getting a submission match next month.
McMahons segment – Vince chooses Steph or Shane to run RAW.
“CM Punk” chants and Vince goads them to continue, which they don’t, lol. Steph tries to make her case and goddamn, the crowd are SO LOUD booing her. It’s so amazing. Man, wrestling fans are still super-passionate. I wonder what casual fans think when they see/hear segments like this. She gives a pretty great corporate pitch about why she should be picked. Shane (beloved to fans everywhere) goes for the internet approach by picking headlines from various news outlets (no dirtsheets obviously!). Honestly, Steph had a much better argument and Shane didn’t pick up on Vince mentioning RAW reinventing itself (so a new person should be in charge). In the end we get the ultimate cop out of a Austin/Bischoff 50/50, both of you run RAW. We’re gonna get so many McMahon squabbling backstage segments, just give it a few weeks. BTW, Vince has the amazing line of “I don’t listen to anyone…except me!” line that should be splicied in out of context 😀 This segment feels like it should be on RAW (as it affects RAW) but it’s great to hear the crowd absolutely rabid at Steph.
MAIN EVENT WWE TITLE: Roman Reigns (c) vs AJ Styles
Roman was crowned a 3-time WWE champion (Jesus!) last month at WrestleMania in an absolute stinker against Triple H. Styles won the 4-way on RAW the night afterwards and is the new #1 contender. Adding sizzle to the steak, former Bullet Club members, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, are hinting at being paired with Styles by interfering on his behalf. AJ is playing a babyface that is friends with heels. Since WWE are building the company around Reigns, and delayed his big wrestlemania win by a year (due to overwhelming negative reaction), there’s no way Roman was going to lose this match. But it’s up to the performers to make me doubt that.
It’s interesting to see Reigns play the big strongman vs the smaller AJ, he did some big shoulder-tackles and repeat deadlift-powerbombs to show off his strength. Reminds me of Shawn Michaels remarking how people would love to wrestle the Rockers because they would bump all around for them and would take all these power moves. They put on a much, much better match than Reigns had last month, and go full on X7 with the amount of false finishes and kicking out of each other’s signature moves. AJ did a phenomenal forearm to Reigns breaking the announce table, looked fantastic. They actually did it so much it got me to believe maybe AJ could possibly win it! (so well done!). They do a ton of screwy finishes (countout, DQ) so Shane and Steph can restart the bout, Doc and Karl run-in, Usos run-in (it set up a match on RAW the next night) but Reigns secures the win with a spear. Very entertaining match (even if seeing McMahons stick themselves in it is a bit disheartening) — this arguably Roman’s best singles bout ever. Great job guys.
We close the show backstage with Vince, Shane and Steph agreeing to an extreme rules rematch at Extreme Rules.
Overall: Kevin Owens stole the show, the matches were generally great (only one I wasn’t invested in was Ambrose/Jericho) but apart from the McMahons going on before, during and after the main event, it was a high quality wrestling PPV. So happy to have Cesaro back as well. Good job WWE! However, since extreme rules is 3 weeks later, a lot of the feuds are just continuing, making this show a bit inconsequential. Way better viewing experience than Mania, and tons of great wrestlers on the roster! Thumbs up!
Here’s KO tweeting Enzo’s alright 🙂
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) May 2, 2016
Table for 3 review: http://oswreview.com/table-for-3-four-horsemen/
Super OSW 64 Level 8 videogame radio show will be on the podcast feed tomorrow!