Bayley (c) vs. Alexa Bliss (WWE Raw Women’s Championship)
Reactions: SHOUT OUT TO AELXA BLISS! She’s entered the record books as being the 1st woman to win both the new Raw and SmackDown Live Women’s Championships. This shocking upset came after a hard fought matchup between two quality NXT callups from 2016. Bayley’s hometown advantage put her in a good place and caused her to be a little bit more spirited with her offense. Bliss responded by working on Bayley’s head after throwing her into the corner ring post near the match’s beginning portion. This match resulted in some great counters from Bliss and Bayley’s fun to watch comeback arsenal. We popped extra hard after Bliss landed her Code Red off the top rope and when Bayley pulled off her “Macho Man” tribute elbow drop. Imagine how much harder we popped when Bliss walked away with the title after dropping Bayley with a nasty DDT. Bliss is the new WWE Raw Women’s Champion. We’re satisfied with the match itself, which makes the surprising result all the more sweeter.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Randy Orton (c) vs. Bray Wyatt (House of Horrors Match)
Reactions: So the rumors were indeed true – this House of Horrors feud ender saw its start during a pre-taped segment. Orton and Bray’s brawl throughout some creepy, dilapidated home was just too damn hokey to take seriously. The psychological tricks Bray played on Orton were just laughable and harkened back to some of the cornier gimmicks seen during the dying days of WCW. The starting segment of this whole match was a complete chore to sit through, honestly. Even watching Orton get squashed by a fridge did nothing to make us care about their initial brawl. Once the match made its way back to the arena, it got slightly better thanks to all the madness that ensued. Mahal and his stable complicated the whole affair by beating down Orton, which was a nice surprise. Bray got the win here and Orton’s planned Backlash match got some more fire throw atop it. Avoid the opening and just watch how Orton met his end via tons of interference. But let’s never have a House of Horrors match take place again. Please, WWE. Don’t try this anymore.
Rating: 1 & a Half out of 5 Stars
Kevin Owens (c) vs. Chris Jericho (WWE United States Championship; The Winner Will Transfer to SmackDown Live)
Reactions: While not as strong as their WrestleMania 33 match, we still got some enjoyment from this US Championship rematch. The match started off intense and maintained that same level of heated action right up until Owens got control. The middle portion was as basic as it comes, but the action kicked into a higher gear once Jericho locked in his signature submission hold. The one aspect of this bout that made it stand out is Y2J’s focus on weakening Owens’ hand. This helped present a more interesting lead up to the match’s shocking outcome (we totally thought Owens would retain here and go on to Backlash to clash with AJ Styles). This was a solid opener that was cool to follow based on Y2J’s hand work and the surprising ending.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman
Reactions: THANK YOU, STROWMAN! The crowd at this event were complete savages. AND WE LOVE IT! This brawl didn’t go very long. And to be quite honest, it wasn’t some full fledged match that had a ton of back and forth action. It was pretty much a public execution acted out by Braun Strowman towards a severely injured Roman Reigns. Don’t get us wrong – Reigns experienced a few moments where he had the big man on his knees. But Braun was in full beast mode here, which saw him do a ton of damage to Reigns. This short brawl was fine for what it was. The crowd came alive for it thanks to the mixed feelings over Reigns and the complete approval of Braun’s continued assault. It wasn’t amazing by any means, but the total destruction of Reigns was the perfect way to close Payback 2017.
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars