Almost every Monday night for the past month, this writer has been busy with one thing or another. Between hanging out with friends and watching the E3 press conferences, I have been slacking when it has come to tuning into the latest episodes of Monday Night Raw. I have been following enough to somewhat understand what is going at this current point, but not enough to do a full-on preview of this upcoming PPV, Payback. Instead this article will be a quick preview of the event with my predictions and thoughts on Payback as a whole.
Well, the WWE found a replacement for the abysmal Over the Limit PPV. Funny enough, it is just another generic PPV by the name of Payback. WWE has done a commendable job of taking the name of this PPV and making it the theme of most of the matches on the card. Each match on the card has some sort of bitter feud behind it. It is a nice parallel to the name of the PPV, but it is not enough of a selling point for Payback. The real selling points will be the big matches on the card especially CM Punk’s return match against Chris Jericho. While the WWE has not done much build for this match outside Jericho’s initial challenge on the Highlight Reel, it will still be a major match this Sunday. This match will set the course where the WWE takes CM Punk leading into one of the most important times of the year, the summer. There are rumours of some sort of double turn taking place at Payback, but this writer does not know for sure. Personally, I would love to see Punk stay heel and go onto challenge the Undertaker to a rematch at Summerslam or Night of Champions in order to lead to a Hell in a Cell match at the Hell in a Cell PPV, but we will have to wait for Sunday to see. CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho will easily be one of the best matches on this card especially considering Payback will be in Chicago, one of the hottest wrestling cities in the world and Punk’s hometown. Another match that should gain plenty of attention this Sunday is John Cena vs. Ryback in 3 Stages of Hell for the WWE Championship. As much as this writer has his fingers crossed that Ryback will finally win the WWE Championship at Payback, reports say otherwise. This 3 Stages of Hell match will be used to make Cena look strong heading into the summer months and a potential feud with Daniel Bryan. At least, we should get a very physical and hopefully entertaining match out of Cena and Ryback. Looking at the card, Payback seems like a fine show. It is not the WWE’s best offering as this writer believes they are holding out until Money in the Bank and Summerslam to really knock us out, but with the backing of the phenomenal Chicago crowd Payback should be a fun PPV.
Wade Barrett (c) vs. The Miz vs. Curtis Axel in a Triple Threat Match for the Intercontinental Championship
Prediction: Curtis Axel wins the Intercontinental Championship
Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Kane for the United States Championship
Prediction: Dean Ambrose retains
The Shield (c) vs. Daniel Bryan & Randy Orton for the WWE Tag Team Championship
Prediction: The Shield retains
Kaitlyn (c) vs. AJ Lee for the Divas Championship
Prediction: AJ Lee wins the Divas Championship
Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship
Prediction: Dolph Ziggler retains
CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho
Prediction: CM Punk wins
John Cena (c) vs. Ryback in a 3 Stages of Hell for the WWE Championship
Prediction: John Cena retains
Since 2009, the WWE has gone through quite a few different PPVs with only a few actually sticking. June has been a hard month to hammer down a PPV for. Hopefully, Payback does well enough to be the regular June PPV from now on because this writer does not want to have another brand new PPV next June.
No comments:
Post a Comment