CLEVELAND, Ohio – When the WWE presents a pay-per-view titled "Payback," you can expect a good amount of repetition.
On Sunday night, we saw several matchups, moves and outcomes we've seen before. Yet, thankfully, the WWE still had a few more tricks up its sleeve.
You know a pay-per-view's off to a good start when the first words you hear are, "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman." The loud-mouthed manager's reference to bringing out a "Paul Heyman guy" brought an onslaught of CM Punk chants from fans at the Allstate Arena.
The Chicago-area crowd may have loved Paul Heyman from the start, but it took everything the night's performers had to earn the audience's respect.
First up where Sheamus and Cesaro, who took part in a hard-hitting United States Championship match that ended with a surprise pin by Sheamus, just as Cesaro was getting into the swing of things.
What followed was a series of matches we could have done without. Rybaxel's (Ryback and Curtis Alex) match against Cody Rhodes and Goldust produced nothing more than a few "Goldberg" chants and more proof that Ryback still doesn't have a neck.
Next up, Rusev disposed of Big E in less than thrilling fashion. Though, Big E deserves points for an awesome spear that catapulted the two outside the ring.
Bo Dallas faced off against Kofi Kingston in an impromptu match that featured an interruption from Kane, who beat the living crap out of Kingston. Bo Dallas interjected a few humorous lines, but there's still no proof he can wrestle on the biggest of stages.
In between all of the competition was a face-to-face between WWE Champion Daniel Bryan and Stephanie McMahon. The last few episodes of Monday Night Raw found WWE co-owner McMahon demanding Bryan, who is recovering from neck surgery, relinquish his title.
However, things didn't quite go as planned. The confrontation ended with Bryan's wife, Brie Bella, quitting the WWE and slapping McMahon across the face.
The Intercontinental Championship match between Bad News Barrett and Rob Van Dam was extremely disappointing. Neither performer was able to establish much of a flow before Barrett won the match in nondramatic fashion.
What wasn't disappointing was the latest faceoff between John Cena and Bray Wyatt. They may not have accomplished it at WrestleMania 30 or in a steel cage, but on Sunday night Cena and Wyatt finally gave fans the masterpiece we knew they were capable of.
The match began with Wyatt's epic entrance into a dark arena full of cellphones. What followed was a "Last Man Standing" match that had it all – close counts, steel chairs and broken tables.
Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, in Wyatt's corner, and the Usos, in Cena's corner, interfered with entertaining results. Wyatt and Cena were the stars of the show, however, putting their bodies on the line until an epic finish that saw Cena slamming Wyatt through a trunk for the win. It's a definite match of the year candidate.
Paige's continued domination of the WWE Divas division served as a nice lead-in to the night's main event. It was Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista (aka Evolution) versus The Shield in an elimination match, for likely (and hopefully) the final time.
The match played out rather odd. Evolution dominated The Shield almost to the point of exhaustion. Personally, I thought the caning of Roman Reigns was a little bit much for the "PG era."
It wasn't until Seth Rollins dove from the "Titan Tron" that the match really took shape. The Shield then quickly disposed of Batista (or "Bootista" as the crowd chanted) and Orton. Triple H put up a decent fight with a sledgehammer, but was eventually finished off.
Rumor has it that Batista will exit the WWE for a while in order to promote the upcoming "Guardians of the Galaxy" film. Hopefully he can win some of his fans back with the film, which looks a heck of a lot better than his recent WWE run.
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