WWE Payback 2013 Review

Match 1: Intercontinental Championship - Wade Barrett (c) vs. The Miz vs. Curtis Axel
This is the inaugural edition of Payback and Barrett has his hands full in a triple threat match for his Intercontinental Championship. The Chicago crowd is hot and split between all three men. Miz doesn't get enough credit, he's improved so much in the ring over the years and he looked awesome here. Pun intended. His face turn has seemingly given him new life to his stale character. Great opening match with lots of ups and downs with a cool ending. Miz locked Barrett in the Figure Four as Axel sneaks in like a snake and pins Barrett for the win. Crowd popped pretty big for Axel and this win can do wonders for him. Axel hugs Paul Heyman and celebrates with the title as he looks to the sky.
Winner: Curtis Axel
Rating: ***1/4

Match 2: Divas Championship - Kaitlyn (c) vs. AJ Lee
After Big E Langston surprise Kaitlyn as her secret admirer and came to AJ Lee's side, we have this match. The two are probably the best in-ring Divas which probably explains why they were given a decent amount of time. Good action for a Divas match that saw Kaitlyn hit a Spear and nearly retain before AJ kicked out and put her in a Black Widow for the submission win. AJ celebrates as the crowd pops for her and give heat towards a distraught Kaitlyn. One of the better Divas matches that you will see, nothing great but much better than what we have become accustomed to seeing.
Winner: AJ Lee
Rating: *1/2

Match 3: United States Championship - Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Kane
This is the third straight championship match and it sees Ambrose defending the gold against the veteran Kane. Basic Kane match with Ambrose hanging around and trying to do everything to take down the big man. Ambrose even tried hitting an Old School on Kane but to no avail. They took things outside where Ambrose landed a DDT and scored a a countout victory. Nice little win here for Ambrose as he is the first champion of the night to successfully retain. Nothing too special here.
Winner: Dean Ambrose
Rating: **

Match 4: World Heavyweight Championship - Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio
It's easy to forget that coming into this match, Del Rio is not the heel, Ziggler is. This is Ziggler's first match in weeks after he suffered a concussion. The Chicago crowd is hot for Ziggler, who is still the heel. That is, of course, until he begins to show signs of the concussion he suffered. Del Rio uses this as his target and begins to show no mercy and the switch is finally taking place. Del Rio is now a full-fledged heel and Ziggler has become the face. I'm loving it and the commentators are hyping it up. Ziggler is great in his role here in selling the injury, whether he botched a signature move on purpose or not is irrelevant. It fit the spot and the crowd was popping for everything. Again, Del Rio continued to show no mercy and was relentless, he is a heel at heart. Ziggler kept kicking out of everything Del Rio gave him until the final couple minutes where it was too much. Ziggler was outside the ring as the trainers began looking over him which led Del Rio to dive out of the ring and landed a kick right to the back of his head. Ricardo Rodriguez screams that Ziggler is fine as Del Rio rolls him back into the ring, lands another kick, and wins the match. Great double turn here and a nice little match considering Ziggler was limited in his role. Del Rio should always be a heel, period. This is the third title switch of the night.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
Rating: ***

Match 5: Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk
This is Punk's first match since WrestleMania and his hometown of Chicago gives him a very welcoming reaction. These two have been wrestling against each other for years and even had a match at WrestleMania. Much like the last match, it's easy to forget that Punk is the heel here. They did a great job of milking a hot crowd and the match flowed nicely throughout. Starting off with basic wrestling before turning things up a notch and still keeping the crowd on their toes. The interesting part of the match was when Punk had Jericho set for a GTS until Heyman came up on the steps and inadvertently distracted Punk. Jericho nearly capitalized on the situation and almost scored a win. Planting seeds for an inevitable turn on Punk begins here. Lots of ups and downs here that saw Jericho kick out of a GTS and Punk kick out of a Codebreaker. Punk eventually landed two GTSs to score the win in a very fun match. It's easy to say that these two will always have a great match against each other and this one was no different.
Winner: CM Punk
Rating: ***3/4

Match 6: WWE World Tag Team Championships - The Shield (c) vs. Daniel Bryan & Randy Orton
Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins are representing The Shield here as they defend the gold. Crowd is chanting big for Daniel Bryan and they eat it up every time he steps foot in the ring. Shield aren't veterans in the WWE but they can definitely hang in there with the best, this was no different. Great wrestling from start to finish that was a tad bit slow in the first half but nothing that got the crowd out of it. Miscommunication set in for Bryan & Orton when Bryan accidentally flew outside the ring into Orton. More miscommunication came about during the finishing sequence as Reigns landed a Spear on Bryan who Orton basically tossed into. Orton hit an RKO on Reigns as Rollins hit Orton to the outside where Rollins hit his finisher on Bryan for the win. Fun match that foreshadows a possible feud for Orton against Bryan as well as a heel turn.
Winners: The Shield
Rating: ***1/4

Match 7: WWE Championship - 3 Stages of Hell - John Cena (c) vs. Ryback
The first stage of the match is a Lumberjack match. Not normally my favorite match but it makes sense for the first stage. Chicago isn't very friendly towards Cena and they aren't too keen on Ryback. Even still, the chemistry here wasn't bad and they managed to use the gimmick to its potential. One of the cool spots included Cena jumping out of the ring onto all the lumberjacks. Ryback scores the pin and wins the first stage of the match. Surprising to see Ryback score the pin here, shows how much management believes in this guy. The second stage is now a Tables match. All Ryback needs to do is put Cena through a table and he will be crowned the new champion. Ryback controls basically all of the stage but isn't able to score the win as Cena lands a quick Attitude Adjustment to tie up the match. The last and deciding stage is an Ambulance match. Ryback puts Cena through the announce table before the match begins and carries Cena to the ambulance once the match begins. This is where the goofiness happens as they tear apart the ambulance and beat the crap out of each other. They eventually get on top of the ambulance where Cena lands an Attitude Adjustment on Ryback through the roof and to pick up the win. Another smoke and mirrors match to hide Ryback's limited abilities but I kind of enjoyed it. A match like this every now and then doesn't hurt.
Winner: John Cena
Rating: **3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Decent debut for the Payback PPV that featured a strong crowd in Chicago. None of the matches were insulting but none of the matches were too notable. Punk's return will overall be the reason we look back at this show and for good reason, he was the show.
Rating: 6.75/10