WWE Payback 2014 Review

The war between Evolution and The Shield continues. After The Shield beat Evolution at Extreme Rules, the return match sees the two teams clash in an elimination match to really see which team is the alpha of the WWE.

Match 1: WWE United States Championship - Sheamus (c) vs. Cesaro
Remember when Paul Heyman used to be Cesaro's manager? I totally forgot about that. With a match between Sheamus and Cesaro, you know you are going to give you a really physical match and that is exactly what they gave us. And of course, the Chicago crowd added another element to the match as the crowd was hot for Sheamus and even hotter for Cesaro. Cesaro was able to swing Sheamus but before he was able to his his Neutralizer finisher, Sheamus rolled him up to score the win. Great finish to a nice opening match. As great as Heyman is, his role as a manager with Cesaro felt pretty forced and unnecessary, glad he eventually remained exclusive to Brock Lesnar.
Winner: Sheamus
Rating: ***

Match 2: Cody Rhodes and Goldust vs. Curtis Axel and Ryback
Speaking of Paul Heyman guys, remember when Curtis Axel was managed by Heyman? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Speaking of Paul Heyman, there was also a point where he was siding with Ryback against CM Punk. But I digress. As hot as this crowd was for the opener, they were the exact opposite for this one. Ryback was finally able to hit a Shell Shocked in what was a better than expected. At this point, all of these guys had acts that were dying more than anything. Kind of crazy to think how slim the roster was at the time.
Winners: Curtis Axel and Ryback
Rating: *3/4

Match 3: Rusev vs. Big E
The two were having Russia vs. USA wars on TV before they finally met here on the PPV. WWE was so hot on Rusev at the time and rightfully so, this dude looks and acts the part with Lana playing her role perfectly. He quickly makes Big E tap out with The Accolade. Crazy to think how much Big E has changed his career after the creating of The New Day. His career was basically in the toilet at this point. Suitable match for the show but lacked so much time to really go anywhere with it.
Winner: Rusev
Rating: *

Match 4: Kofi Kingston vs. Bo Dallas
Welp, Bo Dallas comes out and does his usual shtick and right after the bell rings, Kane comes out and destroys Kofi Kingston as Bo Dallas managed to run away. So after a solid start to the show with the opening match, we get three bad matches in a row. Weakest start to a show that I can recall in a long time. Although I did like Bo Dallas cutting a promo on Kingston after Kane mopped the ring with him.
Winner: n/a
Rating: n/a

Match 5: WWE Intercontinental Championship - Bad News Barrett (c) vs. Rob Van Dam
Rob Van Dam looks to capture the Intercontinental Championship for the 7th time against Mr. Bad News Barrett himself. We finally get the chance to see a good match since the opener, you know you are in for something fun when one of these two guys are involved. You get your usual fun moves from RVD with Barrett doing everything in his power to hit his Bad News Bull Hammer. After a failed attempt, Barrett is able to land one and knock out RVD in the process. Solid match but nothing noteworthy, certainly on par for match of the night so far with the opener if that means anything.
Winner: Bad News Barrett
Rating: ***

Match 6: Last Man Standing - Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena
This is the third installment within their series as this also constitutes as the rubber match with John Cena winning their bout at WrestleMania and Bray Wyatt grabbing the win at Extreme Rules. They needed to do something different from the other two matches and aside from the type of match it was, they definitely integrated a lot of outside action. The whole Wyatt Family tried to start the match with an ambush but The Usos came out to Cena's defense as the two sides would go on to clash later on and set each other through tables in a couple of sweet spots. They made sure to make the counts from the referee actually seem legit and they were all strategically placed throughout the match so that they would not have to slow down the pace of the match. Kudos to them for that. Couple of my biggest gripes with the match were while they nicely placed the counts in the match, it was still a bit too slow for my liking, think they needed to take advantage of the hot Chicago crowd. Also, the referee missed a crucial count when Wyatt was down for a good minute. Could care less if there were outside distractions getting in the vision of the referee, it was really annoying. The fight spilled to the stage where Cena was able to hit an Attitude Adjustment through the equipment they held up there before burying him with another piece of equipment that allowed Cena to score the win. After a pretty bad to pretty bland slate of matches from the show, it was certainly refreshing to see something that was actually worthy of being on a PPV.
Winner: John Cena
Rating: ***3/4

Match 7: WWE Divas Championship - Paige (c) vs. Alicia Fox
This was a good way to bridge the gap between the two main events as Alicia Fox looks to capture the Divas Championship from Paige after Fox was able to score a victory against her on an episode of Monday Night Raw. The commentators showed lack of interest in this match as they were consistently talking about the previous match. Quite frankly, the crowd also showed little interest. Standard match here with Paige locking in her Black Widow finisher to end the match and pick up another big win for herself.
Winner: Paige
Rating: *

Match 8: No Holds Barred Elimination - Evolution vs. The Shield
2014 marked the year that The Shield was on the last legs of their mega push. This match right here could certainly be defined as the premier representation of that push. This would be Batista's final match from his 2014 return and also the last time we have seen him wrestle in the ring. Who knows if we'll actually see him in the WWE again, scary how for granted the fans took it at the time. They are basically begging him to come back now. But I digress, Evolution is trying to avenge their big loss at Extreme Rules here as The Shield look to cement their position as the top dogs in the company. You could almost separate this match into three parts. The first part consisted of a huge brawl between both sides with no team seemingly having the advantage. The second part saw the fight spill around the arena while Evolution dismantled every member of The Shield individually, including a Triple Powerbomb through the announcers table. Finally, Seth Rollins dove off the stage onto all members of Evolution to turn the tides as they then eliminated Batista, Randy Orton and Triple H in order to secure the biggest win of their careers. Fun match to close out the night and it certainly had a vibe to it that really made The Shield feel like a big deal. There was no doubt at this point, the company was putting all their eggs in the basket for Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Fantastic way to close out the night.
Winners: The Shield
Rating: ****1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Another decent outing for a WWE PPV with a couple matches being standouts in the Last Man Standing match along with the epic main event. They also placed an emphasis on Daniel Bryan having to surrender his World Heavyweight Championship with a great segment with Stephanie McMahon that saw her get slapped by Brie Bella. Tough to rate this show since there also happened to be a lot of bad stuff on the card to go with it. Either way, it's always nice to go back and watch that great main event over and over again. Of course, The Shield would soon break up after this and a new era would be ushered in.
Rating: 6.75/10