WWE Payback 2016 Matches: Best Possible Finish for Each Contest
The beauty of a pay-per-view event like WWE's Payback is that its placement between WrestleMania and Extreme Rules allows the event to feature unique finishes. The results may not be the most appealing on the surface, but they progress storylines that can continue on for a few more weeks.
Given the state of the feuds that will write their latest chapters Sunday night in suburban Chicago, there figure to be many that will continue on past the extravaganza. The question is how that is accomplished without damaging the characters involved.
Roman Reigns will defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against AJ Styles in a match that will have to effectively pay off weeks of extraordinary creative or render it a major missed opportunity.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens will finally meet for the first time in a televised match since the latter defeated his former friend for the NXT Championship back in 2015.
Both of those matches could potentially have long-reaching consequences on the current state of WWE television. Their outcomes are of the utmost importance.
With the importance of a finish never more apparent than this Sunday's spectacular, enjoy this look at the Payback card and the best way to conclude every one of the night's major contests.
United States Championship: Kalisto vs. Ryback
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The Kalisto experiment has been a complete and utter failure, though through no fault of the performer himself. A lack of television time, quality wins and anything remotely close to an interesting storyline have doomed his reign to notoriety as one of the worst in WWE history.
Sunday night, he battles Ryback in a rematch of their WrestleMania pre-show bout.
The match is met with about as much excitement as a prom night pimple, the result of zero build and nonexistent interest in either character. It does not appear as though there are many options available to WWE Creative when it comes to rebuilding either character's story in the foreseeable future, especially considering the wealth of young and exciting new talent that has recently debuted.
The one positive that the match has going for it is the chemistry between the competitors. Their match in Dallas was a smartly wrestled one, and their first battle way back in November exceeded expectations. The contest will be good, especially if it is given time, but it will fail to inspire just as the feud has.
Best Finish
Ryback puts an end to Kalisto's disastrous reign, finishing him off with Shellshocked and netting his second midcard championship in as many years.
No one will benefit either way.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin
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Baron Corbin has been one of the most effectively written characters in WWE since WrestleMania, where he won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He has been an unstoppable force, a wrecking machine rolling over any and all competition put in front of him.
The first Superstar to feel the wrath of The Lone Wolf was Dolph Ziggler. The Showoff—a former two-time world heavyweight champion—endured more than one beating at the hands of WWE's latest threat. He learned exactly what End of Days means for every Superstar unlucky enough to experience it.
Despite attacking Corbin on the April 25 episode of Monday Night Raw—jumping him from behind before a scheduled match with Damien Sandow—Ziggler remains the preemptive underdog heading into Payback.
Best Finish
As strong a performer as Ziggler is, and as reliable as he has always been, this match is not about him. It is not about stealing the show. The contest is an exercise in the selfless star's ability to put others over.
Arguably the most important match in Corbin's career to this point, he will have to perform up to the moment. If he can do that, and the layout of the match is beneficial, he will enter the summer riding a wave of momentum equal to that of just about any other Superstar on the roster.
Ziggler has already experienced End of Days before. That should be the case again at Payback as Corbin rolls onto bigger and better things.
Tag Team Tournament Finals: Enzo & Big Cass vs. The Vaudevillains
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The main roster debuts of Enzo Amore, Big Cass and The Vaudevillains was met with great fanfare, particularly in the case of the former two. Longtime stalwarts of NXT, the four Superstars more-than deserved the opportunity to either sink or swim on Raw and SmackDown.
No only have they all managed to swim, but they all have made it to the final round of a Tag Team No. 1 Contenders' Tournament, a date with The New Day and the WWE Tag Team Championships in the foreseeable future for whomever emerges victorious at Payback.
Enzo and Cass have ridden their undeniable charisma to immediate success, greeted with ovations in arenas across the globe, while The Vaudevillains struggled initially but have thrived since having the opportunity to talk. Now, both teams are looking to cap off their first month under the bright lights with a high-profile victory.
Best Finish
The Vaudevillains need the win so much more than Enzo and Cass. The babyfaces are incredibly over—their raw energy popping crowds and ensuring their unwavering popularity. Aiden English and Simon Gotch are still in a place where a loss can unravel everything that has been accomplished thus far in their push. They need credibility and legitimacy and that comes in the form of victory Sunday night.
Upon Enzo and Cass' arrival, they made enemies of The Dudley Boyz and even beat the legendary team during the rivalry. It is unfathomable that the most decorated duo in wrestling history would allow that to go unpunished.
The best finish for the contest would see some sort of interference on the part of The Dudley Boyz, perhaps eliminating the threat of Big Cass and leaving Amore to endure The Whirling Dervish. This way, The Vaudevillains move on to a feud with New Day while the latest chapter of the Amore and Cass vs. Dudleys story can be written.
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WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Cesaro vs. The Miz
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The Intercontinental Championship match pitting The Miz against No. 1 contender Cesaro has the potential to be a very strong match, especially given the recent in-ring performances by the two competitors. With that said, the writing behind the program has been lackluster—to say the least—consisting of obnoxious movie references rather than revolving around the coveted secondary title.
Miz has been outstanding in his renewed push, and the addition of Maryse to the act has done wonders to help add further heat to WWE's purest heel.
Cesaro has exploded back onto the scene, delivering performances between the ropes that remind audiences why he is one of the best workers in the industry. He is as over with fans now as he has ever been and that bodes well for his future.
The real question is whether WWE Creative can really afford to have either of these guys lose at this point.
Miz is as hot as he has been in years while Cesaro is just recapturing momentum following his absence. Losing would do significant damage to either one, but the presence of Maryse creates a scenario where The Swiss Superstar can at least retain his heat.
Best Finish
A distraction from Maryse that allows Miz to score a screwy win—perhaps off of a fluky schoolboy rollup—would lend more heat to the heel champion while essentially telling the audience that Cesaro was the better man and would have won the title was it not for the interference of the blonde bombshell at ringside.
That finish generates a rematch, which would be best for both Superstars because it would allow a few more weeks of storytelling and, hopefully, a stronger foundation for their program than Dirty Harry quotes.
Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho
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The reputations of Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho have fueled interest in this match far more than any writing has. Don't believe that? Consider the fact that the entirety of their issues center around Jericho's jealousy over The Lunatic Fringe's new talk show, The Ambrose Asylum.
That is it.
Other than some tag team matches and a brawl on the April 25 episode of Raw that ended with a Walls of Jericho on the announce table, there has been no meat whatsoever to the feud. Instead, it has been a program defined by its parts rather than judged for its quality.
Jericho is coming off of a WrestleMania 32 victory over AJ Styles, which still makes no sense, while Ambrose is fresh off of a one-sided beating courtesy of Brock Lesnar. Neither has been particularly hot, instead, thrown together for lack of anything better to do.
The match will probably be very good because the talent of the Superstars themselves will dictate it, but that does not change the fact that the build has been so underwhelming, especially given the strength of the characters involved.
Best Finish
Ambrose rebounds from a wildly disappointing WrestleMania match with a clean win over Jericho, presumably with Dirty Deeds.
Considering the lack of quality heels on the main roster, it is a risky move to diminish Y2J at this point, but Ambrose is in desperate need of a victory coming off of two straight main event losses.
Jericho is a smart performer, capable of getting every bit of his heat back in a single promo. A loss Sunday will mean far less to him than it will Ambrose.
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens
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Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens have been feuding on-and-off since the latter arrived in NXT and shocked the world by ruining his best friend's championship celebration with a back-shattering apron powerbomb.
Zayn's main roster debut reignited the program and led to some intense brawls between the two. Unfortunately, post-WrestleMania television has seen the feud cool significantly thanks to the booking of generic tag matches.
A video package—originally aired on the April 25 episode of Raw—reminded fans of the emotional and personal foundation of the rivalry and also highlighted just how poorly booked it had become of late.
What should be one of the hottest matches on the card feels, unfortunately, like any of the other contests on the show thanks to a lack of followup on the part of a writing staff concentrated more on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship program than anything else.
Best Finish
The lackluster build to the match, coupled with the throwaway nature of the Payback pay-per-view, suggests that an indecisive outcome must be reached in the Zayn-Owens bout in order to keep it going into Extreme Rules.
If ever a match was perfectly suited for a high-profile gimmick match at that event, it is Zayn vs. Owens. A straight win for either Superstar essentially kills the necessity of a rematch, thus, the best finish for their match Sunday night is a double disqualification that sees the intensification of their physicality and a fight that spills beyond the ring.
Women's Championship Match: Natalya vs. Charlotte
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Everything that WWE did to make the Triple Threat match between Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch at WrestleMania feel like an industry-changer has been erased by an awful followup. A followup more focused on the familial legacies of champion Charlotte and top contender Natalya rather than the reintroduced Women's Championship.
Too much attention has been paid to Ric Flair and Bret Hart while the women at the center of the feud have been ignored, left to deliver excellent in-ring performances while floundering in the creative wasteland.
What should be a heated rivalry based on Natalya's determination to prove herself as one of the elite wrestlers in the industry has, instead, become another excuse to shine the spotlight on two male talents whose days as active performers are long gone.
Best Finish
This program needs to end because it has failed miserably to maintain the excitement and heat that encapsulated the women's division coming out of WrestleMania.
A submission win for Charlotte—preferably with the Figure Eight—would be the best way to wrap this underwhelming program up and move on.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns
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Roman Reigns will defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against AJ Styles in the main event of Payback. While the overall card looks, on paper, to be extraordinary, it is this one match that has the wrestling world buzzing, and much of that can be attributed to the writing that has accompanied it.
Not only has Reigns developed into a tweener of sorts, a guy who does not particularly care if fans boo or cheer him, Styles has exceeded all expectations and developed into a credible main event star for WWE.
The involvement of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson has left many wondering what their true intentions are and where their allegiances lie.
The many layers of the program, as well as the unpredictability, have injected a sense of excitement at the top of the card. It is quite the opposite of a month ago, when everyone knew Reigns would leave WrestleMania as the new heavyweight champion of the world.
The outside element of Gallows and Anderson, and the potential main roster debut of an old friend of their's, leaves the outcome of Sunday's main event a mystery in the best way imaginable.
Best Finish
Much has been made of Styles' previous relationship with Anderson and Gallows to the point that it feels like a red herring designed to throw the audience off. With that said, expect to see his former Bullet Club mates betray him leading to a successful title defense for Reigns.
The biggest question is whether or not we see Finn Balor make his long-awaited debut on the main roster.
The Demon, and former Bullet Club leader, finally dropped the NXT Championship and is free to make the jump. In that scenario, he would almost assuredly be the mastermind behind the invasion of Gallows and Anderson and the artist behind Styles' demise.
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