WWE Payback 2017 Results: Biggest Winners and Losers from Raw Event

WWE Payback is in the books, and in its wake are several winners and losers from Sunday's Raw-brand exclusive event.

Braun Strowman was a clear winner on the heels of a dominant, clean victory over Roman Reigns. Samoa Joe, Raw's other unstoppable force, emerged a loser following a match plagued by disappointing in-ring action and questionable booking, to say the least.

Bray Wyatt made the list. As did Cesaro and Sheamus. Rounding things out is new Raw women's champion Alexa Bliss, who dethroned the beloved Bayley in front of the heroine's family and friends in San Jose, California.

Which side of the argument do those Superstars find themselves on and why?

Recap Sunday's WWE Network presentation with this exclusive look back at the night's most noteworthy Superstars.

Winner: Braun Strowman

The Monster Among Men rolled into Payback Sunday night, destroyed Roman Reigns and pinned the three-time WWE champion clean in the center of the ring.

There was never a point in the match when it felt as though Reigns would come back to score the win. That is a testament to the strength of Strowman's booking.

The unstoppable force dominated the match en route to the biggest victory of his career, then proceeded to further punish his opponent via a post-match beatdown.

As has been the case so many times over the past few months, Strowman was booked to look like a star, and the fans responded accordingly. A strong win over the top star in the industry only added to the momentum and credibility Strowman has built in 2017. As the summer months arrive, he is clearly the top villain on the Raw brand.

The only question is whether he can maintain that momentum into the summer and remain the world-beating badass he has developed into.

Loser: Bray Wyatt

Yes, Bray Wyatt defeated Randy Orton in the House of Horrors match, bringing their rivalry to a close with a much-needed win.

But Wyatt was not booked strongly. Nor did he earn the victory. 

Wyatt only beat Orton because of interference from Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers, whose vendetta with The Viper will culminate in a WWE Championship match at SmackDown Live's Backlash pay-per-view. This was not a fortunes-changing victory for Wyatt. He is no better off than he was previously. 

It was a convoluted win rather than a strong, definitive one, and the result is a mess of a character whose motivations remain unclear, credibility has been repeatedly damaged by poor booking and work rate has been sacrificed for stupid gimmick bouts, hurting the quality of the matches.

The main event run that should have given Wyatt the push his character deserves was instead another majorly disappointing program that ended with a thud rather than a bang.

Winners: Cesaro and Sheamus

After weeks of teasing a heel turn, Cesaro and Sheamus finally delivered Sunday night, demolishing The Hardy Boyz after Sunday's Raw Tag Team Championships match.

The former No. 1 contenders demonstrated an aggression and intensity they had lacked in recent weeks and awoken a beast inside the brothers Hardy that could result in the emergence of the Broken Hardys gimmick on WWE programming.

While fans have been waiting for Matt Hardy to delete the competition, the events of Sunday's pay-per-view helped earn their opponents winner status because of a turn that will freshen their act up. There is more interest and quality television to come out of Sheamus and Cesaro as villains than the energetic good guys who work hard but do not win.

Now set up as the lead baddies of the Raw tag team division, expect Sheamus and Cesaro to run roughshod until Matt and Jeff Hardy return, hell-bent on deleting the international Superstars from their lives.

Loser: Samoa Joe

Not only was Sunday's match between Samoa Joe and Seth Rollins immensely disappointing from an in-ring perspective, but the use of The Destroyer was lackluster.

Outside of a fleeting moment early in the match when the action spilled to the arena floor, Joe was an also-ran of a bad guy. He was no better or worse than the other faceless villains who make up WWE's jam-packed midcard.

Nothing he did was reflective of his status as one of the elite bad guys on the Raw roster. If anything, the match always felt like a showcase for Rollins rather than an opportunity for Joe to elevate his star in front of a main-roster fanbase.

His performance reflected as much, and the match suffered as a result.

A disappointing showing between the ropes, coupled with unsatisfactory booking and a questionable loss, made for a thoroughly lackluster night for The Samoan Submission Machine.

Winner: Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss became the first Superstar to capture both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships Sunday night, defeating Bayley to win the former in front of the beloved babyface's hometown fans, friends and family.

Bliss proved her growth as a performer, wrestling a strong match that also allowed her to showcase her unparalleled facial expressions and body language. Little Miss Bliss was fantastic as she exhibited her Five Feet of Fury, controlling the match and finishing Bayley off with a picture-perfect DDT after the babyface collided face-first with the ring post.

The win was convincing, featured no cheating and firmly established Bliss as the lead villainess on the flagship show.

Now ready to dominate Raw in the same manner in which she owned SmackDown Live, Bliss figures to be the woman around whom the division is built.