WWE Payback 2014 Results: Major Questions Raised by Sunday's Massive PPV

WWE Payback accomplished its goal in giving fans a solid show from top to bottom and setting the stage for the summer to come in WWE programming.

Over the last few years, SummerSlam has arguably rivaled WrestleMania season in terms of quality of storytelling. Maybe the company feels it can take more risks because it doesn't have the kind of mainstream audience that begins tuning in around January, February and March.

No matter the reason, this is always a great time to be a wrestling fan.

Payback served to end a couple of feuds on Sunday, thus allowing the slate to be cleared for fresh stories and rivalries.

Looking ahead, these are three of the biggest questions that will need to be answered in the coming weeks.

Are We Finally Getting the Rhodes Brothers Feud We Should've Gotten Months Ago?

Remember when The Rhodes Brothers beat The Shield at Battleground last October and Cody Rhodes hit that killer Cross Rhodes?

Cody and Goldust were on fire then.

Right around the Royal Rumble, it looked like The Rhodes Brothers were headed for a breakup. Then, it never came. Over time, the heat the tag team once had has all but evaporated.

It looks as though WWE is trying to revive the storyline, though, which would be long overdue.

Cody was obviously teasing something when he acted like the loss to RybAxel was all his fault, per WWE Universe:

Jonathan Bachman/Associated Press

After the match, he remained dismissive.

Perhaps this is the time for Rhodes to make a heel turn. He could play like he's all sorry for dragging the tag team down but then attack his brother at the most opportune time, blaming him for the team's problems.

It would be a classic heel move.

Between the two, Cody should be the one to become the bad guy. He's great as a heel, and as the younger of the two brothers, his character needs to have more depth in order to grow as a wrestler.

Everything might be falling in place to make that happen.

There isn't a whole lot going on in the midcard right now, so a Rhodes Brothers breakup could get the proper weight that it deserves.

So Daniel Bryan's Still the Champion?

I'll admit that I wasn't emotionally invested too much in this because I'm not a huge fan of either Bella sister. I couldn't care less that Brie Bella quit. I will, however, miss her fantastic acting.

On a side note, isn't there some sort of 30-day clause that Daniel Bryan had to defend the title in 30 days or be stripped?

That's definitely been invoked in the past, but like everything else in wrestling, that's probably been retconned at some point.

The more important question is, what in the world is going on with the WWE title right now?

It's probably safe to assume that Bryan isn't 100 percent yet, so when is he gonna be ready to wrestle again?

He can only talk for so long before this all becomes monotonous. He's the world heavyweight champion for crying out loud. Bryan needs to be in the ring defending his belt.

Otherwise, there's no point in him holding the straps.

Bryan's next opponent must be sorted out within the week, whether it's explicitly stated or tacitly implied.

Presumably, the guy will be someone related to The Authority.

Maybe Batista? That would be a good feud, especially with Batista taking advantage of Bryan's bad neck.

Orton probably wouldn't be a good option because we saw that last summer, and it was pretty much garbage.

Either way, Bryan needs something good or he risks becoming CM Punk—a WWE champion treading water with good but not great feuds while being overshadowed by the stuff happening at the top of the card.

As an aside, holy crap, Stephanie McMahon. This has been the case ever since she involved herself in The Authority/Daniel Bryan storyline, but she was on point Sunday night.

The way in which she pulled out that jab at Punk would've made Paul Heyman proud:

Jonathan Bachman/Associated Press

She well and truly has become a McMahon.

Where Does Bray Wyatt Go From Here?

That Last Man Standing Match was pitch perfect. Everything about it was great.

Having The Usos come out to help John Cena was a smart move. It put some heat on the tag team and eliminated the chance of The Wyatt Family having a three-on-one advantage in a no-disqualification match and Cena still winning.

This match had plenty of parallels to Cena's Last Man Standing Match against Umaga at Royal Rumble 2007—which you need to see if you haven't because it's one of Cena's best matches. Sunday even had the same crazy steel steps spot. I half-wondered if Wyatt was gonna take the turnbuckle off and try to spike Cena with it.

The only complaint is that this match should've come earlier in the feud in order to make Wyatt look a little stronger. Losing to Cena at WrestleMania 30 and then getting Dolph Ziggler'ed at Extreme Rules didn't help him at all.

He had a ton of heat from the Chicago crowd, but Chicago has always provided great crowds.

It will be interesting to see if Wyatt can become a monster heel again, because right now, he's essentially been just another generic big, strong guy for Cena to overcome, like Ryback, The Great Khali, Umaga and Kane were in the past.

Sunday played like the blow-off match for Cena and Wyatt, so now Wyatt needs a strong foil for his next rivalry in order to regain the momentum he's lost over the last few months.

And if Sunday proved anything, it's that he can go in the ring.