WWE Payback 2015 Results: Worst Booking Decisions from PPV

WWE Payback actually produced some very fine matches for a pay-per-view that had very little build aside from its main event.

For example, does anyone know exactly why we should have cared about the Bray Wyatt-Ryback match? While the purpose of their feud was shrouded in secrecy, the match these two put on was solid. The same can be said for Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus and The New Day vs. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd.

All three matches were exemplary, yet all three stories have holes you could drive a tractor trailer through.

While WWE Creative seemed to use this pay-per-view to advance narratives, almost none of the matches increased interest in them. As a whole, that was the worst booking decision surrounding Sunday's event.

With that said, some decisions on Payback were more egregious than others.

The Bella Twins vs. Tamina Snuka and Naomi

Following Extreme Rules, the natural story progression would have seen Naomi trying to recapture the WWE Divas Championship from Nikki Bella.

For the last three weeks, fans have instead been given a loose storyline about family ties that seems to be plucked out of Spaceballs. This storytelling is confusing, and the wrestling is of little consequence. The tag team match did little to excite—both during the match and in its aftermath.

According to the backstage interview following the match, the whole point of it was to preview a Divas Championship rematch on Raw:

There is little to be invested in with any of these women, and a lot of this has to do with the role reversals these women have undergone seemingly overnight. Crowds don’t know how to react, so there’s no investment on their part.

Brie Bella’s interference at the last PPV cost Naomi the title. With Tamina Snuka as Naomi’s enforcer to keep Brie at bay, a grudge match would have been more interesting than what we got on Sunday night.

The WWE seems to be in a holding pattern with its Divas division until Vince McMahon and Triple H decide to call up their NXT superstars.

King Barrett vs. Neville

For two performers who have wowed in recent weeks, this match bored. Aside from the wrestlers splitting the two previous one-on-one matches, Barrett vs. Neville has no angle.

All we’ve been told regarding this feud is Barrett views Neville as a peasant. Yawn.

As mentioned earlier, even Payback matches without a viable story succeeded on this night. This one, however, failed to deliver. Neville won via count-out and the two combined for multiple missed spots. Yawn.

At first, there was the inkling that Neville was actually hurt following his moonsault outside the ring. That would have explained the questionable ending. However, Barrett’s run-in following the count-out and the subsequent Red Arrow from Neville eliminated that possibility.

Both of these guys seem destined to be in the Elimination Chamber match for the Intercontinental Championship. Using that angle in the build to their Payback match would have helped frame them as top contenders for that title.

John Cena vs. Rusev

This bout might have featured the worst booking decision of the night due to the sheer fact that it shouldn’t have been made in the first place.

The WWE Universe didn’t need a fourth Cena-Rusev match, much less one that included a stipulation that has never seen the current United States champion lose. Fans got a predictable match that bordered on annoying thanks to referee Mike Chioda’s insistence to ask competitors if they were ready to give up every split second.

It wasn’t even a logical conclusion.

Rusev couldn’t win because a passed-out Cena couldn’t utter the words “I quit,” but Lana was allowed to toss in the towel for Rusev, who apparently never said the words himself.

In the end, this was a hurried, questionable finish that merely advanced the inevitable Rusev-Lana split, which could have played out a dozen different ways.