WWE Payback 2016 Results: Twitter Reacts to Top Stars, Moments and More

The WWE World Heavyweight Championship was up for grabs Sunday night in a hotly anticipated main event pitting Roman Reigns against No. 1 contender AJ Styles—the marquee match of a Payback pay-per-view that promised to usher in a new era in World Wrestling Entertainment.

While the jury is still out as to whether or not the event succeeded at that level, it was a roller coaster of emotions—a show that featured a little something for every portion of the audience and a legitimate Match of the Year contender to top it off.

Twitter had all of the instant reaction from Sunday's massive event, which also featured Mr. McMahon's long-awaited decision as to whether Shane or Stephanie would be put in charge of Raw and Dean Ambrose's latest attempt to win a meaningful match on pay-per-view in 2016.

Credit: WWE.com

Enzo Amore Injured

The WWE Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contenders' Tournament Final ended prematurely Sunday night when Enzo Amore suffered a nasty injury.

Several fans took to Twitter to give viewers a look at what was going on inside the arena as medics tended to Amore:

Get-well sentiments from his peers flooded Twitter:

Credit: WWE.com

Dean Ambrose Wins?!

It has been a long time since Dean Ambrose won a high-profile match on pay-per-view. The Twitterverse celebrated his victory over Chris Jericho accordingly:

"

DEAN AMBROSE WINS! #WWEPayback pic.twitter.com/zWhiPmN5h7

— Lee (@TheQueenHEEL) May 2, 2016"

Credit: WWE.com

The Decision

One of Payback's big selling points was Mr. McMahon's announcement regarding which of his children would go on to run Monday Night Raw. After hearing out both Shane and Stephanie, he made his decision, which WWE shared:

Said decision failed to capture the imagination of Twitter, leading to some rather unenthusiastic responses from Bleacher Report's James Moffat and Chris Mueller:

Parody account WWE Creative Humor took a more sarcastic dig at the segment, while B/R's Mike Chiari opted to look at the outcome in a more positive light:

Finally, The Fan's Podcast had an interesting take on what Shane and Stephanie running Raw together may look like:

Roman Retains In Extraordinary Fashion

While the rest of the Payback card was very strong heading in, the main event between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles generated the greatest interest in fans, if only for the unpredictability of it. The contest did not disappoint, drawing rave reviews across Twitter:

There were plenty of reasons for the universal praise, including dramatic near-falls like this one, captured on WWE's official account:

Not to mention the late-match brawl between The Usos, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, per WWE highlights:

And the Phenomenal Forearm that sent Reigns crashing through the announce table, per WWE:

The match restarting twice, per the orders of both Stephanie and Shane McMahon, and the bout's general structure even had some conjuring sentiments of days gone by, as tweets noted:

Reigns not only retained his title, but he also earned praise from B/R's Alfred "Big Nasty" Konuwa for his crowd-turning performance:

Credit: WWE.com

Wrap-Up

The Roman Empire continues its reign over WWE, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if fans can count on superb main events such as the one they witnessed Sunday night. The added element of Stephanie and Shane McMahon forced to coexist in order to rule Raw may be interesting on the surface, but it remains to be seen if their family drama overshadows everything else going on in the WWE Universe.

The Enzo Amore injury at the start of the show was terrifying, but WWE's latest injury update gives reason for optimism:

Every match delivered in some form or fashion, and the result was the most complete event WWE has churned out in 2016.