WWE Payback 2017 Review: Top Highlights and Low Points
Payback 2017 was not just the response to WrestleMania 33, but it was also the pay-per-view sandwiched between the before and after of the Superstar Shake-up.
Going into Sunday's event, it was obvious WWE intended it to wrap up several storylines while also ushering in just a little bit of new material for the recently altered rosters.
It was a haphazard build with the company asking the fans to take a few leaps of faith and to suspend disbelief for a few questionable decisions.
For example, as what happens when Brock Lesnar has the top title, the Universal Championship was completely missing in action.
To offset that, the conclusion of the feud between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt was scheduled, yet with the roster changes, suddenly SmackDown's WWE Championship was stuck in limbo on a Raw-branded event.
With that being said, there were still glimmers of hope that it wouldn't be a mess, as the card in general had much promise to it.
Finally, fans would get to see Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe pick up where they left off, a new challenger for Bayley's Raw Women's Championship and even the possibility of another ambulance flipping over.
Now that the event has finished, what was the end result? Were there more positives or negatives on the show?
What mistakes did WWE make that hurt this pay-per-view's overall wow factor and what were the moments you should kick yourself for having missed if you didn't tune in?
It's time to look back on what happened at Payback 2017 and single out the biggest highlights and low points of the evening, presented in order of appearance.
Low Point: Pre-Show Kickoff Segments
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Every so often, the pre-show has some funny backstage segments or a particularly entertaining match to start things off with a bang, but that wasn't the case this time.
All of the panel analysis was bland, the social media lounge and Hardy Boyz promos were uninspired, and the two primary segments were entirely skippable.
Enzo Amore and Big Cass defeating Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson means nothing for the future, and nothing happened in the match that would be memorable even five minutes later.
The Miz TV promo was equally as useless, not really giving The Miz or Finn Balor any new momentum to work with going forward.
All in all, this was a full hour that didn't need to be watched, so if you skipped it, you missed absolutely nothing, and if you sat through it, you won't get those 60 minutes back.
Highlight: United States Championship Match
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The United States Championship match between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho was a step up from the lackluster kickoff, if not just for the reason that there was a surprise outcome.
All the signs pointed to Owens retaining the title and it seemed like a guarantee, so when he tapped out to the Walls of Jericho, it was a signal for the crowd to wake up and pay attention as there could be some surprises in store for the show.
What happens now? Does Owens stay on the SmackDown roster even with Jericho moving over? Is AJ Styles going to face Jericho at Backlash, or will Owens cash in his rematch ahead of time?
Putting on a decent match is one thing to be happy about, but what pushes this into a true highlight is the title change opening up speculation and interest of what's to come next.
Highlight: Raw Tag Team Championship Match
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After the Superstar Shake-up, it seemed as though a split between Cesaro and Sheamus or a heel turn was a necessity after The Hardy Boyz and Enzo and Cass would be taking the spotlight for babyfaces on the brand.
Between the two options, WWE opted to go with the heel turn, which may prove to be the more interesting scenario in the long run.
It's been a while since Cesaro was a heel, and Sheamus just works more naturally as a villain than a fan favorite.
To go along with this, the match itself was rock-solid from top to bottom, even featuring Jeff Hardy losing a tooth!
This adds a whole new dynamic to the tag team division on Raw, and it should help revitalize not only this feud, but also the careers of Cesaro and Sheamus.
Highlight: Raw Women's Championship Match
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Somehow, Charlotte Flair seems to get the most amount of credit for being the top woman in WWE, but people overlook just how consistently good Alexa Bliss and Bayley are.
Those two had as good a match at Payback as you're going to see this year, and just the same with the United States Championship bout and the Raw Tag Team Championship title defense, the ending added an extra bit of zing to it.
Who would have thought Bliss would become the champion so quickly after being moved over to Raw?
Bayley and Sasha Banks seemed poised for a feud in the future, and it would have been an easy choice to have Bayley retain to set that up for SummerSlam down the line.
Instead, perhaps based off her stellar time as the figurehead of SmackDown, Alexa is now the top of the division once more with her third title win.
Based off her ability to cut the best promo out of the women's division and also deliver in the ring, things can only go up from here now that Alexa is the champion.
Low Point: House of Horrors Match
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The House of Horrors match could have been a hundred different things, so why did WWE choose this?
Airing a prerecorded video for Monday Night Raw isn't bad as that's a television show, but for a pay-per-view, it just felt incredibly awkward and out of place.
Even the house itself was an odd choice, as it was less of a crazy cult compound and more of a generic poverty-stricken hoarder's home.
Instead of weapons like a barbed wire bat, we had a refrigerator and some poorly made window blinds.
Rather than seeming like they were in the middle of nowhere, it came off as the worst house on the block that doesn't want to let anybody know they're home for Halloween.
The SAP Center crowd in San Jose, California, didn't seem to take too kindly to this, either, as when the video segment cut out and the footage went back to the live arena, a chorus of boos was filling the air.
Can you blame them for being upset that they spent money to see a live event but one of the marquee matches was just a video on the screen?
Once the WWE Championship was no longer on the line, it also somewhat telegraphed that Wyatt would be able to win, but at least Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers were the reason for this, as that helps out the build to Backlash on May 21.
All in all, this is one of those times where you can commend WWE for trying something different in the hopes that they stumble across something new and exciting, but the execution and this concept in general was just too flawed.
It's good to experiment, but the problem in doing so is that you run the risk of failing from time to time, like this was.
Highlight: Braun Strowman Defeats Roman Reigns
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The weeks leading up to this were fantastic as Braun Strowman's reign of terror was one of the most interesting things to happen this year.
Watching The Mountain of a Man utterly destroy the locker room was quality entertainment, but there was always a lingering feel that this would be nothing but a setup for Roman Reigns to overcome.
Thankfully, WWE didn't succumb to the temptation to make that the case here.
The fans aren't going to suddenly like Reigns because he defeated a monster. Years of that treatment applying to John Cena should have taught WWE that lesson long ago.
Instead, it would have just made Strowman look a little worse in a sacrifice to give Reigns a win he doesn't need.
With Strowman winning, it helps solidify him as a definitive destructive force with the credibility to actually challenge Brock Lesnar in the coming months if WWE opts to go that route.
For the fans in the audience to be chanting "Thank you, Strowman" while he continued to beat down Reigns after winning, you then know that you made the right call in who came out victorious.
It's great to see WWE giving Strowman the push he deserves, and hopefully this is a good sign for the future to come.
What do you think were the highlights and the low points of this event? How would you classify the segments which didn't make this list?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
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