WWE Payback 2017 Winners: Biggest Stars of the Night

For a minor pay-per-view, WWE Payback had a lot of expectation riding on it.

Thanks to the Superstar Shake-up, the various feuds and storylines have felt mild, without a whole lot of emotional drive behind them. Where they go from here will be determined, to a large extent, on how the matches go on Sunday night. It'll be up to each Superstar to deliver their best, without any contextual gravitas to fall back on.

Braun Strowman's feud with Roman Reigns is a notable exception. The former has been on fire; between his ring-breaking match against The Big Show and his ambulance-tipping beatdown on Reigns, he has gone from Rosebud to main event attraction in two years.

Did he and the other WWE superstars live up to their potential? Here are the biggest stars of the night.

Kevin Owens

Credit: WWE.com

This match got off to a slow start. Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho traded holds on the ground, and none of them built to anything climactic. But then the finish of the match was booked perfectly.

Owens repeated the "one-finger save" spot that kept him alive at WrestleMania, and Jericho—fed up with the theatrics—decided to take Owens' hand out of commission. Owens did an incredible job selling his pain, and in a rare moment for the prizefighter, he tapped out in the middle of the ring.

Jericho probably didn't need the win. But Owens did an excellent job of playing up his opponent's craftiness. The victory was believable, even though it didn't help either man in the long term.

Neville

Credit: WWE.com

The cruiserweight championship match delivered on Sunday night. And it did so by using a disqualification finish, an unlikely but effective twist.

After a physical, hard-hitting affair—cruiserweight matches are so much better when both competitors sell the after-effects of their acrobatics—Neville laid hands on the referee, which earned Austin Aries the win but allowed Neville to retain the title. It was a well-placed, signature heel tactic; retain the gold at all costs.

Hopefully, this will raise the stakes of the feud even further. The next match between these two should have some sort of stipulation—like a no disqualification match, a ladder match or a steel cage match—to prevent Sunday's result.

Cesaro and Sheamus

Credit: WWE.com

The Hardys got their signature high spots in. But it was Cesaro and Sheamus who physically carried this match and made their opponents look convincing in victory.

Both Hardy brothers have lost a step since their earliest days, an inevitable byproduct of mounting injuries and recurring leg problems, especially Matt's. It's why the Hardys work best with a slow, deliberate team like Cesaro and Sheamus. Every power move feels consequential, and they both work safely, which the Hardy Boyz need if they want to prolong their in-ring careers much further.

The heel turn at the end was also well-timed. It'll be nice to see what Cesaro and Sheamus can do as a villainous duo, especially now that they no longer hate each other.

Bayley

Credit: WWE.com

One of the best skills Bayley possesses is her ability to sell. Watch enough of her matches, and viewers will notice she's always cradling her neck or holding her back, or limping when she walks after a long fight.

Sunday was no exception. Alexa Bliss pinned Bayley and clinched the Raw women's title, but it was the latter who did a great job of setting up the victory. 

First, she took a hard bump to the head on the middle turnbuckle and then flew headfirst into the ring post. Finally, she took a DDT before taking the pin.

Bayley looked strong in defeat, while Bliss looked crafty in victory. There isn't a better result than that, where both competitors come out of the match better than when they went in.

Bray Wyatt

By the time it finally ended in the ring (which wasn't necessary), this non-title match had already run its course.

During the pre-taped segment in the House of Horrors, though, Bray Wyatt did a great job of working with what was, admittedly, a ridiculous premise.

Bray looked the part of the backwoods psycho, and he delivered a convincing, physical beatdown in the final kitchen area of the house, where he used a kitchen pot and a refrigerator among other things to attack Randy Orton.

Roman Reigns

The match between Strowman and Reigns was solid, if uneventful.

Strowman rightfully took the win; if he couldn't beat Reigns with two functioning arms, it wouldn't have said much for his ability.

But the most interesting part of the segment was after the match was over, when Reigns started bleeding from the mouth. He coughed, gasped and rolled around on the floor. He hacked blood on the floor and on the walls. He looked genuinely hurt, not theatrically hurt.

Reigns is the guy in WWE. No amount of booing is going to change that. And a big reason is because of the amount of abuse and physical strain he can absorb. Look at the types of bumps he can take on a nightly basis. And now imagine Seth Rollins taking those shots with the steel steps—or Finn Balor, for that matter.

Reigns is durable enough to build a long-term program around. The past three weeks, including Sunday night, have gone a long way to proving that sort of value.