WWE Payback 2017: Ranking Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho and Every Match at PPV

The 2017 edition of Payback has come and gone, and in its wake, it has left a handful of superb in-ring performances for fans to relive on WWE Network.

From championship bouts to grudge matches, Sunday's event was home to a night of quality professional wrestling matches.

Unfortunately, it was also the setting for the worst match of 2017 to this point, an embarrassing ordeal that exposed the industry and insulted the intelligence of the audience.

The good outweighed the bad, but the bad was truly awful, creating a unique dichotomy that does not exist much in today's sports-entertainment landscape.

On a night in which poor pre-event build dominated the conversation, in-ring work (both good and bad) was the topic of conversation after the broadcast faded to black.

Now relive the explosive Payback card from San Jose, California, including its worst contribution, with this countdown of its bouts from worst to best.

8. House of Horrors Match: Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt

WWE history is full of gimmick matches that did not go according to plan. They were convoluted messes that were worse than imagined and hurt the overall quality of whatever show they appeared on.

That was the case Sunday night at Payback, where the House of Horrors match between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt stank the joint up en route to status as one of the worst matches in WWE history.

The gimmick bout was insulting to the intelligence of the fanbase. It was over-the-top ridiculous and did nothing to suggest it was the final chapter in a heated rivalry. Instead, it felt entirely like a joke of a match, a contest that was easier to laugh at for its sheer stupidity than marvel at for its originality.

The finish, which saw Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers cost Orton the victory, did not even help Bray Wyatt in any measurable way. Instead, it took the focus off of The Reaper of Souls and put it on SmackDown's WWE Championship rivalry.

Literally, nothing good came out of the match, it single-handedly dragged down the quality of the Payback broadcast and became a laughingstock of WWE. That is too much negative to come from one match, no matter how poorly conceived it was.

Hopefully, no fanbase will ever have to sit through an abomination like this bout ever again.

7. Enzo Amore and Big Cass vs. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows

The Kickoff Show match pitting Enzo Amore and Big Cass against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson was neither bad nor particularly good. It was simply there—a match that kicked off the night's festivities but never excelled beyond the quality of a standard Raw match.

Anderson and Gallows showed off their tag team chemistry as they isolated Amore, pummeling the smaller competitor to make up the heart of the bout. The hot tag to Cass re-energized, and the oft-maligned Amore scored the fluke rollup to earn the victory.

It is almost certain the feud will continue into Monday night. Neither Anderson nor Gallows appeared ready to let the upset win define the rivalry. Regardless of whether the two teams continue to war or if they move on to bigger and better things, Sunday's match did nothing to inspire any great enthusiasm for another showdown.

6. Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe

Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe should have stolen the show Sunday night with an intense brawl of a match that played up The Architect's desire to avenge a near-catastrophic injury at the hands of The Samoan Submission Machine.

Instead, a match that spilled to the arena floor early settled into a more traditional bout that was equal parts unengaging and mediocre.

Joe targeted the previously injured knee of his opponent in a basic wrestling match. It was a ground-based assault that killed the heat and led to a less-than-electric atmosphere.

Rollins won the match in a less-than-definitive manner, and it appears as though the feud will continue. If that is the case, hopefully the competitors themselves do a better job of recognizing the tone of their program and deliver a match that better reflects it rather than the frankly boring, uneventful affair fans were exposed to Sunday night.

5. Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Hardy Boyz vs. Cesaro and Sheamus

When you have a match brimming with quality professional wrestlers like Sunday's Raw Tag Team Championship match between The Hardy Boyz and Cesaro and Sheamus, a quality match is almost always a guarantee.

That was the case at Payback as the four Superstars worked a better-than-average bout that saw Matt and Jeff successfully retain the titles after a Swanton Bomb from the latter to Sheamus.

As strong as the match itself was, it was enhanced by the post-match activities, which saw Sheamus and Cesaro turn heel, abandoning sportsmanship, brutalizing the champions and leaving them lying.

The most encouraging thing to come out of the contest? The realization that the four competitors are capable of more, creating excitement and anticipation for a potential rematch sometime soon.

Perhaps as early as Extreme Rules.

4. Raw Women's Championship Match: Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss

The Raw Women's Championship match between Bayley and Alexa Bliss benefited exponentially from the red-hot crowd in San Jose. Bayley's hometown fans wanted so desperately to see her retain her title and enjoy the storybook homecoming so many Superstars are denied. In the end, though, those fans settled for Bliss' history-making victory, which came clean and in the center of the ring.

Bliss was the star of the match, grounding Bayley for the majority of the bout, then withstanding the champion's signature moves, including the Randy Savage top-rope elbow drop.

In the end, she sent Bayley face-first into the ring post, rolled through a small package and delivered a DDT to bring Bayley's inspirational title reign to a close.

A match that benefited from hot crowd reactions, genuine love for one of the characters and an outcome that proved that, sometimes, the bad guy wins, the contest was easily one of the night's best and a foundation for the two Superstars to build better, more intense and thrilling matches upon.

3. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

One of the classic Batman stories features the physically imposing assassin Bane use The Dark Knight's success, age and hubris against him, brutalizing him and breaking his back in one of the most iconic panels in DC Comics history.

Sunday night, wrestling fans witnessed the equivalent of that story as Braun Strowman systematically picked Reigns apart and finished him off with a crushing powerslam. 

The Monster Among Man basked in the spotlight, shining brightest as he pummeled Reigns into a pulp. There were instances in which Reigns threatened to make it a more even affair, but at every turn, Strowman cut him off. When Reigns delivered a massive spear, Strowman nonchalantly kicked out as if the three-time champion was but a pesky fly.

The layout of the match, the storytelling within and the outcome helped it rank among the three best matches of the night and, hopefully, sets up one last war of attrition between the competitors.

2. Cruiserweight Championship Match: Austin Aries vs. Neville

Austin Aries and Neville have wicked in-ring chemistry, and for the second time in four weeks, fans were lucky enough to see the celebrated cruiserweights ply their trade with championship glory at stake.

The sequencing they employed and the red-hot finish that had Neville seconds from tapping out to Aries' Last Chancery before he put his hands on the referee and drew the disqualification helped create an action-packed match that had fans invested in a cruiserweight division match.

That is rare given the mismanagement of that part of the roster.

It is not the first time Aries and Neville have nearly stolen the show out from underneath the bigger stars and matches on the card. At WrestleMania 33, during the event's Kickoff Show, the champion and his top challenger nearly wrestled the best match of the card before the actual pay-per-view portion of the show even began.

All of this is pointing at a third showdown between the two Superstars, which if history is any indication, will rank high on any list of that night's best matches.

1. United States Championship Match: Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens

At WrestleMania 33, Kevin Owens avoided defeat by reaching a single finger out and putting it on the bottom rope, breaking the pin attempt by Chris Jericho.

Sunday night, he again used that finger to stave off defeat. Frustrated, Jericho took his frustration out on the digit, pummeling it in the ring steps and sending pain shooting up and down the arm of Owens.

Without his secret weapon at his disposal, Owens had no choice but to tap out while trapped in the clutches of Y2J's Walls of Jericho.

It was a fantastic bit of storytelling that reiterated Jericho's gifts between the ropes. While he is not the athlete he once was, he makes up for his age with experience and an innate ability to tell a story to the masses.

Sometimes, it feels as though Jericho starts matches too slowly in an attempt to build to a classic. His match with Owens at Payback was red-hot from the start, and the result was a consistently great match that captured the attention of fans from the get-go and never relented.

The best match on the Payback card, it captured the potential of the Superstars' in-ring chemistry and delivered on the promise of a strong, feud-ending battle.