Recommendation of: WWE Payback 2023 by AverageMansReviews

Recommendation of: WWE Payback 2023 by AverageMansReviews

Warning/Disclaimer: there is flashing effects/colourful effects/blood warning and medical scenes in some packages between matches and visual reference to substance abuse as well in one case and finally an adult language. Disclaimer I have never been or likely to be a professional wrestler

Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus; Steel Cage Match: this match slot outlay is one of those that uses the escalating method and doesn't look back from start to finish, this match slot and anything after. This match/match slot receives: 10/10.

LA Knight vs. The Miz; Singles Match: well this match slot is precisely what it needed to be Michael Cole called out a neckbreaker then Corey Graves called out the correct move name it is a DDT. On reflection the biggest thing about this match slot is the potential match down the line, yes please. This match/match slot receives: 7/10.

Austin Theory vs. LWO's Rey Mystery; Singles Match: why was this match on this card? As you will find out, it will be getting given a positive. But before that I can say this; it is a perfectly fine TV match and likewise it does what it is designed to do, by progressing things; but they could have came up with something better than this and incidentally it is the shortest match on this card. This match/match slot: 6/10.

The Judgement Day's: Finn Bálor & Damian Priest vs. Champs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn; Steel City Street Fight for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship: well simply put this match/match slot is a banger. But on commentary we have Graves making reference to and I am paraphrasing here that Owens and Zayn being a tag team for most of their time or something to that effect, then later on Cole is comical on commentary by indicating to Graves roughly to the effect of welcome back to work I thought you went home. I hope Owens is okay after performing a senton bomb, because it is one of those very slight but noticeable things where you could perform the move if it is in your arsenal 9.5/10 and everything will go fine but then there is that 0.5 and that is what we have here, if you look really closely at the final moments just before the impact it looks like his back of the head takes a whack on the table, I should point out yes he does get up and continues the match slot. The final mention even though it happens earlier on in this match Owens pays respect to Terry Funk.

Raquel Rodriguez vs. The Judgement Day's Champ Rhea Ripley; Singles Match for the WWE Women's World Championship: I don't know if this was a botch or not to be fair, because Rodriguez sets Ripley up to do a power bomb, but it collapses and Ripley gets sent backwards into the ring ropes, the only reason I question it is because I have seen a reverse power bomb throwback, where instead of throwing the individual forward you can pancake the individual by going backwards in this case as I have just said into the ring ropes. But if you want me to make a decision, I would feel much more comfortable suggesting what we have here is a collapsed standard power bomb. Now imagine this over on commentary you hear a mixture of Raquel Rodriguez or just  Raquel quite a lot so it gets fixated in your head and then Graves has a massive blooper and says González [this is a massive blooper for two reasons; the first being Raquel González was her NXT name and not her main roster name as you can clearly see and on top of that it isn't like Cole hasn't been doing some brainwashing for this main roster name to stick in our heads.] This match/match slot receives: 7/10.

Jon Cena interviews some individuals: now the only reason I bring this up is because he does something that Mr. McMahon likes very much and yes for the younger generation of wrestling fans this is yes I know weird, but as long-term and older wrestling fans know I am just speaking the truth and this is just one of Mr. McMahon's things. As Cena is the interviewer he follows the number one rule and that is every interviewer has to be shorter than the wrestling talent, so as you can clearly see in this interview Cena squats down, I think I am right in saying Mr. McMahon's thought process was these wrestlers/characters have to be larger than life so to create the illusion, he just made the interviewer shrink down somehow.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Champ Seth Rollins; Singles Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship: if I was Cole I wouldn't have mentioned this on commentary that this would be the first time that Nakamura has headlined a Premium Live Event, just because it highlights that how badly they have used Nakamura on the main roster. I mean if used properly as we are now seeing he is a main eventer it has just taken the WWE hierarchy to change around for him to get his well-deserved opportunities; even though the whole Rollins back story not the actual health issue is weak. But I have to ask myself what is Rollins doing breaking kayfabe by giving Nakamura a thumbs up, but for they get going. I mean if you look it is a very slight thumbs up on his hand closest to the camera so we can see it and this was not the only odd thing in this match, someone at 3 hours, 3 minutes and roughly 59 seconds rings the bell or just to cover my back a bell which sounds really familiar, even for a split second Nakamura is momentarily puzzled and then just carries on. For the match itself, I know of what outlay they were trying to use, a slow and methodical outlay which hopefully changes gears would have been nice, it just stays at gear two until the closing stages then it comes out of nowhere, so we've taking everything into consideration. This match/match slot receives: 9/10.

The average mark of this pay-per-view is: 9/10, how can I put this; it is fantastic not to deal with The Bloodline for heavy amounts of this Premium Live Event, it gives us an opportunity to focus on other things and for those other things to breathe and get some stage/screen time, if I'm not making this clear enough; I will put it very simply after experiencing this event it has now shown me what I already know and that is The Bloodline are now becoming a detriment, which us experienced wrestling fans would know this is what the WWE like to do; they like to get a fantastic idea and just run it, run it and run it into the ground until there is no more interest or generally speaking it is struggling to keep people interested or maybe there is nothing left.