Bang for Your Buck PPV Review: Payback 2014

No Holds Barred Six-Man Elimination Tag Team match

The Shield vs. Evolution

With Batista leaving, and the Shield knocking on the door of the type of stardom where you get to sit in first class on the team plane, it seems like the “Hounds of Justice” will likely have the sole survivor in this elimination match.

Coupling this with what happened the next night, this is “Austin at WrestleMania 13” level of starmaking. Without it, it was simply Ulimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI. The former is significantly better for the long-term future, but with just a wee bit less force behind it initially than the latter. But both are fantastic, and highlight what continues to be the best storyline that the WWE has in what feels like decades. The Shield was allowed to work every angle and pull out every stop, while the dastardliness of Evolution — and their unwillingness to simply win the match, as opposed to DESTROY THE SHIELD — prevented them from winning just as much as the Shield’s hard work.

That’s not to say everyone came out of this looking “better”, but it created a dynamic that Evolution seem vulnerable until Monday night’s beautiful explosion.

From a work perspective, the Shield continues to redefine what a WWE main event can look like in a way we have never seen before. They, along with the Wyatts and Evolution, have brought back the importance of factions without allowing things to devolve in a GANG WARS-themed PPVs. Performers can build themselves into stars now in a way that had been severely lacking before NXT brought back structure to the development of talent, and the way they are introduced into the world has now been changed to take into account all different aspects of what makes angles work and not just those that the WWE had created themselves.

They’ve now learned that having trios storylines, like those that took place in World Class with the Freebirds and the Von Erichs, coupled within overarching storylines like the nWo all tied together with a focus on quality wrestling done by quality performers that hadn’t been seen since Hulk Hogan was in the AWA is one of the many new ways that they can combine the lessons of wrestling companies all over the world to truly have something for everyone at their shows.

And while there’s a thousand to things that could be said about the work in this match, with everyone getting to look good without having anyone one person take the majority of the punishment. It also made the Shield look like an indestructible juggernaut that couldn’t be stopped by anyone. It had become, after that match, John Cena.

Then they found their kryptonite: Seth Rollins looking for a spotlight all to himself.

It may seem unfair to give a match extra points for what happened at a later show. But considering the gravity of the decision to have Seth Rollins turn his back on his brothers, and the fact that it made this match not just be the last time we’ll ever get a chance to see the Shield perform their magic but the first night we’ve ever seen Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns truly become main event stars makes this one of the best, most rewatchable, most important matches of all time. This was Money in the Bank with John Cena and CM Punk, but without having to worry about the bitter disappointment that would eventually happen.

Match +1.0  (and +.5 for the almost immediate aftermath)

The Bottom Line

This was, by nearly any definition, a surprisingly fantastic show and one which was 10000X  better than it expected or should have been. While there was a serious dud in the Bo Dallas match, this PPV was stacked from top to bottom,  and given (although it may be cheating) the ensuing fallout, it may end up being a surprise watershed PPV. With significantly less pressure to give casual fans what they paid to see, and with significantly less concern over popping short term buy rates, shows like this may end up becoming the closer to the norm than they’ve been since there were only four shows a year. While nothing may ever top WrestleMania XXX, there were parts of this that felt on the level of some of the top tier PPVs of all time. It’s also easily the best totally random PPV since One Night Stand destroyed everyone’s brains over five years ago. If these are the types of shows and matches they are going to put on for Network subscribers, they can continue to count on my money until they no longer need it.

Overall PPV 6.05 | Match Avg. .6050 (.61 if you’re nasty)

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