Bang for Your Buck PPV Review: Payback 2014

(Hair vs. Mask, kickoff match)

Hornswoggle vs. El Torito

Since Hornswoggle is balding and El Torito’s an anthropomorphic bull whose mask presumably functions as the literal face for his character — thereby making him being demasked the equivalent of cutting the face off of an animal on live television — it’s pretty much a guarantee that El Torito is winning this match.

There is no way that I can properly articulate how much it warms my heart to see all of the performers involved in this match get the type of shine they are getting from this feud. The whole lot of them are incredibly hardworking, dedicated people who are willing to pretty much anything to entertain the fans, all without devolving into the bra-and-panties/setting tables on fire mentality that nearly doomed the tail end of the Attitude Era. While the amount of short jokes made during the match could be cut by, oh, about, 1000%, the work in the match is somewhere between “good” and “type of thing I would show a friend who didn’t like wrestling to show all of the possibilities of the medium.” These guys have fun doing the work they do, and they give it their all. And it clearly translates to what continues to be one of the true “hidden” treasures of the WWE right now: the Three Man Band-Los Matadores feud.
Match .6

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