10 Quick Fixes That Would Have Improved WWE Payback 2016

Kevin Owens joins the announce team.

 

Payback may have in some respects been a more satisfying PPV than WrestleMania (incredibly sad though that is to say), yet that didn't stop it falling short in a number of key areas that could have been fixed so damn easily.

From terrible booking choices seemingly done solely to antagonise fans, to grossly overlong matches and segments, and an attempt to force new marketing concepts down fans' throats, Payback would have been a vastly superior PPV with these elements eliminated or re-jigged somewhat.

Now, you'll note that we didn't include AJ beating Roman Reigns to win the World Heavyweight Title, because that was never on the cards and most certainly isn't a simple fix considering what creative surely have lined up for Reigns.

We're instead sticking to ideas that both make sense creatively and could have been reasonably implemented.

Here are 10 quick fixes to improve WWE Payback 2016...

10. Cut Ambrose/Jericho By 5 Minutes, Give It To Zayn/Owens

The Ambrose-Jericho match may have been fairly decent and all, but did it really need to go on for over 18 minutes?

It was blatantly made to go longer than intended due to Enzo's injury leaving the show with about 10 minutes of time to fill, and both the crowd and the wrestlers themselves seemed obviously worn out long before the end.

Wouldn't it have made sense to take a good 5 minutes from this match and give it to the incredible, 14-minute Zayn-Owens match earlier on?

Considering their insane chemistry and conditioning, there would probably have been few complaints about a 20-minute slug-fest between the two, whereas Ambrose and Jericho ran out of things to do long before the finish, and it all just ended on a dull anti-climax.

9. Stop Talking About The "New Era"

The WWE heavily pushed the fact that the company is entering a "New Era", though largely failed to disclose exactly what this meant.

Sure, it's probably meant to relate to the current Shane-Stephanie Raw power struggle, but considering that this storyline will eventually play itself out, it seems fairly short-sighted to place so much import on its shoulders.

In reality, the New Era is just an attempt to fashionably re-brand the company, but in honesty, does anyone really care? When Payback featured the same dodgy 50/50 booking and shock value for its own sake as WrestleMania, does it really feel like a new era?

We could've done without it, frankly, as it added nothing to the PPV more than an irritating buzzword catchphrase.

8. Have Charlotte Win Clean For Once

While at least Charlotte didn't win because of straight-up interference from Ric Flair at Payback, we got something much, much worse: the Montreal Screwjob was recreated in Chicago, with Natalya losing to the Sharpshooter despite not tapping out.

The booking makes no sense other than to make light of Bret Hart's presence at ringside, when to be honest, wouldn't it have been a perfect opportunity to actually have Charlotte go over clean for once?

We know that Charlotte probably won't be ever dropping the title to Natalya, so why not give her a little boost of credibility with a decisive, clean win?

Instead we got another eye-rolling finish that totally undermined any talent Charlotte may actually have. Terrible.

7. Ditch The McMahon Segments

Payback was a show that felt heavily dominated by the presence of the McMahons. For one, the show only had six matches because time was left aside for a 20-minute segment featuring Vince, Shane and Stephanie, and the show of course concluded with the trio deciding on an AJ-Reigns rematch for Extreme Rules.

Here's the thing: the crowd didn't care about the over-extended segment (even chanting "boring" at one point), and along with the end announcement, it could easily have been saved for Raw.

Then there's Shane and Steph getting involved in the main event and restarting it, which just felt unnecessary and detracted from the undeniable thrill of seeing AJ and Reigns fight on their own terms.

Do the McMahons need to pry into everything?

6. Have Cesaro Win The I.C. Title

One of the show's most jaw-droppingly inept booking choices was having Cesaro get rolled up by The Miz after being distracted by a brawling Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.

This was after Cesaro had already made Miz tap with the ref's back turned, making it all the more infuriating at the same time. Considering how Miz is so ridiculously outmatched by Cesaro, and Cesaro had been long overdue a title push, how did this not just happen?

Sure, playing hot potato with the I.C. Title isn't great either, but it's worth it to land it in Cesaro's hands, where he could hopefully enjoy a long title reign.

Instead, Kevin Owens will probably end up re-capturing it rather than moving onto bigger things, which sucks for both Owens and Cesaro.

5. Take The U.S. Title Off The Pre-Show

This shouldn't even have to be said, but keep the damn U.S. Title off the pre-show please!

This is the third time this year that the strap has been defended before the actual PPV even kicks off, and how are we supposed to take it seriously as a belt if it's shoved into the seat-filler portion of the card?

That's not to say that Kalisto has had particularly interesting title defenses as of late, but perhaps that's the problem that needs addressing rather than taking the strap off the main card.

There are a ton of opponents who could put on entertaining, energetic battles with him, but apparently it's all about Ryback right now. Well, maybe not now, but it was.
Now Kalisto will do battle with Rusev. Hopefully it won't be on the pre-show...

4. Baron Corbin Destroys Dolph Ziggler

The pre-show kicked off with an almost equally bad injustice, however, as Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner Baron Corbin for some reason lost to Dolph Ziggler, getting rolled up for the pin.

While there's certainly an argument to be made that the booking logic here was to illustrate that Corbin is an arrogant but inexperienced hothead, all it did was derail the momentum he got from WrestleMania.

It's not like the WWE are probably going to do much of interest with Ziggler following this win, so what good did it really do? Corbin winning would have further elevated his status in the company and possibly continued his descent as a future top-line heel.

3. Tone Down Roman Reigns' Superman Booking

As weird and entertaining as Payback's main event was, creative really need to tone down the Superman booking with regard to Roman Reigns.

There's a point where his victories just seem cheap and hollow if he's able to kick out of a ton of AJ Styles' signature moves (not to mention some interference from Anderson and Gallows), and yet puts AJ down for the count with a fairly weak-looking Spear.

Yes, the WWE desperately want to make Reigns the next Hogan or Cena, but in this day and age, aren't fans eager for a wrestling contest that's, well, actually a contest?

Where's the fun in watching the already-disliked face champion shrug off so many finishers only to suddenly make his opponent eat his own for the win?

2. Make Kevin Owens A Commentator For The Entire PPV

Say what you want about the various booking screw-ups at Payback, but one thing the show undeniably got right was having Kevin Owens as a guest commentator during the Miz-Cesaro match.

Owens basically spent the entire match trolling the other commentators, perhaps most memorably telling Michael Cole, "A sleeper hold is literally what you're doing to everyone at home."

Why couldn't we have just had Owens as a colour commentator for the entire show (except when he fought Sami Zayn, of course)? The likes of Owen Hart and Mr. Perfect have shown us in the past how hilarious and awesome heel commentators can be, and Owens could bring some much needed bluntness and candour to the broadcast.

1. Finn Balor Debuts

It seemed like a smart bet considering that Finn Balor just dropped the NXT Title to Samoa Joe and both Anderson and Gallows recently debuted on Raw...but there was no sign of Balor making a WWE debut at Payback.

For one, it would've been a perfect way to take the title off Reigns if the WWE actually wanted to listen to fans and swerve the mundane predictability of a Roman win.

Even if not, though, Balor, Anderson and Gallows getting AJ's back and establishing the Balor Club (or Styles Club) would be pure fanboy wish fulfillment come true.
Instead, we're left twiddling our thumbs until he inevitably shows his face soon enough (hopefully).
 

What did you think of Payback? How would you fix the show? Shout it out in the comments!

 

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