Sunday's Payback pay-per-view event is the final gasp of the pre-"superstar shakeup" world in WWE. The final strands of rivalries that peaked at WrestleMania will be tied up as best as they can, and at the same time, fresh conflicts still in their earliest stages will round out the ostensibly Monday Night Raw-based card.
There are certainly some flaws to parts of this card, most notably taking the WWE championship out of play without a whisper of explanation in the conclusion to the Randy Orton-Bray Wyatt blood feud. But there's still a fair bit of hope for some great matches, including three title contests that should tell us a lot about the future of Raw, and what should presumptively be the send-off to an unbelievable run for Chris Jericho.
But before we dig into the meat of the card, or the likely boondoggle that is the 'House of Horrors,' there's one match in particular that will go a long way in defining the hierarchy of Monday Night Raw for months to come.
Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman
There was a time where a monster heel came into the WWE, destroyed everything in their path, worked their way to the top and a title shot at John Cena, and then they lost their shine. Whether it was Umaga, Rusev, or a number of others down the line, a destruction at the hands of the unbeatable goody-two-shoes babyface with little to show for the effort was the end of their consideration as a top player.
Fast forward to today. During the past year, Braun Strowman has, to the surprise of many, become one of the most well-built monstrous bad guys in the past two decades of the WWE. He worked his way up from the bottom and destroyed everything in his path, until suffering his first clean loss to Roman Reigns in the buildup to WrestleMania. It was a great match, and could have been just a blip on the radar, but Strowman inexplicably turned tail and ran from The Undertaker and seemingly lost a great deal of his credibility in the process of being fodder for Reigns and Taker.
But a funny thing has happened during the past three weeks. Strowman reclaimed all of his momentum, and then some. It started with his intensely thorough evisceration of Reigns that included pushing a stretcher off of a loading dock and toppling an ambulance, and continued with two weeks of tossing Kalisto around like a human rag doll and depositing him in dumpsters. Reigns has been off of TV ever since, ostensibly to say goodbye and ultimately mourn the passing of his brother, but he'll return Sunday to face Strowman.
Like Cena, the WWE has done everything within its power to make Reigns a sympathetic character, down to releasing a written statement that weaves his brother's death and the Strowman clash into the same sentence. But if the WWE is suddenly expecting Reigns to receive a hero's welcome upon his return, they're sorely mistaken. As Reigns fills his time while waiting for Universal champion Brock Lesnar, there's one surefire way to garner him some sympathy -- actually letting him lose a match. With him still in a vulnerable state post-beatdown, a tough loss might succeed in humanizing him. It would also serve to legitimize Strowman at an entirely different level, and give this rivalry enough fuel to carry on in the short term in a way that best suits both men.
It's going to be a real test of WWE's seemingly unbreakable desire to make Reigns their superman. Until a "villain" can enter a big match with a realistic chance of defeating Reigns, a lot of fans will resent Reigns for being untouchable and make him the defacto bad guy.
Raw women's championship: Bayley (c) vs. Alexa Bliss
For as many times as they've crossed paths in the ring -- some 60 matches in the past four years, by one count -- and several stretches of conflict on NXT, Bayley and Alexa Bliss haven't clashed much in front of a TV audience. Their first one-on-one match was in September 2014 on NXT, and they wouldn't have another televised conflict for more than a year. A pair of tag team matches bookended a solid NXT women's championship match in October 2015, and after another long stretch, one of Bayley's last NXT matches was a win over Bliss.
But in doing some research, an interesting trend emerges in this still-blossoming conflict. While they actually teamed up in a few of those matches, and won and lost together, on every occasion they've been on opposite sides -- be it one-on-one, 2-on-2 or otherwise -- Bliss has never come out on top against Bayley.
Not once.
So will that change Sunday? There's certainly something to be said for making a big impression, and immediately dethroning Bayley as Raw women's champion would make one heck of a statement.
Theoretically, the means of such a dramatic move would be underhanded, and could involve the long-awaited spark that could reignite one of the most potent potential rivalries the Raw women's division could have -- Bayley vs. Sasha Banks. But I think it'll be more of a slow burn, and Banks helping Bayley either against her will or unbeknownst to her is a way to have Bayley retain without hurting Bliss.
House of Horrors match: WWE champion Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt
So what do we really know about this match? It will start "somewhere else" outside of the ring, and ultimately end up in the ring. What started as Wyatt's mandatory world title defense is now a nontitle contest after Wyatt moved to Raw, and Wyatt has let the issue drop without explanation (as roster moves have not disrupted the Kevin Owens-Chris Jericho title match). Everyone's ultimate goal, or most wrestlers at least, is to be the top champion of the company they work for. What character would let that opportunity slide without at least explaining why (or someone else explaining away why it's no longer possible)?
Perhaps we're in for more projected images on the ring, or spooky appearances and disappearances in the dark. But what's crystal clear is that what was once such a promising rivalry, and a potential long-overdue star-making turn for Wyatt, has just become another in a now seemingly endless string of losses that have been hung on Wyatt's head. Perhaps he'll get the upper hand with the title no longer and play, and Orton distracted by Jinder Mahal stealing his title, in some capacity. But what will it accomplish?
I think the biggest potential net positive could be to involve Bo Dallas in some capacity. It certainly looks like he's been growing that beard out, and until this past Monday he'd been absent any real inspiration for a lengthy stretch. Wyatt has always been better with followers at his side, and quite frankly, Dallas is too good to just sit on the sidelines without something compelling to do. Pairing up these real-life brothers is a great way to salvage something from this frankly disappointing scenario.
United States championship: Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho
So this is the end. For many, myself included, I thought that WrestleMania would be the culmination of the longest running partnership and rivalry in the WWE, but with Jericho set to head out on the road with his band Fozzy, we got four extra weeks of Jericho, and we drank in every second.
Whether he comes out with his new light-up scarf, or Dean Ambrose's cobbled together Christmas light jacket, we'll get one more shot at seeing Jericho in action. It's fitting that Kevin Owens will see him off, and quite possibly destroy him in the most vicious of ways. It will ultimately allow for a certain sense of closure to a rivalry that deserves a final chapter, with Jericho far outpacing even the grandest of expectations for this run.
Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe
Watching Seth Rollins symbolically throw the pedigree by the wayside this week on Raw was great. But where does he go from here? How does this match come to a constructive end? Is there more to come between these two? And can we keep Triple H and Stephanie off of TV for at least another month to let Kurt Angle get situated and build up some believability as an on-air authority figure before the visible hammer of 'The Authority' comes crashing back down? These former NXT (and Ring of Honor) champions are likely to put on quite a show in the ring, but the answers to these questions are some of the biggest unknowns lingering around this Payback card.
Raw tag team championships: The Hardy Boyz (c) vs. Sheamus and Cesaro
Just when it seemed as if this was just a filler match for new tag team champions, The Hardy Boyz, the past couple of weeks on Raw have added some intrigue. As Cesaro and Sheamus finally feel like they have some cohesion, one-on-one matches on the past two editions of Raw have turned things upside down. To say nothing of how surprisingly good the Matt Hardy vs. Sheamus match was, the circumstances of the Hardys winning each of these matches have left the former champions in an unusual state. Sheamus was briefly the voice of reason as Cesaro flew off the handle, prior to a tense handshake, and a full heel turn or a Cesaro heel turn to split the team seem like real possibilities, and each scenario would help keep both men fresh.
Cruiserweight championship: Neville (c) vs. Austin Aries
For the second straight time, this match has a chance to really pop. The added element of TJ Perkins is interesting, and as Matt Willis covered after Tuesday's edition of 205 Live, the cruiserweight division as a whole has hit a crossroads. That kind of uncertainty often makes for some of the best matches, but for whomever comes out on the short end, some hard realities will follow.
Kickoff show
We're getting Enzo and Big Cass vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson for what feels like the 50th time in the past few months. They've had a few good matches, to be sure, but where is this going? One of these teams probably should have left for SmackDown and greener pastures, but here we are. I hope I'm surprised by something that happens in this match, but both teams need a shock to the system at this point.
There will also be a 'special edition' of Miz TV with Finn Balor. There's no match planned for Dean Ambrose, so expect him to get involved in some fashion. Could it lead to a match of some sort? Sure. It's likely we'll get Balor's first comments on the potential of a match with Wyatt, and could give us a peek into what we can expect from those two going forward.