An Accidental Build to Revenge: WWE Payback Preview

The embodiment of Payback Photo Credit: WWE.com

As with most concepts and ideas borne from corporate board rooms by yes men under the control of a megalomaniacal chairman, the thrust behind Payback was ill-thought-out at the very least. The show was supposed to feature resolutions to "long-simmering grudges," which might point to a slate of matches tempered by months if not years of animosity. Of course, WWE would put the cart before the horse. This is a company that thinks "Show, don't tell" is a fallacious statement, or at least it does through its narrative.

If you look at the top three matches on the card, we get an event where the longest-simmering grudge was left with the heat off it for an entire run on the calendar. Arguably, the beef between Chris Jericho and CM Punk isn't even the impetus for this match. It may turn out that both men, by the end of the night, will more be pissed off at Paul Heyman, the huckster with the demeanor of a weasel. Muscular, trained wrestlers wanting to take their aggressions out on a non-competing punching bag? Well, that's fodder for a whole other commentary.

The two top title matches ring even more hollow. Sure, both Alberto del Rio and Ryback have more than just desire for gold going for them against their respective Champions. Ryback especially has a story that has been brewing with John Cena for nine months. However, that gestation period was more about apparent alliance. This isn't a skirmish that has been slowly braising in the Crockpot like, say, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. This has been more a kitchen fire.

But where the narrative of the show rings truest is confined within two stories. One involves The Shield, a group who has been immune to the malaise from the narrative. They actually get a story, and it's one that befits a show named for the explosion of tensions that have been building up for a longer period of time. They've been tormenting Kane, Randy Orton, and Daniel Bryan for half-a-year so far, and so far, they've been pretty successful at doing it. They've taken the Tag Team Championships from Team Hell No, beaten them in the ring, beaten them up out of it, and put the psychological hex on all three of them that they are part of an institutional injustice within WWE without ever really specifying what that is. I don't know about you, but if I'm accused of being part of a systemic wrong, I'd like to know what wrong that is.

There are other deftly maneuvered story twists at play here. For example, instead of Team Hell No getting the shot at the Tag Team Championships, it's Bryan teaming with Orton, thanks to strife within the established teaming as well as a bit of bureaucratic strategery by Vickie Guerrero that would have made (or will end up making?) Hermes from Futurama impressed. Kane's match with Dean Ambrose isn't just happenstance either. While I have no doubts that Kane, the character, may have stronger recent attachments to Bryan and unresolved beef with his brother, the Undertaker, well, blood is still thicker than water. The Shield has not only harassed Kane, they messed with big bro Booger Red. The United States Championship? Well, that's just a bonus.

However, there's one story that embodies the word "payback" better than any on the card, and it's in the unlikeliest match from a historical perspective. When Kaitlyn defends the Divas Championship against AJ Lee, it will be the first big battle in the pressure cooker that's been their relationship. Starting in NXT season 3, a show that has been over for two years, Lee and Kaitlyn had been besties. The Chickbusters were cult favorites, but there was no denying that they were friends, maybe the best friends WWE had ever seen.

The first shots were fired when Kaitlyn briefly joined the Divas of Destruction or the Sisters of Salvation or whatever the popular name for Nattie Neidhart's and Beth Phoenix's alliance to gain respect for women in WWE ever came to pass as. That was seemingly forgotten, or maybe it wasn't. Maybe Lee was so fraught with grief that her BFF would attack her that she rushed into the arms of the neurotic, psychologically abusive Bryan. As that relationship progressed, Kaitlyn was the voice of reason. For that, she got repeatedly mocked, dismissed, and even attacked. The final straw was Lee playing with Kaitlyn's heartstrings by perpetrating a false secret admirer ploy. This is the culmination of two years of story. This is what Payback should be all about.

Whether Lee and Kaitlyn will get the same lauding and billing as being the slate of matches that have nowhere near the emotional equity invested in them remains to be seen. I highly doubt It, though. Accidentally though, WWE has fulfilled the mood they wanted for a show that was all about longstanding grudges. Sometimes, good things happen by accident.