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Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog. Posts are still going to be hit or miss depending on whether or not I get the time to work on some posts or not. But, here I am, ready for my preview post for WWE Payback 2016. Let’s dive right in!
Well, this might be a way to really drive the idea home that Roman Reigns is “The Guy”. After all, that’s what WWE is currently branding him as. If that doesn’t scream “This is our guy whether you like it or not”, I don’t know what does. On the opposite side of the coin, there’s AJ Styles. Now, I don’t know about you. But, I’m feeling that this is more about the relationship between Styles and Doc Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. After all, we’ve got more interaction between Styles and his former Bullet Club stablemates, than we have gotten Styles vs Reigns. I’m more interested to see if Styles aligns with Gallows and Anderson after all or if they are going to go in a different direction. I’m going to go with Reigns to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship to continue on his way as “The Guy” going into the summer.
Is there anyone on the current roster (minus Reigns) that can draw the amount of hate that the Miz has? Go ahead. I can wait. Back? Did you think of one? No? Neither can I. It shows how good he is at making people hate him. Then, there’s Cesaro, the man that the crowd has grown to appreciate. I’ve always been a fan of Cesaro’s work since I watched my first CHIKARA DVD. And ever since last year, the WWE Universe have enjoyed the work and strength of the Swiss Superman. Just take a look at his body of work since this last summer with the 20-30+ minute matches on RAW with the likes of John Cena. And it seems like Cesaro hasn’t lost that momentum that he had before his shoulder injury. I pick Cesaro to walk away the new Intercontinental Champion.
The smell of NXT is all over this match. Both teams are recent call-ups, and are going to have their first high-profile main roster match. I’ve been doing some headscratching on the call-ups for both of these teams. With Enzo Amore and Big Cass, they are the first NXT Tag Team that did not win the NXT Tag Team Championships. With Aiden English and Simon Gotch, it’s that their characters are a little too over the top. Then again, The New Day is rather over the top themselves. I’m going to pick Enzo and Big Cass to become the #1 contenders, if only to have great promo battles between them and The New Day.
This is the first major match for the WWE Women’s Championship…and it’s more about who’s in the corner of the these two ladies than it is about the ladies. Both of these ladies are solid competitors on their own, and have put on some good matches against each other, but since Ric Flair started backing his daughter, it’s been a never-ending nightmare of interference finishes and disqualifications. I hope that with the addition of Bret Hart in Nattie’s corner, that Charlotte is going to be forced to have to retain the championship on her own. Either way, I’m looking for a good, solid match-up with Charlotte walking away with the gold.
It’s the match-up that keeps on giving and giving. Kind of like Santa Claus year after year. Seriously, have these two ever had a bad match? Okay, so maybe they might have had one early on in their careers. But, these two have some great chemistry together, and it translates out to some pretty great matches. I’m only worried about WWE mucking it up and making what could be a show-stealing match turn out to be complete garbage. Which is always a possibility. I’m picking Owens to take the win here, but let the feud continue on.
So, the premise of this match-up is a little confusing. Since Shane McMahon cancelled Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel and replaced it with Dean Ambrose’s Ambrose Asylum, Shane put them in a match due to some hostilities between the two of them? I’m confused. You too? Yeah. WWE’s storytelling isn’t the greatest sometimes, and this is one of those times. Though, I’m looking forward to this match. Both of these men are great competitors in the ring, and I can see these men put on one heck of a match. I’m going with Jericho to get at least another match going between these two.
I’m not sure why we are getting this match on the main card rather than the United States Championship match, but here we are. I’m interested on what WWE is thinking with the recent call-ups. I mean, I can see what they see in Apollo Crews, but he still needs a little bit more seasoning down there in NXT. As for Baron Corbin, I’m not sure if they see something in him that we haven’t seen yet, or if they are banking on his size and character. And there’s with the up and down going of Dolph Ziggler’s booking. He’s gone up and down the card so many times, I feel like WWE is playing a game with him. What sort of game, I have no idea. But, even though there’s plenty of experience on Ziggler’s side, I’m going with Corbin to walk all over Ziggler.
Why, oh why are we having this match on the pre-show? I saw a graphic either last night or earlier today, and it was of all of Kalisto’s title defenses…which have all happened on the Network Special pre-shows. Seriously, is there absolutely no faith in Kalisto? If you go by where Kalisto is on the card, then I would have to say no. Ryback keeps wavering back and forth, and I’m not so sure that I would want another Ryback title reign after his uninspiring Intercontinental Championship reign. And, have we even gotten either one of these two on RW since Mania? This feels like a throwaway match that we are only getting because the United States Championship involved. However, I’m giving this win to Ryback, if only to bring the title back up into some sort of recognition.
Well, that’s it for this round folks. Agree or disagre with me? Let me know down in the comments. Until next time, I am the Baumeister, and I am…obediently yours.
Baumeister 