{"id":165501,"date":"2023-09-09T20:37:31","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T01:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=165501"},"modified":"2023-09-09T20:37:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T01:37:51","slug":"wwe-payback-2023-follow-up-jey-uso-on-raw-new-tag-team-champions-rollins-and-nakamura-knight-interacts-with-heyman-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/09\/09\/wwe-payback-2023-follow-up-jey-uso-on-raw-new-tag-team-champions-rollins-and-nakamura-knight-interacts-with-heyman-more\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE PAYBACK 2023 FOLLOW-UP: Jey Uso on Raw, New Tag Team Champions, Rollins and Nakamura, Knight interacts with Heyman, more."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2560287369\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>WWE PAYBACK 2023 FOLLOW UP<br \/>\nSEPTEMBER 9, 2023<br \/>\nBY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR<\/h3>\n<h4>WHAT IS THIS REPORT?<\/h4>\n<p>I was unable to compose a Hits &amp; Misses report for Payback, the most recent WWE PLE, due to my being on vacation with my family. By the time I would have able to compose the report, Wade and I agreed it would be a bit dated. We agreed I would compose a report on WWE\u2019s follow up to the show. Match by match how did they do on this week\u2019s edition of Raw and Smackdown? Let\u2019s reflect on those shows and discuss the follow up to what took place on Payback.<\/p>\n<h4>Becky Lynch defeats Trish Stratus in a Steel Cage match. Zoey Stark splits from Trish.<br \/>\nFollow-Up: Zoey loses competitive match to Shayna Baszler.<\/h4>\n<p>I like that we didn\u2019t see Becky nor Trish on Raw. One of my biggest pet peeves is when wrestlers show up on TV following a grueling match such as a steel cage. I especially get frustrated when they don\u2019t sell what happened and worse, work a match. That didn\u2019t happen here. They let them have the week off.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m still processing Shayna Baszler beating Zoey Stark in a competitive match. I don\u2019t dislike it; it was just interesting. We haven\u2019t seen Shayna since she defeated Ronda Rousey, which was supposed to be a signature moment for her. After Zoey turned on Trish, the old school person in me would think they\u2019d want to have her winning a match to certify her decision. Who would she beat though? You can find a local talent to have her squash, but I suppose that may be a channel changer for the live viewers or a fast forward moment for late viewers such as myself. This isn\u2019t the 80s or early 90s and it\u2019s not Saturday morning. Viewers want good matches. I\u2019m fine with Zoey losing. She\u2019s an up-and-comer. Shayna should be ahead of her in the \u201cpecking order.\u201d She\u2019s likely being built as a challenger to Rhea Ripley. Zoey is a way\u2019s away from that. Up-and-comers can lose matches but build confidence and experience in the process.<\/p>\n<p>The fist bump after the match was even more interesting. I didn\u2019t know how to take it. I think the plan was for Shayna to be the heel in the Ronda feud, but we all knew that blew up in WWE\u2019s face. Zoey just turned. My guess is for what they wanted to do; they came up with a compromise for all involved. Furthermore, I hadn\u2019t thought about them teaming up as Todd Martin suggested on this week\u2019s episode of the PWTorch VIP exclusive show The Fix (simulcasted as this week\u2019s Wade Keller Flagship Show), but it makes total sense. They would be an interesting pair. Typically, I like partners that \u201coffset\u201d each other in some way, and they don\u2019t do that, but I\u2019m willing to see how things go if that\u2019s the direction.<\/p>\n<h4>LA Knight defeats The Miz with John Cena as special referee.<br \/>\nFollow-up: Miz hosts MizTV with \u201cJohn Cena as his guest.\u201d<\/h4>\n<p>This is one of those deals where it\u2019s a matter of taste. I abhorred the segment with Miz pretending John Cena was his guest on MizTV, lamenting him being in \u201ccahoots\u201d and pretending to hit him and give him the Skull Crushing Finale. We all know Cena wasn\u2019t going to be there as they will not have him show up for a segment like that unannounced. It felt like one of those \u201cha ha ha, we fooled you\u201d moments by WWE that I can\u2019t stand. The segment dragged for me, and I don\u2019t think they\u2019re good for business. I would have been happier with a promo where Miz calls out Cena and asks for a rematch with LA Knight. Miz can be serious, and we saw that when he was \u201cyelling at Cena.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you enjoyed it, that\u2019s fine. Like I said, it\u2019s a matter of taste.<\/p>\n<h4>Rey Mysterio defeats Austin Theory to retain the U.S. Championship<br \/>\nFollow-Up: Rey not on Smackdown. Theory loses to LA Knight.<\/h4>\n<p>To be honest I didn\u2019t expect much follow up on Rey beating Theory. The U.S. Championship, while it\u2019s in a better place than what it was say a little over a year ago, still feels like it needs rehabilitation. The story is more about Rey and Santos Escobar so, there didn\u2019t need to be follow up between Rey and Theory. Theory is clearing moving into the heel foil role while Grayson Waller assumes the role in which WWE (well really Vince McMahon) had hoped he would thrive.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m fine if Waller and Theory are forming a tag team or some kind of alliance. In wrestling I\u2019m ok if wrestlers are associates but not necessarily a tag team. Knight beating Theory is fine, given the push he\u2019s getting, and getting into it with Paul Heyman is a clear indication WWE is invested. YEAH!<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2708437291\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>Judgment Day (Finn Balor &amp; Damian Priest) defeat Sami Zayn &amp; Kevin Owens to win the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship<br \/>\nFollow-Up: J.D. McDonagh defeats Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens not on Raw, Judgment Day<\/h4>\n<p>I\u2019m not here to judge what happened on the PPV. It is worth nothing they decided to take the titles off a team (Owens &amp; Sami) that won them in the main event of night one of WrestleMania over a team (The Usos) that held the titles for nearly two years. They defended them in the main event of a Saudi Arabia show against a team featuring the biggest star in the company (Roman Reigns). To me making that decision is big. Given how well the Judgment Day have come together over the past year and given the fact that they put the titles on Priest &amp; Balor, I can get behind that call. I could have done without the interference given it was a street fight, but I\u2019ll forgive it (to a point). Part of that interference came from J.D. McDonagh who is getting involved with the Judgment Day although the extent and purpose is not known outside of his longtime friendship with Finn Balor. They followed up on this with J.D. willing to take on Sami, expressing his frustration at the Judgment Day for what took place at Payback.<\/p>\n<p>For me I was looking for two things and got them. I would have liked to have seen Sami and Owens on the heels of their big loss but, I\u2019m fine with just Sami. He called them out for what happened at Payback, which is what you want to see. They stayed with the story with J.D. and gave him a win although I could have done without the interference. I know they\u2019re trying to protect Sami but, given WWE uses interference so much in matches it\u2019s hard to know when it has its place. That said, Sami at least seemed frustrated after losing so, it tells me the loss matters to him. I like to see that (especially with one of my personal favorite wrestlers).<\/p>\n<p>J.D. giving Priest the \u201cSenor\u201d Money in the Bank briefcase was cool as he (I assume) is trying to get in the good graces of Priest, even though WWE used its typical \u201cswerve culture\u201d when J.D. suggested the briefcase must go. Not a big deal but, like the interference I wish they would use less \u201chahaha, we fooled you\u201d tactics.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the Judgment Day is clicking. I like that they have transitioned from the \u201cspooky goth\u201d stuff they were trying at the start to more of just badass people hanging out in a group.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll take a hit for saying this.<\/p>\n<p>I may be enjoying them more than The Bloodline.<\/p>\n<p>Go ahead, yell at me.<\/p>\n<h4>Cody Rhodes Appears on Grayson Waller Effect, Introduces Jey Uso as part of the Raw roster.<br \/>\nFollow-up: Jey opens the show, appears throughout Raw.<\/h4>\n<p>Given they had Cody introduce Jey as the newest member of the Raw roster and regardless of what I may think of how it was handled, overall, Jey felt like he was important and a big deal. Opening the show with him was the right call. I didn\u2019t need nor do I ever need the \u201cWelcome to Monday Night Raw!\u201d It\u2019s so overdone and stupid and makes the wrestlers feel like corporate employees (which they\u2019re not\u2026they\u2019re independent contractors\u2026did I say that?) and not badass fighters that want to win titles. Anyway, putting that aside, Jey was clearly over. I didn\u2019t mind the interaction with Sami although the psychology was interesting. It was Jey that turned on Sami earlier in the year after everything went down with Sami and Roman. It should have been Jey looking to make amends and not the other. That said, Jey was made to feel important and given that Cody \u201cmade it happen\u201d (why), it was the right call.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1609082936\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>Rhea Ripley defeats Raquel Gonzalez \u2026 I mean Rodriguez to retain the Women\u2019s World Championship.<br \/>\nFollow-Up: Raquel defeats WWE Women\u2019s Tag Team Championship co-holder Chelsea Green and announces she has been given a rematch for the title with Dominik banned from ringside.<\/h4>\n<p>I get that they wanted to give Raquel a win following a loss in a title match. I don\u2019t like defeating a champion. I don\u2019t care who it is and how many times they do it. It makes the champion feel minimized. That said, it made sense to ban Dominik from ringside once they made the decision to give Raquel another match given the interference at Payback. I like that Raquel spoke some Spanish in her promo. Like with Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura, it makes the person feel authentic when they speak in their native language.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if we\u2019re heading towards some kind of mixed tag deal with Rhea and Dominik vs. Raquel and Ricochet or pick your babyface. I\u2019m not saying it must be him.<\/p>\n<h4>Seth Rollins defeats Shinsuke Nakamura to retain the World Heavyweight Championship<br \/>\nFollow-up: We learned Nakamura attacked Rollins after the match. He refuses an offer for a rematch then loses to Ricochet via DQ.<\/h4>\n<p>I abhorred everything about this. Who refuses a rematch for a championship especially after losing clean? It made no sense whatsoever. Yet Nakamura decides to take on Ricochet and then loses via DQ. I\u2019m assuming they\u2019re done with Nakamura vs. Rollins because if they were going to have another match, why would Nakamura decline and then lose?<\/p>\n<p>The only thing I could extract from this is maybe Nakamura played into the fact that Rollins admitted he hated being caried out on a stretcher while Nakamura walked out on his own. Perhaps he thinks Rollins doesn\u2019t have closure on the situation and he likes it that way? Rollins retained the title but somehow Nakamura thinks he hasn\u2019t won the war? Maybe I can get on board with that but the loss to Ricochet made no sense.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2501751585\"><div id=\"pwtor-2812375798\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE PAYBACK 2023 FOLLOW UP SEPTEMBER 9, 2023 BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR WHAT IS THIS REPORT? I was unable to compose a Hits &amp; Misses report for Payback, the most recent WWE PLE, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/09\/09\/wwe-payback-2023-follow-up-jey-uso-on-raw-new-tag-team-champions-rollins-and-nakamura-knight-interacts-with-heyman-more\/\" title=\"WWE PAYBACK 2023 FOLLOW-UP: Jey Uso on Raw, New Tag Team Champions, Rollins and Nakamura, Knight interacts with Heyman, more.\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":162660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,52,28,27,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2023\/07\/YT-LAKNIGHT-aisle.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165503,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165501\/revisions\/165503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}