Saturday, September 2, 2023 from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Becky Lynch vs Trish Stratus: Steel Cage match
The show started with the wrap up match to the drawn-out rivalry between Stratus and Lynch and they did not disappoint. There was a lot of big moves, fast action, and the cage was utilized to the a healthy amount given the stipulation. High spots of the match for me had to be the Widow’s Peak hit by Stratus and the Twist of Fate hit by Lynch shouting out Victoria and Lita mid match. Trish nearly escaped at a point but was thwarted by Lynch who hung Trish upside down from the top of the cage creating the opening for a superplex by Becky, creating an awesome moment as well. Zoey Stark got involved amidst the madness and slammed the cage door on Lynch stopping her from escaping, before later entering the cage and getting into a scuffle with Becky. Trish was attempting to escape off the distraction until Becky hit Zoey with a manhandle slam and caught Trish on the cage, delivering a manhandle slam to her from the top rope for the 3 count. This was the best meeting between Stratus and Lynch I’d say and a good wrap up to their rivalry. After the match, Zoey attempted to consul Trish and help her gather herself, before being shoved away by Stratus and yelled at in her face for her efforts. Stark couldn’t take any more from Trish and spiked her into the mat with a Z360 before exiting the ring, potentially sparking a rivalry with Stratus and keeping her involved in a competitor capacity for a while longer.
Winner: Becky Lynch by pinfall
LA Knight vs The Miz
John Cena, the host of Payback came to the ring before the match and stated he was making himself the special guest referee for the next match. The Miz hit the ring shortly after, berating Cena and his hosting job and attempting to talk him out of guest refereeing his match. Cena was unwavering in his decision though and was handed a ref shirt and LA Knight made his way down to the ring. Once the match started Miz attempted to escape the ring, being drug back by Knight before taking over control shortly after. The 2 went back and forth for a while, Cena stepping in on both men at various times to break up the ref’s count causing a bit of tension between him and the 2 competitors, Miz even blindsiding Knight once as he was distracted arguing with Cena. Later, after Knight nearly punched Cena by accident, Miz capitalized on the distraction by hitting his patented Skull Crushing Finale but only for a 2 count. Miz attempted to mock Cena by going for his ‘5 Knuckle Shuffle’ maneuver but was caught by Knight, who dropped him with a BFT for the pin. After the match, Cena and Knight went back and forth verbally on the ramp for a few moments before shaking hands and Cena raised his hand in victory.
Winner: LA Knight by pinfall
United States Championship match: Rey Mysterio (c) vs Austin Theory
Mysterio started the match with his quick offense taking fast advantage, but Theory slowed him down with a big clothesline. Theory continued to keep the control, stopping any of Rey’s comeback attempts and keeping him grounded with chinlocks. Theory attempted to pull at Mysterio’s mask, firing him back into things before connecting with elbow shots and a sliding Tornado DDT to Theory onto the outside. Later, Theory almost took the match with a torture rack-powerbomb combo, but Rey kicked out at 2, refusing to stay down. Mysterio hit a 619, but Theory got his knees up on Rey and rolled through setting up an A-Town Down to Mysterio. Mysterio countered out of the move though and rolled Theory up for the 3-count victory.
Result: Rey Mysterio retains by pinfall
Steel City Street Fight for the Undisputed Tag Team Championships: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) vs The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and Damian Priest)
Man, what a fun ride this match was! Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. The action started immediately with the 2 teams pairing off with one another and began scrapping in and out of the ring, Balor using a kendo stick early on Owens. After Sami broke up the action with a dive onto both Judgment Day members, Owens and Zayn used trash cans on both Balor and Priest. They put a trash can over Balor eventually and traded off kendo stick shots to the can. After more back and forth action, Dom Mysterio made his way to the ring to help his Judgment Day brothers and they took advantage of the 3 on 2, Owens busting his face wide open at some point in the process. As the Judgment Day members regrouped and tried to gameplan, Owens and Zayn reappeared behind them wearing Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys and holding hockey sticks which they used as weapons on the 3. Back in the ring, Zayn hit a blue thunder bomb to Balor on a pile of chairs and later Owens Swanton Bombed Mysterio through a table from the security guardrail in a sketchy but epic spot. JD McDonaugh and Rhea Ripley eventually made their presence known as well in support of the Judgment Day, JD breaking up a near fall by Zayn before Ripley speared Owens through the ringside barricade. Later, Zayn hit Balor with a Helluva kick looking to set up the end of the match, but Dom got involved again smashing Zayn in the head with Priest’s MitB briefcase, setting Finn up for the pin.
Result: The Judgment Day wins the Undisputed Tag Team Championships by pinfall
Women’s World Championship match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs Raquel Rodriguez
They started this match in big woman vs big woman style, not being able to one up another in a test of strength or knock each other down with shoulder tackles. Rodriguez managed to score the first takedown, but it didn’t take Ripley long to start trending things in her direction. Ripley continued to mainly dominate with a little offense occasionally bursting from Raquel until she was able to connect with an impressive delayed suplex and an elbow off the 2nd rope for a near fall. Rhea fired back with a running knee shortly after but a rather cocky cover for the pin cost her and Rodriguez kicked out at 2. Rhea later wore down Raquel’s knee with calculated submissions limiting her powerhouse move set until the action eventually poured outside. Raquel bashed Ripley off the barricade and ring posts, but Dominik made his way back to the ring for Mami. Raquel drug Dom back into the ring, hitting him with a powerslam, but the distraction was all Rhea needed. She kicked Raquel in the knee and connected with a thunderous Riptide for the win. Judgment Day better be buying steak dinners and top shelf liquor for Dom after Payback because that boy came through big for his people tonight.
Winner: Rhea Ripley retains by pinfall
World Heavyweight Championship match: Seth Rollins (c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura
The match started with some classic back and forth wrestling but it didn’t take Shinsuke long to start taunting Rollins about his injured back. Shortly after, he began targeting it with a backdrop and strikes to the back, before taking things to ringside and dropping Rollins back first on the announce desk and tossing him into the barricade. Nakamura brought Rollins back to the ring and continued slowly, methodically targeting Rollins back with submissions and strikes to wear the champ down. Rollins fought back into it not long after with a hurricarana off the top rope and a frog splash to Shin but that hurt his back even further and left him in pain. The 2 continued battle back and forth until Rollins countered out of a chokehold by Nakamura and hit a powerbomb, scoring a near fall. Shinsuke landed a series of strikes before hitting a Landslide and a Kinshasa for a near fall of his own. He waited in the corner for Rollins to get back to his feet, but he collapsed to the mat. Rollins popped up connecting with a Pedigree and went for his signature Stomp but was met with a Nakamura Kick to the face from Shin instead. A fluent series of reversals from the 2 followed, leading to the eventual Stomp from Rollins to Shin for the pinfall.
Result: Seth Rollins retains by pinfall
Most forgettable match of the night: Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Rodriguez
This wasn’t necessarily the women’s fault. They were stuck after the Street Fight and Jey Uso return segment and before the main event, that being said this match was just okay. Seems like something that could have even been on Raw. The women didn’t seem to flow all that well for the first part of the match, Raquel didn’t necessarily look like she was keeping up with Rhea or reading her right at times and there were a couple sloppy executions of moves from both parties. The element of the big woman vs big woman was fresh and neat to see in the women’s division but there was no real thought or threat to Rhea’s title reign coming to an end, at least not right now so that kind of took the excitement factor out of it at times.
Best match of the night: Steel City Street Fight for the Undisputed Tag Team Championships
These 4 men put on such a physically rough, fun, and entertaining match that undoubtably stole the show for me. There was blood, there was wardrobe changes mid match, there was bodies flying through tables and off platforms and through barricades, all the Judgment Day members got involved and scrapped, just blissful chaos in the best possible way. Kind of a bummer to see the run of Sami and KO coming to an end, but the Judgment Day needs the belts to fit the look and it was probably the right time and call. Becky and Trish put on an absolute banger of a cage match that could easily be a show stealer as well, a close 2nd for me but I wouldn’t argue anyone who said that was their favorite match on the card.
