Every 2017 WWE PPV main event ranked by in-ring value

8. WWE Payback

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

If there’s anything to be thankful about concerning WWE Payback, it’s that the House of Horrors match between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt wasn’t the final match of the night and I don’t have to ever write anything about it ever again after this sentence. What was the final match of the night was a grudge match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman, who had one of the best rivalries of 2017 that we’ll likely see a few more times as the years go by and I’m completely okay with that.

It’s so hard to book matches that include Roman Reigns, knowing that the crowd, especially at this time, was going to be all over him. They tried so hard to get some sympathy going for him with Strowman attacking the already-injured Reigns right from the start but it just didn’t work. While the onslaught was done well with Reigns selling nicely, the crowd just wanted him to get injured more and Strowman certainly gave them what they wanted to see. He threw Reigns into the barricade, slammed him on the announce table, threw him shoulder first into the ring post (a shoulder that was heavily taped) and slammed him into the steps. Braun looked so dominant to start things off.

Roman would eventually fight back (this is Roman Reigns we’re talking about) and get some shots in, including more action on the outside. He got a nearfall after a spear and got in a couple of Superman punches, which I really want to go away. I’m trying so hard to buy into Reigns while others are knocking him but it’s really hard to keep doing when he pulls those out. He tried another spear but got a kick for his trouble. It took two running powerslams from Braun to close things out but he actually did pick up the clean win here, which was a nice surprise. He continued the beating after the match to continue the rivalry, which would pick up after Braun returned from a real arm injury. Good match here and they would get better as the year went on.