Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Jordan Chaffiotte, Cayden Parkhurst, and Ben Guest will be giving their opinions on WWE's Payback. It was WWE's first pay-per-view following the Superstar Shakeup, as well as WrestleMania 33, which means there was plenty of, well, payback to be dished out. Between titles that were on the line, titles that were oddly left out of matches, and titles that were just outright missing, there was a lot for our team of writers to talk about.


CHAFFIOTTE: Yes, which isn't to say that she's the only deserving one on the roster. We've had such a surge of great talent, but a lot of the focus has been on the Four Horsewomen. Now I love the Four Horsewomen, I've actively petitioned to get Sasha on the cover of 2k, but you know what they say about all of your eggs and one basket. Charlotte will probably defy all odds and wrestle until she's 80, but this isn't the youngest group and between Becky's concussions and Sasha's general indie style (AKA, those suicide dives) we may not have the 4H forever. WWE needs to be smart and look broader, Alexa is the perfect person for the job.

The 25-year-old has a long career ahead of her, and this match against Bayley proved that she's going places. About a year ago she challenged Bayley for a different Women's Championship down on NXT, and while she was really coming into her own, there was an ocean between the two and their abilities. She's come so far in that time, now that gap is small enough to fit within the ring and even make it believable that she could opportunistically get one up on Bayley. I never expected Alexa to be as credible of a champion as she is right now, but she keeps blowing me away.

And for those of us who love the 4H and want them to have the world, have no fear. Charlotte will inevitably become the first Grand Slam Women's Champion, holding the NXT, Raw, and SmackDown's Women's titles while all three are still in circulation. Unless Asuka gets bored and decides to hold all three at once, no one can possibly catch Charlotte at this point.

PARKHURST: She was absolutely the right choice. She is on fire, and everything she does is landing with the crowd. From her promos to her in ring work, she has them eating out of her heelish hands. Now, Charlotte won't be far behind as I think she wins at Backlash, but for now, Alexa was the perfect choice to be the first.

The people have had enough of Charlotte, and it's not because she isn't good at what she does. Charlotte will go down as the single best woman to ever step foot in the ring if she keeps this up, but she has been pushed so hard for so long that we were ready for a new face of WWE women. Alexa Bliss is the perfect fit.

GUEST: I think it had to be one of three people. Sasha Banks, Charlotte or Alexa Bliss. Sasha has only been on one of the brands so that pretty much took her out of the question. Alexa is probably the hottest property in the women's division right now, but I was very confident that it was going to be Charlotte to hold both belts first. She is WWE's golden girl and I think most people thought that Charlotte was going to hold both belts first, and she will almost definitely be the second person to do so.

I only expect Bliss to hold the belt until around SummerSlam time where I think they'll put the belt on Sasha and build toward Sasha vs Bayley, whereas I think Charlotte will get another lengthy reign after Backlash, so Charlotte will probably be the first to have significant reigns with both belts, but Alexa does deserve to be the first to hold both.


CHAFFIOTTE: A little bit of both. I'm not sure how I feel about wrestling's new trend of "a segment that is basically a fever dream" what between the Final Deletion, this, and all of those Vampiro/Pentagon segments on Lucha Underground. At times it can be brilliant, but this one really fell flat for me. Granted, I spent a lot of the first half laughing at how ridiculous it was, and in that sense it was entertaining, but I don't really think that's what they were going for when they created this match. Here's how I would've fixed it: draw inspiration from one of the best houses of horrors ever, PT, and make it one continuous loop of Randy looking for Bray only for him to find himself in the same rooms every time he opens a door. All the while Bray is taunting him, via the voices in his head, and things keep getting increasingly dark and nightmarish. The anticipation would've at least lead to something once Randy finally busts through a wall to find the puppet master. Is that PG? Well, I, like Daniel Bryan, don't really know what is and isn't PG, but I can say if you're not even able to show a maze with creepy sound effects and bugs, why did you ever promise a horror based match? Popping two guys in some crappy house that's for sale and pushing a refrigerator onto one of them is just lame.

There are a couple saving graces. One, Jinder's interference, which elevated him as a number one contender because it feels like he really will do just about anything to get under Randy's skin. He looked like a million bucks and so far so good on the WWE managing to not be racist front. Second, in costing Randy the match, he also gave Bray the win, and he absolutely, 100% needed to win this.

PARKHURST: Oh boy.. So in the last version of our coveted Triple Threat; I crapped all over this match and it's awful premise. I was hoping, for entertainments and both men's career sake, that my prediction of a poorly executed "horror match" in a PG environment wouldn't be terrible. But good Lord was it terrible. So we start out in the "House of Horrors" in which Randy shows up in a limo with no shirt on. A start that is just like Shinsuke's style… STRONG(sarcasm and lots of it).

When I pictured this "House of Horrors" in my head, I envisioned a dungeon with all sorts of weapons and weird rooms, but instead, we got a bland house with some holes in the wall and bad furniture with a yard that hasn't been mowed in years. Actually, the only thing that could have saved this match was Broken Matt Hardy on his lawn mower mowing the yard and laughing the whole time. So when we actually get in the house, we see the definition of WWE's "horror". Which was a room with plastic babies hanging from it, and then some sticks tied together à la The Blair Witch. Then, they had to somehow get back to the arena, so Bray just tosses a fridge on Randy and gets in the limo.. When we finally get back we are supposed to believe that Randy just walked there I guess as he shows up. The only good part was Jinder helping Randy lose.

So, to sum this up.. It wasn't just plain bad.. It was plain terrible. Why even continue this feud if this is how it was going to end? This win didn't help Wyatt as all, and didn't really hurt Randy. Oddly, the only person this helped was Jinder Mahal and the Singh brothers. This was utter shit, and I expected that.

GUEST: I loved this match for all the wrong reasons, it was everything I wanted it to be and more. From Randy Orton driving around in trousers but no shirt and the self-driving tractor, to Randy teleporting to the arena whilst Bray Wyatt has his driver take him. Everything about the match was a joke and they couldn't even give Wyatt a clean win, instead having the Singh Brothers and Jinder Mahal attack Orton at the end. This match is one to remember for a lot of different reasons, but none of them are good.


CHAFFIOTTE: Full disclosure, I was a little checked out by the time we got here. This was a really good pay-per-view, but all night long I found my heart wasn't in it, so that may very well color my enjoyment of this match. Long time fans of Triple Threat will know that I can't let go the fact that I was there the night he won the WWE World Championship from Sheamus and so I feel like I know how to present Roman correctly. Let him struggle and overcome, that's what we in Philly (one of the smarkiest crowds) cheered that night. But recently, as this Braun storyline plays out, I'm losing that conviction. If this beating only serves to get Braun over and not to build sympathy for Roman, I don't know what else could.

I still think they've gotten his character all wrong, if he could into the family man willing to do anything for them, I feel like there is nothing to not get behind there, but I'm slowly starting to believe the vocal anti-Roman crowd won't budge for anything. It really put a damper on the end of the match for me. What could've been such a chilling and brutal beat down, complete with Braun running through the ambulance door, was just ruined by the cheers from the crowd. Again, Philly is my quasi-hometown, we are a very vocal crowd, but I would've been shocked silent if I had seen that in person. Honestly, I won't pretend I didn't feed the pandemonium of booing Roman, but how did it ever come to this?

PARKHURST: I loved this whole match. They are slowly, but surely making Roman look more and more like a real person. I was definitely a Roman guy as I look at him with all the potential in the world and that WWE just needs to take advantage of it.

For being a "Roman guy" to an extent, Braun Strowman is the best thing WWE has going right now. He is the big monster that they desperately needed on the Raw roster with Lesnar only being a part time guy. I expect big things from this feud going forward with a great stipulation match coming next like a Last Man Standing or Fall Count Anywhere sort of thing with no holds barred and just a pure fight that Roman excels at. At the end of the feud, Roman will stand tall as he is the guy going forward, but before all is said and done Braun will have a title run. His mic skills(for both men really) are only getting better, and his in ring work is believable since he is just a huge man that should dominate anyone and everyone he is in the ring with. These two have an incredibly bright future with what I feel like will be some epic matches ahead, and I'm excited to see what happens. One of these two is moving on to Brock Lesnar, and that much I'm sure of as we saw both Finn and Seth enter or continue feuds on Raw. On paper, Strowman vs. Lesnar and Roman vs. Lesnar both look GREAT on paper, but I really want to see Strowman get a title shot as Reigns has had plenty to this point. One thing I can tell all our fans is get used to these two. They'll be at the top for quite some time.

GUEST: This was a great match, I loved that Strowman dominated for most of the match. The beatdown afterward was fantastic and Strowman looks like a real monster now. I expect either an I Quit or Last Man Standing match at Extreme Rules and the winner should face Brock Lesnar at… well… the pay-per-view after that… you know then one… Great Balls of Fire. Great name.

I'm a big fan of Roman, his moveset is one of my favorites and his execution is great. I think he needs to lose a big feud like this and even though the fans won't get behind him for a long time, regardless of whether he's turned heel or booked to lose more, a loss against Strowman could help. Strowman vs Lesnar could be a great match and Roman vs Lesnar was great at WrestleMania 31, so no matter which of them gets a title shot, assuming it is one of those two, I'm really looking forward to the remainder of this feud and the next one.