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From a Triple Threat No Disqualification main event to Keith Lee's singles debut on pay-per-view after his arrival on RAW, WWE Payback 2020 featured many contrasting moments.
The past few weeks have been quite exciting for the WWE Universe. Despite being the second pay-per-view in a span of seven days, WWE Payback featured a solid card from start to finish. Even though it wasn't as exciting as last week's SummerSlam, a lot of major stories unraveled during the course of the event.
What are your thoughts on this year's WWPayback PPV? Leave your opinions in the comments section below.
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Here are the five biggest news stories from WWE Payback 2020.
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#5: Bobby Lashley became the new United States Champion at WWE Payback
The main show of this year's WWE Payback kicked off with the match between Apollo Crews and Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship.
Heading into this fight, Lashley was established as one of the strongest men in the entire WWE roster today. The All-Mighty has been on a roll ever since aligning himself with MVP. Despite being the champion, Apollo was touted as the obvious underdog heading into this bout.
In a back and forth match that lasted a little less than ten minutes, Lashley became a two-time US Champion after Crews was forced to tap out to the Full Lashley Lock. The feud between The Hurt Business and Apollo Crews, though, is far from over.
As a whole, this was a good booking decision for the future of WWE RAW.
Despite being a heel, Bobby Lashley didn't need to cheat in order to dethrone Apollo Crews as the US Champion, and this just goes on to show how committed WWE are in establishing Bobby Lashley as an unstoppable beast.
#4: Dominik Mysterio pins Murphy to secure his first victory at WWE Payback
Dominik's WWE debut against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam was certainly one of the best matches that fans got to witness this year. Dominik lived up to his billing on his debut, and the following night on RAW, Rey Mysterio's son showed once again why WWE trusted him to debut on the main roster without doing his time in NXT.
However, before the match could reach a proper conclusion, RETRIBUTION interfered to wreak havoc. Therefore, a rematch between Rey & Dominik Mysterio versus Seth Rollins & Murphy was announced for WWE Payback.
In his second pay-per-view match, Dominik once again was quite impressive. This time around, The Mysterios earned a big win over Seth Rollins and his disciple Murphy at WWE Payback, albeit from a big miscommunication between the latter two.
This miscommunication eventually led to Dominik successfully pinning Murphy for the huge victory.
Rollins was clearly unhappy with his disciple, and it will be interesting to see if it leads to Murphy turning his back on The Monday Night Messiah sometime down the road.
Meanwhile, Seth Rollins is set to take on Rey Mysterio in a one-on-one match on RAW tonight.
#3: Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax crowned Women's Tag Team Champions at WWE Payback
The Golden Role Models have carried WWE's Women's Division on their backs ever since Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair have been out of action. Not too long ago, Bayley & Sasha Banks held all the gold on the main roster, but after WWE Payback, Bayley is the only title holder between the two.
Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax formed an unusual alliance heading into WWE Payback, and even though they don't have to like each other, the combined strength of both competitors is unparalleled, as seen during last night's event.
The Queen of Spades won both the title for her team through a creative finish that saw Bayley tap out.
This further complicates the friendship between The Golden Role Models since Banks lost all of her titles within a span of a week.
As for Shayna & Nia, their reign should be quite interesting. After all, they must manage to co-exist together now despite the fact that they hate each other.
#2: Keith Lee beat Randy Orton clean at WWE Payback
Keith Lee's arrival to the main roster during this week's WWE RAW didn't quite hit the mark in terms of main roster debuts. Although Lee's first feud was against one of the top heels in Randy Orton, his overall presentation and theme music led to some Twitter outrage. All that, however, was put to rest for the time as Keith Lee was made to look like a million bucks at WWE Payback.
After Drew McIntyre suffered a storyline injury as a result of three vicious punt kicks from Randy Orton, Keith Lee took on The Viper at WWE Payback.
Randy Orton has been on an amazing streak throughout 2020. Orton's recent resurgence solidified his position as the best heel in all of WWE for most of this year. So it was a surprise to see Keith Lee winning over Randy Orton in a clean fashion at WWE Payback.
Orton has suffered two major losses, first at SummerSlam and then at WWE Payback as well. Not a lot of people would have predicted this a few weeks ago, but as we have seen before, adversity only makes Orton more sadistic.
Now that Lee has secured the biggest victory of his WWE career, he could very well challenge Drew McIntyre for the title or even challenge Orton if he were to dethrone McIntyre.
#1: Roman Reigns finally turns heel; becomes the new Universal Champion at WWE Payback
If Roman Reigns was still the babyface from a couple of years ago, he would have opted for the more noble and challenging route during the Triple Threat Main Event at WWE Payback.
Instead, The Big Dog's newfound alliance with Paul Heyman prompted him to think smart and sign the contract for the match right in the middle of it after Braun Strowman and The Fiend had already beaten the life out of each other.
Reigns had to go for the low-blow to remove The Fiend from the picture. A spear to Strowman settled matters for The Big Dog, who, as predicted, won the Universal Championship last night.
This victory was a long-time coming for The Big Dog. Reigns finally won back the Universal Title he never lost, and WWE made a smart booking decision here by allowing Strowman to take the fall.
This way, The Fiend's momentum remains intact despite losing the title at WWE Payback. Bray Wyatt's character doesn't even need the title and the loss allows him to get involved in a more interesting storyline with Alexa Bliss, as teased on SmackDown as well as WWE Payback.
Reports have suggested that the plan is to now have Roman Reigns hold the title for a long time to come. WWE fans could be in store for an impressive title reign with a heel Roman Reigns at the top of the company.
