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The first companion book in the WrestleMania Era series, The Greatest Champions Of The WrestleMania Era, is also available now! ”The Doc” Chad Matthews has been a featured writer for LOP since 2004. Initially offering detailed recaps and reviews for WWE's top programs, he transitioned to writing columns in 2010. In addition to his discussion-provoking current event pieces, he has written many acclaimed series about WrestleMania, as well as a popular short story chronicle. The Doc has also penned a book, The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment, published in 2013. It has been called “the best wrestling book I have ever read” and holds a 5-star rating on Amazon, where it peaked at #3 on the wrestling charts. Follow @TheDocLOP QUESTION OF THE DAY: What did you think of Payback overall and, particularly, its main-event? It has been a stressful week in Doc's house. Our house flooded on Friday, making Sunday night's PPV a much-needed mental respite from the chaos of the really real world. Overall, I quite enjoyed the show, full of highs and lows as it was. One of the lows was certainly the scary situation revolving around Enzo Amore. That cat was fired up to be performing in front of a Chicago crowd and his bad landing was like watching a human balloon get popped. He was lucky he didn't seriously injure his neck, but it was obvious that he got knocked out when his head hit the ring. Simon Gotch could be in for a tongue-lashing for grabbing Enzo before it could be confirmed that he hadn't broken his neck. I fully believe that match would've contended for the night's best, so I was horribly disappointed for all involved that it had to be cut so short; here's hoping for a speedy recovery for the uber-talented maestro of the microphone. If there was a match that could instantly get the audience refocused on the show, it was Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn. What a match! The by-product of a legitimate personal history and a very inspired on-screen one to boot, Owens vs. Zayn was the perfect example of a standout mid-card match in the modern era. Theirs was one of the best matches of the year thus far and, thanks to the back story, may well challenge the Zayn-Nakamura match on my running list of 2016's finest. I mentioned on "The Doc Says" last week that, if they got the chance, they could have a classic match. By conventional thinking, 15-minutes isn't the provider of a great chance, but they maximized their minutes and knocked it out of the park. Not to be undervalued, though, was how well they steered a potentially sinking ship of a Payback PPV following the Enzo injury (and lingering concern) in a positive direction and re-engaged the fan base. (**** ¼) Impressive, to me, was how Owens then transitioned the program into the IC Title match and laid the groundwork for what could be one of the most logical multi-man title matches in recent memory. The Cesaro vs. Miz match was exactly what I hoped it would be: a good addition to the card that was worked smart and that accentuated the legitimate unpredictability of the outcome. The winner was in doubt for much of the match, as it was hard to escape the idea of Miz retaining since he'd just become champion, but equally as difficult to fathom Cesaro losing so soon after returning from injury. The finish was a good way to protect the emerging babyface and keep heat on Miz. Maryse played her role well too. (*** ¼) Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose was a mixed bag. I went into it thinking that Ambrose would be a better opponent for Y2J than AJ Styles because the Lunatic Fringe has a simpler moveset and doesn't rely so much on athletic intricacies. However, as with the Styles-Jericho matches, last night's match culminating in an Ambrose victory was more of the same mix of really good work and awkward moments. I’m assuming that’s on Jericho; he’s just as good a character as ever, but the physical skills have clearly diminished. There were numerous times throughout the match where they just seemed off and the finish was the most obvious moment of them all; granted, many might have missed these little details, but I tend to be hyper-aware of them, especially given that one of the participants has had the tendency to display a physical gauche so consistently this year. Still a good, much-needed win for Ambrose and a solid match, but not the great match that you’d hope for between a star approaching his peak and a Top 15 all-time wrestler. (***) Charlotte vs. Natalya was very similar to Ambrose-Jericho – good work, but mis-timed at several points – making me wonder if perhaps Enzo’s injury hadn’t rattled the crew who where around backstage when he was carted through to the ambulance. That’s just a thought, but the 2nd hour turned out to be littered with relative blips on the in-ring performance radar that suggested heads weren’t fully in the game. Add to that the horrible finish – the Montreal Screwjob needed revisiting in 2016? – and it was hard not to walk away from the Women’s Championship match completely put off. Less said about this match the better… Following it up with a Raw-like segment involving the McMahon family certainly didn’t wash the bad taste left by the Charlotte-Nattie finish. I’ll keep this brief – I have no desire to watch Raw anymore in part because my Monday night viewing habits were pushed off the cliff by the McMahon melodrama; I certainly don’t wish to see a Raw segment involving that same drivel transplanted to a PPV. I’ll discuss this extensively on the podcast Wednesday, but it’s hard to get excited about a supposed new era when a ridiculously old and tired angle is being rehashed 15 years after it stopped being interesting. As I said on Twitter, nothing short of Jesus Christ showing up would’ve made that segment intriguing to me and, to top it all off, the end result was the guarantee of more McMahon melodrama. Thank God for the NBA Playoffs… Back to the good stuff, the main-event was very engaging on paper. In execution, it was over-booked, but I really had no problem with it; I was able to maintain my engagement and stay fully locked in for the duration despite the two restarts. A lot of my enthusiasm for the match came from the chemistry on display during the 23-minutes of bell-to-bell time between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles; they worked really well together, as their fascinating character vs. character dynamic translated quite well to their physical interactions. It was a WWE style main-event, obviously, differentiating it clearly from the Owens vs. Zayn match, but in many ways it was just as good. Styles was on-point and gave the best performance of his WWE tenure to date; the moment was not lost on him, unsurprisingly, and everything about his delivery screamed “statement to WWE” that this should be the start of a long run at or near the top and not just a way to capitalize off of potentially fleeting momentum. Reigns, meanwhile, continued to do what he has done so well since his match with Daniel Bryan last February: adjust to the style of his opponent and help craft an intelligent story. Take out the restarts and that was quite possibly the WWE Match of the Year. With the restarts and the fact that it was McMahon melodrama that fueled them and the match was still intensely dramatic and tremendously worked, but not quite at that tip top level overall. Looking forward to the rematch in a few weeks! (****)
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