Welcome to the live results watch page for WWE PAYBACK 2023 pay-per-view!
The event is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET with the kickoff, followed by the main show starting at 8 p.m.
Follow along here throughout the show for the results of each match as well as my personal thoughts on everything throughout the night down after the separation bar.
Keep refreshing for new updates, check out the quick results at the top of the page for the winners and chat it up with everyone in the comments as the show goes on!
Quick Hits Results:
- Steel Cage Match: Becky Lynch defeated Trish Stratus by pinfall.
- LA Knight defeated The Miz by pinfall.
- United States Championship Match: Rey Mysterio (c) defeated Austin Theory by pinfall.
- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Steel City Street Fight: The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Finn Balor) defeated Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) by pinfall to win the titles!
- Jey Uso is now a member of the Raw roster via an announcement from the Grayson Waller Effect with Cody Rhodes segment.
- Women’s World Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) defeated Raquel Rodriguez by pinfall.
- World Heavyweight Championship Match: Seth “Freakin” Rollins (c) defeated Shinsuke Nakamura by pinfall.
Author’s POV, Running Commentary & Thoughts:
Kickoff
- John Cena is apparently going to be the special guest referee of LA Knight against The Miz.
- Nothing else worth talking about on the pre-show. As per usual.
Steel Cage Match: Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
- Tiffany Stratton is highlighted as being in the crowd again. Could that come into play with the finish of this match with her screwing Becky? Maybe so. I’m still hoping Lynch just wins and does so with some help from Lita, though. That’s the best way to finish this feud in my mind.
- There’s a nice spot where Trish went for a headscissors in the corner, Becky caught her, Trish flipped herself up to start punching Becky and that eventually led to Trish trying to climb the ladder to escape. Good sequence.
- Stratus kicks out of a Twist of Fate from Lynch.
- Becky grabbed a handful of hair to keep Trish from falling down the side. A minute later, Trish’s legs are trapped at the top and she was flung backward to hit her back on the cage. Nice. Becky drags Trish back into the ring with a superplex!
- Becky goes for a climb. Trish tries to escape through the door. Becky jumps down to stop her, but Zoey Stark is there to try to pull Trish out. Zoey smashed the cage door in Becky’s face.
- Manhandle Slam pinfall is broken up by Stark jumping into the ring. Becky shut the door to keep Zoey in and take the fight to her. Manhandle Slam to Stark, followed by Becky doing another to Trish off the top rope for the win.
- It took a little bit to get started, but ultimately was better than I had anticipated it would be.
- After the match, Trish is upset with Zoey and slapped her, ordering her to leave. Stark closed the door instead and hit Trish with her finisher, then tossed off her “Thank you Trish”.
Time for our host, John Cena, to come out and cut a promo. He’s been a lot of things, but he’s never been a host. Out comes The Miz to badmouth his hosting skills. Cena asks for advice. Miz suggests being more involved, dress better, be quick on his feet to take charge and make decisions—Cena interrupts “Like being the special guest referee of your match!” Miz is upset about that. Cena’s got his ref shirt and is ready to go.
LA Knight vs. The Miz (with special guest ref John Cena)
- As expected, Cena’s giving them some leeway with the rules, allowing them to battle outside the ring for longer than the 10-count.
- Knight back body dropped The Miz over the security barricade to the outside around the ring bell.
- Soon after that, he jumped onto the barricade and jumped at The Miz. Maybe the most high-flying thing we’ve seen from him so far.
- Cena’s getting physical, ripping them off each other at the five-count for when they’re not adhering to it in time. Even Knight, who had a moment of jaw-jacking with Cena.
- Knight almost struck Cena accidentally. Miz capitalized on the momentary distraction to hit a Skull Crushing Finale. Cena was a tad slow on the count, just enough for Knight to kick out at 2 and a half.
- After a sequence following that, Knight hits the BFT for the win.
- Knight and Cena had some tension on the stage, but Cena offered him a handshake, then raised his hand again and said “it’s your moment” and walked off. The commentary team hyped it up as “What an endorsement!”
United States Championship Match: Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Austin Theory
- Rey Mysterio is moving rather odd during his entrance. Slow and with almost no energy. Something seems off.
- That’s applying to the match itself, too. Rey seems off a step.
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch advertisements are all over the place here. Hopefully at least WWE is getting paid a lot for it. Great cereal, but it’s odd seeing that in the background randomly. Very distracting.
- Theory tried to take Rey’s mask off, but wasn’t able to before Mysterio started fighting back and escaped.
- Rey misses a 6-1-9 attempt. Theory got a two-count from his spinning sit-out powerbomb.
- They exchange dropkicks and are both laid out. Everything is still taking longer than normal, which very much makes me think something is going on with Rey tonight.
- Rey’s able to pick up the win after countering Theory into a pinning combination, pulling a fast one on him.
Backstage, Cathy Kelley is about to interview Becky Lynch when Tiffany Stratton interrupts immediately. She thinks they got off on the wrong foot when she said she’ll be the greatest NXT women’s champion of all time because she forgot Becky never won it. Becky threatens that maybe she’ll see Stratton soon, implying she’ll be on NXT Tuesday night to watch Stratton defend against Kiana James.
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Steel City Street Fight: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) vs. The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Finn Balor)
- Steel chairs and kendo sticks. You know the score. Also apparently a steel bucket and a Terrible Towel that Balor stomped on for some heat from the crowd.
- Balor’s caught inside the trash can with Zayn and Owens smacking him with kendo sticks.
- Once they start brawling into the crowd, Dominik Mysterio has shown up to get involved and interfere.
- Big pop for Owens and Zayn putting on Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys (Lemieux and Crosby) and coming out of the penalty box with hockey sticks.
- Blue Thunder Bomb on a stack of chairs gets a two-count after Balor manages to kick out.
- Now, they’re fighting around the pre-show panel desk.
- Owens jumped off a security barricade and crashed to the floor with a Swanton Bomb on top of Dominik through a table. A good part of him smacked onto the concrete as he overshot by a bit. Ouch.
- Meanwhile, Zayn is in the ring with Priest and Balor. The numbers game might catch up to the champions if there isn’t miscommunication.
- Priest goes for a Razor’s Edge. Zayn escapes. Exploder Suplex to Priest into the turnbuckles. Zayn pushes Balor off the apron and he falls down through a table. Owens is back in the ring for a Stunner on Priest, followed by a Helluva Kick. JD McDonagh saves the pin by pulling Zayn off Priest.
- Owens pop-up powerbombs McDonagh on top of the commentary table. Now Rhea Ripley spears Owens through the barricade!! It’s five-on-two.
- Balor goes for the Coup de Grace. But Zayn avoids it. Helluva Kick! Dominik breaks it up again, this time using the Money in the Bank briefcase, and Balor covers Zayn to win the titles. New champions!
Grayson Waller Effect with Cody Rhodes
- After some generic trash talking back and forth, Cody’s big announcement and seemingly the reason he’s supposed to be doing this (for some reason) is to say he used some of his political pull to bring Jey Uso to the Monday Night Raw roster.
- Big pop for Jey, who comes out to a huge reception.
- Grayson Waller tries to put himself over. Jey superkicks him.
Women’s World Championship Match: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Raquel Rodriguez
- Hey, did you know Raquel Rodriguez has a muscular back? They need to give this poor girl more character than that.
- Thankfully, since this is a rare instance where Rhea Ripley is up against someone her equal in size, they’re playing that up with some feats of strength tests and shoulder blocks and such.
- Solid back and forth action. I don’t think the crowd fully buys into any of the near-falls from Raquel, though.
- Raquel’s leg injury is coming into play with Rhea’s submission finisher. Rodriguez is too tall, though, so she’s able to break the hold as Rhea can’t get it fully locked in.
- Dominik is back out to interfere. Raquel gives him a powerslam for his efforts. Rhea utilizes that distraction and gets back in control, hits the Riptide and wins.
John Cena is backstage as an interviewer talking to Priest and Balor. Priest says they’re family and brothers fight, but when they’re on the same page, they will always rise.
World Heavyweight Championship Match: Seth “Freakin” Rollins (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
- Nakamura gets the second entrance. Interesting. And they’re going for an anime style video package for him prior to him coming out. Anime isn’t my thing, but this is cool for Nakamura.
- Most of this match has just been some regular back and forth action, playing into Seth’s back problems at times. Nothing much to talk about.
- Nice turnbuckle hurricanrana from Seth off the top rope.
- When Rollins is back in charge, he’s hyping himself up, talking smack about how Nakamura doesn’t have to remind him of his back or worry Becky Lynch cause he knows all of that every time he gets in the ring.
- Rollins intercepts a Kinshasa with a superkick for a two-count.
- They’re going for the “epic encounter” feel with this match going on longer than I think it necessarily should have, and with them battling into exhaustion. Unless the plan is for Damian Priest to cash in, and they’re setting up Rollins being just too beaten down, I think this might have overextended itself a bit much.
- Rollins is eventually able to hit a stomp and score a pinfall for the win, retaining his title.
Tell us your thoughts on WWE Payback 2023 in the comments section, and tune in to my live post-show podcast immediately following the event by clicking on the YouTube video below!
