Payback (2020)

The 2020 Payback was the sixth and final Payback professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on August 30, 2020, from the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the first Payback held since the 2017 event, but was the final Payback as no further events were scheduled. The theme of the event was wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents.

The card consisted of eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, a returning Roman Reigns, in his first match since February 2020, defeated defending champion "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, who Reigns pinned, in a No Holds Barred Triple Threat match to win SmackDown's Universal Championship. In the preceding match, Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy. In other prominent matches, Keith Lee defeated Randy Orton, and Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defeated Bayley and Sasha Banks to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.

This event is notable for marking the beginning of Roman Reigns' second reign as Universal Champion, which currently stands as the longest reign in the championship's history, the sixth-longest world championship reign in WWE history, and the longest WWE world championship reign of the modern era.

Production

Background

Payback was a pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event that was established by WWE in 2013. The concept of the event was the wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents. The event ran annually from 2013 to 2017; the 2017 event was also a Raw-exclusive show, but following WrestleMania 34 in 2018, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive pay-per-views, resulting in the reduction of yearly PPVs produced, thus also discontinuing Payback. During the August 14, 2020, episode of ''SmackDown'', it was announced that Payback had been reinstated and would be held on August 30. The sixth event in the Payback chronology, the 2020 event featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brands.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's television shows and PPVs were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. Just a week prior to Payback, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at Orlando's Amway Center. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans.

Storylines

The card comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, ''Monday Night Raw'' and ''Friday Night SmackDown''.

On the August 14 episode of ''SmackDown'', it was revealed that Bayley and Sasha Banks would defend the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at Payback. Their opponents were revealed on the August 24 episode of ''Raw''; the team of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler.

At SummerSlam, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman to win the Universal Championship for the second time. Following the match, Roman Reigns made his return after a five-month hiatus and viciously attacked The Fiend and Strowman. The following day, it was announced that The Fiend would defend the title against Strowman and Reigns in a no holds barred triple threat match at Payback. On that Friday's ''SmackDown'', WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon assigned producer Adam Pearce to obtain signatures from the three competitors for their match by the end of the night. After obtaining Wyatt and Strowman's signatures, Pearce located Reigns, where it was revealed that he had aligned himself with Paul Heyman. Reigns affirmed he would be at Payback and win the match, however, he did not sign the contract.

On the August 24 episode of ''Raw'', after attacking WWE Champion Drew McIntyre with two Punts, Randy Orton, who lost to McIntyre at SummerSlam, wanted another rematch for the title, but he was interrupted by former NXT wrestler Keith Lee, making his Raw debut. On behalf of McIntyre, Lee challenged Orton to a match only for Orton to decline. However, the two fought each other later on, with Orton winning via disqualification after McIntyre attacked him. Orton later attacked McIntyre backstage with a third Punt, taking McIntyre out. A rematch between Lee and Orton was subsequently confirmed for Payback.

At SummerSlam, Seth Rollins (who was accompanied by his disciple Murphy) defeated Dominik Mysterio (who was accompanied by his father Rey Mysterio) in a Street Fight. The following night on ''Raw'', Rey Mysterio and Dominik defeated Rollins and Murphy by disqualification when Retribution attacked the Mysterios. A rematch between the two teams was scheduled for Payback.

At SummerSlam, Apollo Crews defeated MVP to retain the United States Championship. The following night on ''Raw'', Crews was scheduled to defend the title against MVP's stablemate of The Hurt Business, Bobby Lashley, at Payback.

Event

Pre-show

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