WWE Payback was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

event produced by

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

, a

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

-based professional wrestling promotion. It was broadcast live and available only through pay-per-view (PPV) and the

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television t ...

. The concept of the event was the wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents. The event was established in 2013 and replaced No Way Out in the mid-June slot of WWE's pay-per-view calendar. It continued to be held annually until 2017; in 2015, the event moved up to the May slot, and was then moved to late-April in 2017. To coincide with the WWE brand extension that was reintroduced in 2016, the 2017 event was held exclusively for wrestlers from the

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

brand. Payback was then dropped from WWE's PPV calendar for 2018 as following

WrestleMania 34 WrestleMania 34 was the 34th annual WrestleMania 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 April 8, 2 ...

that year, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive PPVs, resulting in the reduction of PPVs produced yearly. After a three-year hiatus, Payback made a one-off return in late August 2020.

History

In 2012,

reinstated their No Way Out pay-per-view (PPV), which had previously ran annually from 1999 to 2009. The following year, however, No Way Out was canceled and replaced by a new event called Payback. The concept of the event was the wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents. The inaugural Payback event was held on June 16, 2013, at the

Allstate Arena Allstate Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Rosemont, Illinois, United States. It is located near the intersection of Mannheim Road and Interstate 90, adjacent to the city limits of Chicago and O'Hare International Airport. The facility opene ...

in the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

suburb of

Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,202. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that. Whi ...

. The 2014 event in turn established Payback as an annual event for the promotion. It was also held in June at the same arena and was also the first Payback to air on WWE's online streaming service, the

, which had launched earlier that year in February. In 2015 and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

, the event was held in May. The 2016 event was also promoted as the first PPV of The New Era for WWE. In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand extension, dividing the roster between the

and

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes sim ...

brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. The 2017 event was in turn held exclusively for wrestlers from the Raw brand, and was also moved up to late-April. The event was expected to return in 2018 as a SmackDown-exclusive event, however, following

that year, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive PPVs. As a result, Payback was discontinued due to a reduction in the amount of yearly PPVs produced. Following a three-year hiatus, however, Payback was reinstated in 2020 and held in late August. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the 2020 event was held in WWE's

bio-secure bubble A bio-secure bubble, also known as a bubble, or hub city, was a hosting arrangement for sporting events that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which events were held at a centralized site, often behind closed doors, with strict quarant ...

called the

WWE ThunderDome The WWE ThunderDome was a bio-secure bubble created by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, in partnership with the full-service fan experience company, The Famous Group. It was launched in August 2020 as a way for professional wrest ...

, hosted at the

Amway Center Amway Center is an indoor arena located in Downtown Orlando, Florida. The arena is home to the Orlando Magic of the NBA, the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL, and the Orlando Predators of the National Arena League. Amway Center hosted the 2012 N ...

in Orlando, Florida. The 2020 event would in turn be the last Payback as an event was not scheduled for 2021, and no further events have been scheduled since.

Events

References

External links

* {{WWEPPV, Payback Recurring events established in 2013

History

Events

See also

References

External links