Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton At WWE Payback 2017 Makes No Damn Sense

Wyatt Orton Payback 2017

On April 30th at WWE Payback in San Jose, California, Randy Orton will defend his WWE World Championship title against Bray Wyatt in a “House of Horrors Match”.

What’s that? You don’t know what a “House of Horrors Match” is? Don’t worry. If reports are to be believed, neither does WWE. At the moment it just seems to be an interesting name for a stipulation that hasn’t been decided upon yet. Some fans have speculated that it may be something similar to Dean Ambrose’s “Asylum Match”, which was basically a cage match with various weapons hung around the top of the cage. Or maybe it will be something like Total Nonstop Deletion and take place at the Wyatt Compound.

Unfortunately, the ambiguity surrounding the stipulation is probably the least of the problems with this match. Let’s talk about some of those problems, shall we?

Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton
Image Source:
The Inscriber Mag

First off, Payback is a Raw exclusive PPV, so why is the top title on Smackdown Live being defended there? Probably because the top title on Raw, the Universal Championship, is currently around the waist of Brock Lesnar and Brock Lesnar doesn’t get out of bed for B-Level shows like Payback, apparently.

Second, it has already been made clear that Bray Wyatt is leaving Smackdown Live and joining the Raw roster after Payback. That is a pretty good indicator that Orton will retain and take the title back to the blue show.

This was basically confirmed last night on Smackdown Live when Jinder Mahal became the number one contender and the commentary team immediately began talking about him facing Orton for the title at Backlash. They didn’t mention the possibility that Wyatt could be champion by then. Not once. Honestly, they’re not even trying to hide the fact that this is a pointless, perfunctory match.

It wouldn’t be so bad if we could at least expect a great performance from both guys, but their match at Wrestlemania was ten minutes of dull action interspersed with pictures of bugs and neither guy came out of it looking any better. It was a bit of a gut-punch after such an interesting build and I don’t know anybody who wants to see it again.

Then there’s the question: What next for Bray Wyatt?

Bray Wyatt
Source: www.prowrestlingpowerhouse.com

I really like Wyatt. He has all the tools to be a top star but he seems doomed to this repeating cycle of talking a big game then losing the feud and going back to square-one. It’s something that he’s managed to work through so far, largely due to his ability and his charisma, but every time he loses, it becomes a little bit harder to get invested in his next program.

Now, with his transfer to Raw, it doesn’t seem likely that he will get near a top title for a long time. Not with guys like Lesnar, Reigns, Rollins, Balor and Samoa Joe all above him in the pecking order.

This match is just another symptom of the bad writing that is plaguing WWE right now. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again and again: WWE needs better writers. With the in-ring talent WWE has at its disposal right now there is absolutely no excuse for a world title match that prompts the reaction: “Ugh, who cares?”

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