Fans hoping WWE superstar John Cena will surprise them all and turn heel were left disappointed in that regard after WWE Payback, but Cena and Ryback put on a show in the WWE Championship "Three Stages of Hell match."
As stipulated, this match was a best two out of three falls bout. The first stage was a lumberjack match, followed by a tables match. If the score was even, it goes to an ambulance match, which is a nod to Cena's "injury" at Extreme Rules.
At that pay-per-view, Cena and Ryback battled in a "Last Man Standing" match that ended in a draw with both men unable to rise from the count. Ryback had speared Cena through a wall near the wrestlers' pyrotechnics equipment, rendering both immobile for the 10-count. Ryback eventually left under his own power but Cena had to be carted backstage on a stretcher.
Cena was alive and well at Payback, even though he was beaten by Ryback in the lumberjack match. Cena turned the tables of the evening, literally, by putting Ryback through a table to even the best-of-three-falls bout. Cena emerged victorious and retained his title in the third stage emphatically, by slamming his beastly rival through the roof of an ambulance.
The other big-time match of the night involved a "missing" superstar, CM Punk, who had apparently walked away from WWE after WrestleMania. On Monday Night Raw, his manager Paul Heyman had signed him into a match at Payback against "Y2J" Chris Jericho, but Punk had not appeared on any shows.
Worried fans were calmed when his music hit Sunday night, though, and Punk showed up in front of his hometown fans in Chicago to put on a wrestling clinic with Jericho. The man nicknamed the "Second City Saint" went through lots of early turbulence, recharged and took control, then survived a late "Codebreaker" by Jericho to come out on top, pleasing his fellow Chicagoans.
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