The 2013 Payback was the inaugural Payback professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. The event took place on June 16, 2013, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. It replaced WWE's previously well-known event, No Way Out. The concept of the event was the wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents.
Eight professional wrestling matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, John Cena retained the WWE Championship against Ryback in a Three Stages of Hell match. In other prominent matches, Alberto Del Rio defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the World Heavyweight Championship and CM Punk defeated Chris Jericho.
The event received 186,000 buys, down from the previous year's No Way Out pay per view of 194,000.
Production
Background
In 2012, WWE 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 titled Payback. The concept of the event was the wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents. The event was held on June 16, 2013, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois.
Storylines
The event comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that 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, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.
After their Last Man Standing match at Extreme Rules in May, which ended in no-contest, Ryback drove an ambulance into the arena on the May 20 episode of Raw, challenging John Cena in an Ambulance match for his WWE Championship. A week later on Raw, Cena responded by turning the challenge into Three Stages of Hell, with the first fall being a lumberjack match, the second fall a tables match, and the originally-decided Ambulance match as the third fall. Ryback accepted the new stipulation, making the match official.
On the April 22 episode of Raw, AJ Lee won a divas battle royal to face Kaitlyn for the Divas Championship at Payback. The next week on Raw, after a confrontation with AJ, Dolph Ziggler, and Big E Langston backstage, Kaitlyn began receiving gifts from a secret admirer, and a rose bouquet on the May 3 episode of SmackDown. On the June 10 episode of Raw, Kaitlyn's secret admirer was revealed to be Langston, although it turned out to be a mind game AJ planned to get inside Kaitlyn's head before their Divas Title match.
On the May 27 episode of Raw, Chris Jericho hosted "The Highlight Reel" segment with Paul Heyman as his guest, where he inquired the latter about one of his clients, CM Punk's absence from the WWE since April and May, and much like in their feud early the previous year, disputed with Heyman on who between the two of them was the "best in the world". To put that argument to rest, Jericho issued a challenge to Punk at Payback, which Heyman subsequently accepted on Punk's behalf. On June 3, 2013, during an episode of Raw, the contract for the match was signed between Jericho and Heyman, again on Punk's behalf. On the June 7 episode of SmackDown, Curtis Axel defeated Jericho after Heyman, Axel's manager, distracted him by playing Punk's theme tune. After the match, Jericho hit Axel with his finishing maneuver, the Codebreaker.