I’m not sure how to start this opinion off other than saying I’m from Pittsburgh. Straight up, bleeding black and gold, full-blown Yinzer, who may or may not have also been involved in a few Steel City Street Fights in my day. Now living in Florida, I knew Payback was going to make me extremely homesick; my first WWE live event was in that very arena. But I wasn’t prepared for how big Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens would make my little Yinzer heart swell with pride for my home.

The thing about Pittsburgh sports fans is, we’re pretty insufferable. If you’re around a Pittsburgh sports fan, you’ll know about it within 10 minutes of speaking with us. We’ll pop for anything involving our teams. So when Zayn and Owens popped out from behind the barricade wearing Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux jerseys, respectively, I was almost immediately up off the couch, hollering in excitement. The addition of hockey sticks (Payback was held in the Penguins’ home, PPG Paints Arena) in a street fight was just too good. What a perfect, brutal weapon. The visual of Owens dripping blood all over a Penguins jersey? It was just too good. It’s a photo that needs to be framed and hung up on the wall outside the Penguins’ locker room with all the other iconic photos of Penguins in history.

Of course, before the hockey sticks even came out, Finn Balor pulled out a bunch of Terrible Towels from a garbage can under the ring. The visual of Balor twirling the towel like he was at a Steelers game was fantastic … before he stomped on it. Anyone who stomps on the Terrible Towel on the gridiron is cursed, however, so we’ll see if that curse carries through to the wrestling world. It was wonderful to have fellow Yinzer Corey Graves on commentary for this, as well, ad Michael Cole talking smack on the Pittsburgh Pirates was … deserved. Graves even called Dominik Mysterio a “jagoff,” or, a jerk, in our lingo. The only thing that would have made it better was a Pat McAfee appearance, heavy Pittsburgh accent and all.

The match itself was a brutal spot-fest, and it’s tied for my match of the night with the women’s steel cage match. The ending was a bit overbooked for my taste, but the Judgment Day storyline moving forward makes up for that.