Payback (2023)

The 2023 Payback was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the seventh and final Payback and took place during Labor Day weekend on September 2, 2023, at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the first Payback held since 2020, the first to take place on a Saturday and in September, and the first major WWE event following the deaths of Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt. The theme of the event was wrestlers seeking payback against their opponents. John Cena served as the host of the event. This was the first and only Payback to livestream on Peacock in the United States and the first on Binge in Australia. This was also WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event held in Pittsburgh since Extreme Rules in July 2018, which was at the same arena. This would also be WWE's final PPV and livestreaming event in which the company was still owned and controlled by the McMahon family before WWE's sale to Endeavor was finalized on September 12, 2023, with WWE and Ultimate Fighting Championship subsequently merging to become divisions of a new entity called TKO Group Holdings. Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to retain Raw's World Heavyweight Championship. In other prominent matches, Rhea Ripley defeated Raquel Rodriguez to retain Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's LA Knight defeated Raw's The Miz in which John Cena served as special guest referee. The event also featured the return of Jey Uso, who had "quit" WWE a few weeks before the event and was transferred to the Raw roster upon his return.