Payback (2016) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event, produced by WWE. It took place on May 1, 2016, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. It was the fourth event in the Payback chronology. Eight matches were contested at the event, with two being shown on the pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated AJ Styles to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Critics gave mixed reactions for the event and mocked WWE for promoting the event as the start of a "new era" despite employing several storylines they have been using since the late 1990s.

The professional wrestling matches at Payback featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWE. Storylines between the characters played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown.

Payback was originally scheduled for May 22, 2016, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. However, it switched dates and venues with Extreme Rules.

At WrestleMania 32, Roman Reigns defeated Triple H to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for the third time. The following night on Raw, Reigns issued an open challenge for the championship, which was answered by Chris Jericho, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn. This set up a Fatal four-way #1 contender match later in the show, but Owens attacked Zayn, rendering him unable to compete in the match; he was replaced by a returning Cesaro. Styles won the match, earning a title match against Reigns at Payback. The following week, Zayn, after being unable to compete the previous week, faced Styles in a match set up by Shane McMahon where he would gain entry into the title match if he won, but Styles was victorious. On the April 25 episode of Raw, Styles saved Reigns from an attack by Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, then Reigns recovered and attacked Styles. Reigns was laid out when Styles retaliated.

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