Battleground Review

Hello! It's the Battleground Review! With all of the rumours flying around heading into last nights PPV it's like I was saying in my Predictions- there was a certain level of expectation on last nights PPV that to put it simply not many have. That said, it was still a WWE PPV so they were bound to fuck a few things up- so let's just get straight into it.

Pre-Show: King Barrett v R-Truth
I actually liked this quite a lot. The match was fine- and at least for me the false finishes actually meant something because I was convinced Truth was going to win last night, and can you really blame me for that? The match itself was fine- and it's like I said last Monday when we had another of those stupid segments involving these two that Sunday was the end-game so I could stomach it. I'm going to tell you right now I don't have high hopes for King Barrett going forward, but presumably being in a "new" feud now can only help him.

The only other thing of note on the Pre-Show was New Day crashing the panel and just being their usual great selves- but more on that later.

Randy Orton v Sheamus
As soon as it was announced Orton v Sheamus was first you knew Orton was winning, so that's almost a non-issue in the grand scheme of things. It's like I said last night- Sheamus SHOULD have won this given the fact his character is in desperate need of legitimacy after he got the Briefcase and Orton is in a really weird position on the card. I was saying right from the start of the latest incarnation of this feud that Orton was the perfect opponent for Sheamus because Orton is a legitimately made "superstar" who can afford a loss- so of course that completely went out the window. I actually liked the match, this isn't me being a Sheamus defender or whatever you want to label it was- the pacing was a bit slow, but the match was worked stiff enough to at least get me involved to an extent. It was just a solid match designed to get the crowd firmly into the event by giving them a home-town win- so it was job done.

Primetime Players v New Day- Tag Titles
This is where I'm gonna get angry. Let's get it out of the way, Titus O'Neil is a nice dad- I'm sure his kids are very, very happy. Now that's been firmly established if it hadn't already- WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING WITH NEW DAY?! Nobody, literally nobody- not even Titus and Darren can honestly say the PTP are a better act than the New Day. You only have to gauge the crowd reactions, New Day has pretty much the whole building booing them and doing the "NEW DAY SUCKS" stuff, the Primetime Players had about 7 white people doing the "Millions of Dollars" dance.

Now we get onto the match. If you asked to tell you what happened in the match before the build up to- and the finish I couldn't tell you. Xavier Woods was absolutely amazing in this match- and he wasn't even in the match. The first time I properly noticed it was a few months ago when he did is "Why, We're Winning" line when they were facing KiddSaro. Since then I've pretty much made a point of listening out for Xavier- and he is seriously one of the highlights of any show he's on. Between "WORST LEG DROP EVER" to "TRICEP MEAT" to him acting like a little kid who's just been told he's getting an Xbox for Christmas excited when Big E was getting ready to whip Darren into Kofi's boot on the outside it's just amazing. If you haven't seen last nights PPV yet, go and get the WWE Network right now- Xavier is worth the 9.99 for this month on his own. If I take off my "New Day Rocks" cap and looked at the finish objectively it was without a doubt a really well worked finish, and I give credit to them for that. BUT COME ON, SERIOUSLY?! NEW... DAY ROCKS, NEW... DAY ROCKS, NEW... DAY ROCKS.

Bray Wyatt v Roman Reigns
You lot seriously have no idea how excited I was when Harper took out Reigns, I was convinced it was Ambrose- and with my Prediction of said Ambrose turn for last night if it had come off I would officially be a wrestling god. That said we got Harper which I'm more than fine with because any time Luke Harper's on TV it's going to be good. It also gives us a fresh pairing in Roman and Harper between now and Summerslam, and if given time those matches could be top draw.

Now onto last nights match. I actually liked it, even as a Bray mark I'll admit I didn't have high hopes for this match and it went really well. Looking back I don't even know why I was expecting a dodgy match out of these two. The whole thing of "X" knows "Y's" moves inside out is a played out concept- but they worked it really well here- most notably with the Apron Dropkick/Clothesline Spot that had me cringing just because you felt the impact, and this was one of those days I'm sure Roman was glad he's still wearing the Vest. Like I said before, I actually really liked this match, and in terms of individual performance for me Bray stole the show tonight with only really Xavier coming close.

I still maintain my idea for an Ambrose turn would have been better in terms of garnering a reaction from the live crowd, giving Reigns (and Ambrose) a meaningful feud for Summerslam and getting interest in the show. This direction would also have made it clear where they're going for Summerslam with Roman- leaving it free for Bray to go after Sting which was the rumour. I just can't see how all the pieces will fit together now.

Charlotte v Brie Bella v Sasha Banks
I really liked this whole segment, the little backstage interview/hype things being peppered throughout the night were a good way to hype it up all things considered. I'm still fine with Stephanie seemingly appointing herself as the Divas GM because after all she's been involved in some way or another in Main Event level feuds for nearly 2 years now so it's some good exposure for the Division.

The match was pretty good- and by "Divas" Division standards that means it was amazing. I wouldn't have this as Match of the Night as some have suggested because in my opinion Bray/Reigns and Cena/Owens was better- but the fact it's even in that debate says a lot. There were a couple of blown spots- the most notable one being when Fox and Nikki didn't catch Brie and that could have been ugly but overall it was a good match.

If I had to criticise one thing (other than the blown spot here and there) it would be why Alicia wasn't the one working the match with these two. I would understand the whole "second in command" type thing if the commentators actually put it over that the "second in command" for all three teams were in together here- but they didn't. So not having Fox in this match didn't make much sense to me given she's by far and a way the best worked out of the three on "Team Bella".

John Cena v Kevin Owens- US Title
Owens was not in any way, shape or form buried last night. Let's get that out of the way right off the bat. This match was great- the only massive criticism I can have for it is that it wasn't as good as the other two. But the other two matches are easily Match of the Year Contenders and if you put 99% of matches that happen this year up against those two matches they won't be as good.

For the record I wouldn't have had Owens tap- but I'm not 100% against it as seemingly everyone was last night. I'd have preferred him to be Pinned after the Super AA without a doubt, but the angle all in all was fine. It's not funny- but it's still something of note, I explained in-depth exactly why Kevin Owens had absolutely no chance of winning the Title in my Predictions Blog yesterday- and as much as fans want to get on board with NXT (and rightly so) I can guarantee you the reasons discussed in my Predictions were the main reasoning behind Owens not winning last night.

Unless I've missed something the STF is supposed to put strain on the Lower-Back as well as being a Choke so I don't even really mind Owens tapped given the fact he'd taken AAs, Super AAs and everything in between. If that was the end of the feud I'll be slightly more annoyed- but like I said last night and in my Predictions I honestly don't think it is, and with everyone major apart from Ambrose in a feud I can't see who Cena would face other than Owens adding in Cesaro for a Triple Threat and everyone's happy.

The Miz Promo
I really liked this, Miz in terms of being an absolute pure-heel is pretty much the best the WWE has to offer. The way Miz was talking you knew someone was going to come out and kill him , and it was Big Show for YET ANOTHER FUCKING TURN. One day Big Show is going to turn on himself and just cave in on himself.

Seth Rollins v Brock Lesnar- WWE WHC
This is such a weird "match" to try and review. What we got for the actual match portion was fine- I liked it, they played up Brock as the Indestructible Beast and Rollins as the Opportunist/Cowardly Heel. Then it all went incredibly strange.

I'm pretty sure the majority of fans last night were expecting Taker to show up at some point, even the "casual" fans will most likely have heard a rumour here or there about it- it's pretty much the worst kept secret the WWEs had since their last "surprise". What I'll say with certainty was we weren't expecting Taker to show up with about 20 Minutes left on the show, that made me look back at the match and in hindsight it was stupidly rushed.

Taker is not going to be a Heel, that's a fact- they might try and push him as one I'm not saying they won't but there's no chance the crowd will boo Taker. As with my Cena/Owens stuff in my Predictions yesterday I explained exactly what was going to happen in this Main Event and the motivations of Taker not in any way being Heel-ish while still going after Brock. I've also seen people saying about how it doesn't make sense to have a Rematch so long after and about Taker facing Bray. To that I'll say within story Brock pretty much killed Taker (and in real life mind you) so Taker needed the Bray match (also, Bray called Taker out- Taker within story was presumably happy to stay dead) to somewhat get his confidence back- and now he's going after Brock again for his vengeance. Is that such a hard story to understand? Also, for the people saying "Well where was Rollins?", Really? You're seriously acting like you've never seen this type of finish before? If you really want an explanation Rollins (and the Ref) heard the gong and bolted because they knew shit was about to go down and they didn't want to get in the way. Happy now?

Brock v Taker doesn't have to be Heel v Babyface- Brock is just Brock, literally nothing about his character has changed- it's just given the feud he's been in with Rollins it's been more acceptable to cheer for him. In short, apart from the PPV ending stupidly early and the match feeling a bit rushed I don't see why anyone's complaining- and for the record I'd be expecting a similar finish at Summerslam with Sting playing the role of Taker, Brock being Rollins and Taker being Brock.

This PPV was interesting, there was such a level of expectation on it that I'm not entirely sure it lived up to billing. That said in terms of a "B PPV" which at the end of the day is what Battleground is it was perfectly fine and with everything that happened there's definitely interest in tonight's RAW.

Thanks for reading as always, and thanks to everyone who read my Predictions yesterday- I'm not entirely sure why but it became one of my most read posts, and my most read Wrestling related post, so thanks for that and I hope that support continues. I hope you'll be tagging along on Twitter tonight for RAW where WWE will be sure to kill dead any buzz there is after the PPV last night and then come back here for the RAW Review tomorrow! I know we're all upset about one outcome on the PPV last night, but the Power of Positivity will prevail NEW... DAY ROCKS, NEW... DAY ROCKS, NEW... DAY ROCKS.