Battleground Review

Hello! Yes, the last PPV before the Draft comes into effect is officially in the books. I said in my Predictions that last night didn't really matter long-term beyond a few of the obvious things like where the Titles end up, but I also said I was expecting quite a fun show. Last night's card had a lot of potential, I don't think many people would've disputed that- so it's really just a case of seeing whether it fulfilled said potential now. Let's jump right into the review.

Pre-Show: Cesaro Pre-Show Panel stuff
This little segment with Cesaro perfectly summed up why Vince doesn't see Cesaro as a top-level guy. I love Cesaro, but simply put he was just not very good here. He was stumbling over his words a few times, he ended up repeating what he had already said a few times- and in general just seemed a bit uncomfortable. Cesaro's been wrestling for 15+ Years at this point, if he was going to be a good talker- he would be one by now. It's the old thing Paul Heyman always says you need "accentuate the positives, and hide the negatives". They're not doing that with Cesaro by having him show up with the sole purpose being to talk. I do have semi-high hopes for Cesaro though, if they can limit his promos to backstage Pre-Tapes to get his "pissed off" character over and then let him do what he does best it could be a good move for him.

Pre-Show: Fabreeze v The Usos
For a Pre-Show match, with literally no build- this was about as good as it could have been in my opinion. The match was actually better than I thought it would be, mainly because I was expecting wacky spots galore with Fabreeze- and what we actually got was a proper wrestling match between the two teams. I'm not going to complain about that by any means though, because Fabreeze being treated like an actual credible Tag Team will only help the Smackdown Tag Division that's ridiculously weak at present. Also, going back to a point I made a few weeks ago in a RAW Review- Fabreeze might genuinely have the best Win/Loss ratio in the entire company just counting RAW, Smackdown and PPV's. Think about that for a minute.

Sasha Banks & BAYLEY (!) v Charlotte & Dana Brooke
Yep, Sasha's mystery partner was in fact Bayley. I'd said multiple times that Bayley was pretty much the only person the crowd would accept in this spot, but the pop for her was completely beyond what I was expecting. This match wasn't really important to be honest. The match was fine, without being anything more. The only two things that really mattered was the fact that Sasha's partner was in fact Bayley, and the finish of Sasha making Charlotte tap. This was pretty much as good as it could have possibly gotten, and we've now got a clear Womens Title match for Summerslam as a result of Sasha making Charlotte tap.

The only thing that wasn't ideal about this segment is the fact that it was made clear that Bayley's not been called up yet. Even then, I would expect her to lose to Asuka in Brooklyn and then be officially called up on the following Monday where hopefully she can be inserted into the Title picture with Sasha as champion.

The Wyatts v New Day
I said in my predictions that it would be beyond stupid if the Wyatts who are about to be split up beat New Day last night. So, wouldn't you know it- Bray pinned Xavier clean in the middle of the ring.

I got into a bit of a debate about this on Twitter last night, I wasn't expecting Bray to be pinned- but surely it was common sense to make the faction that's staying together go over the one that is guaranteed to not be together after the PPV? The Wyatts aren't together anymore, that's a fact. Strowman's on RAW, and from that weird vignette Rowan had on Twitter you have to assume Rowan's being broken off from Bray as well despite him being on Smackdown with Bray. So this faction that's just gone over the longest running Tag Team champions in history, and now there's not even going to be a follow up to it.

On a more positive note, we got a pretty good pay-off to the whole Xavier angle with Bray and him seemingly getting over his fear of Bray. That was as close to a pay-off as we're getting for this whole angle, so it's a take it or leave it type situation. The match was quite fun as well, it does have to be said. So overall I liked the match, but the finish was just so fucking stupid.

Rusev v Zack Ryder- US Title
This was a pretty average, basic match. That's not necessarily a criticism of the match, but it's about the only way it can possibly be described. Both guys did their jobs well, they did alright with the whole story of the match- and then Rusev won clean.

Then Rusev attacked Zack after, and Mojo Rawley's music hit. The Mojo/Rusev stare down was fine, but in the back of my mind I could just think "there's literally no chance of a pay-off" because Mojo and Rusev are on separate shows. At least we know the Hype Bros are going to be a "thing", because as I've said a few times Smackdown's Tag division is really, really weak.

Sami Zayn v Kevin Owens
Sami Zayn is now fully on course to be the Wrestler of the Year in WWE. At the time of writing this, he's had two of the top three matches in WWE this year. His match with Nakamura in Dallas, and this match last night. I'm not sure where to rank this up against Nakamura/Zayn to be honest. My feelings toward a match can change pretty suddenly, but at the time of writing this- I'm still favouring Nakamura/Zayn for the MOTY in WWE. The storytelling in the match last night, and the story in general was miles better than the Nakamura/Zayn match- but for the match itself and the atmosphere with it being Nakamura's debut I'm still favouring the match in Dallas.

This match was just so fucking good. There's not really much else in the way of descriptions that can be used for this match. If you haven't seen the match, go out of your way to watch it. It really is that simple. The one thing that'll be absolutely unforgivable in my book is if they have Zayn and Owens together on screen at any point on RAW tonight. I will literally threaten to stop watching, only to then continue watching. Shit's getting real. I say this, because I've got a really bad feeling they kept these two on the same brand to turn them into a dysfunctional tag team that'll chase New Day. I really hope I'm wrong, because Gallows & Anderson and/or Enzo & Cass should be next in line- but it's a feeling I've had since they were announced as being kept on the same show.

Natalya v Becky Lynch
I predicted Becky, but the more I thought about it- Nattie winning was the fairly obvious finish. Natalya is pretty much the only even semi-credible woman on Smackdown alongside Becky at the moment. They need to build Alexa Bliss up a bit, so in the meantime Becky needs a feud for Summerslam.

This match just completely died. No match would've been able to follow the Owens/Zayn match, and this was the old "women in the death spot" type booking- but just earlier on in the show. The crowd simply couldn't care about this match. The match just happened. There was a bunch of moves, and then Nattie just won. The one thing I do have to take issue with this match was Nattie winning clean. Would it have killed them to have Nattie do something underhanded to win? It's not like this card was full of fucked finishes, so that was a bit stupid to me.

Dean Ambrose, Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon Backstage Promo
This was quite a fun backstage segment. It did a good job of setting up the Main Event and the Smackdown/RAW permutations, and that's that. It's also amazing that Daniel Bryan's done more to get Smackdown and Dean Ambrose over in a week than the WWE have done in literally years.

The Miz v Darren Young- IC Title
If you read all of my Reviews and Predictions, you know I always position the winner of the match first in the title line. I legitimately have no clue how to position Miz and Darren in the title line. WWE's Twitter said Miz had been counted out directly after the match, but then on WWE.com it says the match was a Double DQ. So in short, I don't have a fucking clue when it comes to the finish.

The actual match just wasn't very good. I've been a big fan of The Miz this year, but where he's excelled is when he's been put into the ring with people better than him from an in-ring perspective. Darren Young does not fit into that category. The Becky/Nattie match had already pretty much killed the crowd, and this match didn't really help it either. I'm legitimately not sure what the finish was actually meant to be. I'm not sure if Backlund and Maryse were supposed to attack Miz and Darren or what. This finish was just a complete mess, and the thing is- there's going to be literally no follow up to this because Darren and Miz are on different shows now. That's probably a good thing though given the match we had.

I did like Darren doing the Backlund thing of staring at his hands in supposed disbelief though. That was a fun little thing to end an otherwise horrendous segment.

John Cena, Enzo Amore & Big Cass v The Club
As was the case with a few of the matches last night, this match was as good- or very close to being as good as it could have been. Enzo's promo Pre-Match was absolutely fucking amazing, and as with the Zayn/Owens match it's something you should go out of your way to see. However, Enzo & Cass from an in-ring perspective still aren't quite there yet in my opinion. Gallows also really struggled last night I thought, and there were a few times where it was really noticeable.

Overall I did really enjoy the match though. We got the finish that I wanted with AJ taking the pin, which of course sets up the Cena/Styles match at Summerslam. I do wish that we'd have gotten The Club turning on AJ last night to lead into tonight. WWE are probably going to be bringing Balor up as a Babyface now given the fact he was never a Heel at any point in NXT, but I just wish that wasn't the case. Balor's better as a Heel, it really is that simple- and Gallows and Anderson function better when there's a 3rd guy in the mix with them. That's for tonight though, and last night's match was a fairly good end to this chapter of the story.

The Highlight Reel w/ Randy Orton
There's honestly not a lot worth discussing from this segment. Randy's still ridiculously awkward on the mic as a Babyface, to the surprise of absolutely nobody. He had the one amazing line where he said "no enhancement needed" before literally dropping the mic, and it ended with an RKO "outta nowhere". We obviously know where Randy's headed for Summerslam, but I'm actually really curious to see where Jericho goes next. I'm not sure if the RAW Cruiserweight Division is going to have a weight limit that'll actually be a proper weight limit, but I'd love a run from Jericho where he calls himself the "original" Cruiserweight and has feuds with the likes of Neville.

Dean Ambrose v Seth Rollins v Roman Reigns- WWE Title
On most nights, this would've been the Match of the Night. Unfortunately, it had to go up against Owens/Zayn- that not many matches in the whole world have been able to top this year. The main question that needs an answer, is did this live up to the expectations people had for the match. This was one of the most anticipated Triple Threat matches in WWE history without a shadow of a doubt.

For me personally, my expectations were met. The match was just absolutely amazing, and as with the Zayn/Owens match it was taken to another level than it may have otherwise been at because of the story that led up to the match. I'm not talking about the direct build for the match in the last month because in my opinion it was pretty shite- but the video package we had pre-match was just absolutely phenomenal in the respect of telling the story of The Shield and all three guys in The Shield.

Not only that, but Ambrose actually won! I was fully convinced that WWE were going to do something stupid to kick off the Draft and put the WWE Title on RAW last night. They didn't! Smackdown actually means something now that it's officially got the WWE Title, and we're presumably going to be getting Rollins in the mix for the new Title that I can see Steph and Mick introducing tonight.

My ideal scenario if they are going to introduce a World Title to RAW, is for there to be a good ol' fashioned tournament leading up to the Final of said Tournament at Summerslam. Rollins will obviously get to the Final, and then Roman will be on the other side and the match is seemingly obvious but we get a "big" upset win in the Semi's with someone like Sami, Finn or Cesaro beating him. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen, and if there isn't going to be another world title- then the chances of it being Rollins/Triple H at Summerslam have gone up massively in my book.

I really enjoyed the PPV last night, and it's probably been the best PPV of the year. Which isn't bad considering the card looked a bit "meh", and this PPV was one of the least important PPV's in WWE history given what's coming from tonight onwards.

Thanks for reading as always, we've of course got RAW tonight- so hopefully you'll be following along with me on Twitter before you're back for the RAW Review tomorrow. We're now properly into the Draft, with the show tonight being the first post-split show- so lets all look forward to a Nia Jax squash match, presumably some returns and hopefully a show that doesn't feel really dragged out. Thanks again for reading, and let's just hope for a good one tonight eh? If nothing else, at least we get Corey Graves tonight.