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Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: July 19 2015
Location: Metro Sports Center, Evansville, Indiana, USA
Attendance: 11,000
For the third year, WWE presented Battleground as one of its PPV events/Network supershows, but this was the first time when the card felt unmissable. It promised the return to Pay-Per-View of "The Beast", Brock Lesnar as he looked to regain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Seth Rollins, who would be all alone after Lesnar had taken out J&J Security and Kane in the run-up to the show. Battleground would also feature the third - and presumably feud-ending - collision between John Cena and Kevin Owens, this time with the United States Title at stake. There were also other bouts which sounded promising beforehand, so there was a good amount of anticipation heading into Battleground 2015.
Before the main show, we had the Kick-Off match between King Barrett and R-Truth in the culmination of a fun yet daft storyline. Barrett became King Of The Ring fairly by all accounts, yet at some point Truth decided in his somewhat not-all-together state that he was the true King, at one point wearing a deliberately poor crown and holding an intentionally weak sceptre. Barrett's recent win over Truth on Raw seemed to end this rivalry, but no, the feud carried on. Finally on the Battleground Kick-Off, they finished their quarrel with a fairly entertaining match. Truth's stale character and advanced age, plus his seven years of WWE service, distract one from the fact that he can put on a good showing in the ring, as he did here. The result was never in doubt, though, as Barrett hit Truth with a "royal" Bull Hammer to pick up the pinfall win and prove that he was the real King, which wasn't doubted by anyone besides Truth himself.
The show began proper with a battle between Randy Orton and this year's chosen holder of the Money In The Bank briefcase, Sheamus. This rivalry had been building for several weeks but, partly due to the familiar nature of the feud and partly because neither character is what you'd call "fresh" (even if Sheamus only turned heel on March 30), there wasn't a great deal of excitement when this match was announced. Fortunately, it was taking place in Orton's hometown of St Louis, Missouri which ensured that it would have a strong atmosphere. That it did, and it also boasted a good amount of action for much of what was a fairly long match. It could have gone either way, especially noting WWE's tendency to have hometown heroes lose to avoid a predictable result, but in the end the hometown boy did good here as Orton caught Sheamus with (yes!) an RKO from out of nowhere to pin the Irishman.
Heading into the WWE Tag Team Title match between The Prime Time Players and The New Day, it seemed likely that the belts would switch hands. Titus O'Neil and Darren Young lifting the gold at Money In The Bank in the first place was unexpected, but while the duo bring a lot of charisma and a good amount of energy to their matches, they don't scream "Champions" for a number of reasons. In contrast, New Day are what you'd call a great heel squad in that they have plenty of skill and know how to make opponents look good, but they are also very good at riling up the crowd to the point that you just want to see them get destroyed. Paradoxically, therefore, I felt that Kofi Kingston and Big E (accompanied by Xavier Woods, as usual) would come away with the titles here to build their heat even more and set up a truly significant babyface tag title win further down the line as opposed to the stopgap-like nature of the PTP's victory at MITB. But no: after a good exchange of big moves, the Players retained after Big E was nailed with the Clash Of The Titus. So, the PTP remain Champs, but I still suspect that their reign won't be a very long one.
Up next was Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns. This began at Money In The Bank with Bray unexpectedly costing Reigns, er, Money In The Bank. Since then, the Eater Of Worlds had been costing Reigns match after match, some due to interference and others via mind games, all with the overriding message "Anyone but you". This was actually the message that fans were telling Reigns between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, although Roman has reacted well and, by and large, has killed off the fan resentment to his big push in recent months. Unfortunately for the big man (well, the big man who's big because he's tall and muscular), the boos returned here, not massively but noticeable enough that, based on popularity, this was a bad night for Reigns. Fortunately, his in-ring work was a different story: after a slow start to what ended up being another long match, both Reigns and Wyatt hit big move after big move while keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. I felt that Roman would pick up the victory, but for the second match running, I was wrong (which says a lot about my wrestling foresight): a hooded man superkicked Reigns at ringside, which allowed Bray to hit Sister Abigail for the pinfall win. I was surprised that Reigns was actually pinned; the big guy has only won one PPV match now since WrestleMania, having not won his last three supercard bouts, and as Michael Cole reminded us on commentary, he hadn't won a match at all since MITB on television. The man in the hood, who I thought might have been Dean Ambrose, turned out to be old Wyatt Family comrade Luke Harper. It seems that Wyatt and Harper are together again; had Erick Rowan not recently been injured, there's no doubt that this moment would have seen the full-on reunion of the Wyatt Family. Either way, it looks like Reigns' problems with Wyatt are nowhere near being settled.
After the somewhat contrived albeit exciting way in which the Divas Revolution was officially launched on the Raw heading into this card, we were expecting some sort of Divas match at Battleground despite none being announced beforehand. And as it turned out, we did get one in the form of a Triple Threat showdown between a member of each of the three female factions. Charlotte, Brie Bella and Sasha Banks represented their teams, and in contrast to Divas matches on WWE TV, this was a really enjoyable match which is hopefully a promising sign of things to come. In the end, Charlotte (daughter of - Whooooo! - Ric Flair) made Brie submit to the Figure-Eight (a Figure-Four but with a bridge), which is an early indicator that Charlotte is the most likely of the NXT arrivals to challenge for and probably defeat Nikki Bella for the Divas Title. Recent NXT women's matches - well, actually, NXT women's matches for at least a year now - have genuinely stolen the show on major cards, so many are hoping that we will see a similar trend on WWE PPVs in the months to come. Either way, if the Divas Revolution is to meet expectations, this three-way will be the first step towards that achievement.
Speaking of an NXT influx, we next had Kevin Owens going for gold as he battled John Cena for the United States Title. It was intriguing to try and predict the outcome here. Owens has built up a ton of momentum in his first nine weeks on main-stage WWE TV, so a U.S. Title win would be the smart move to keep both Owens' hot streak and the Owens-Cena rivalry going until SummerSlam. On the other hand, though, Cena has been a great titleholder, not only having the best match on most Raws since WrestleMania but having arguably the best matches of the year, and having his best year for in-ring performances for a long time, if not ever. All that would end or at least slow down if Cena lost the title here. Either way, something - or, more accurately, someone - was going down here: either Owens would get a massive boost, or Cena would continue his role as the man that wrestlers want to face and hold their own against every Monday night.
As it turned out, it was Cena who had his hand raised, which infuriated many fans. Their feelings was that Owens had been buried through defeat, especially since he fell by submission to the STF. I personally think that while I would have preferred to see KO walk out with the gold here, it doesn't harm Owens that he did lose due to the presentation of the match. Once again, Owens pushed Cena to the limit in a very evenly-fought and competitive match. Just because someone loses, and by submission, doesn't mean they are buried, even if it is against Cena. Plus, it was a very entertaining match, stealing the show for the third consecutive PPV. That said, I felt this was the weaker of the three matches, because it was basically a case of kicking out of as many big moves as possible, which includes many finisher kick-outs. Less would have been more here, which is partly why I felt Owens should have won, so that they could have had a No DQ match at SummerSlam (thereby making it different to their previous meetings), and Cena still could have won. As it was, it appears that the feud - which in my opinion has been the rivalry of the year thus far - ended here at Battleground. Whether Owens can sustain his momentum will soon be discovered, but a rivalry with Cena where you pin him cleanly in the first battle can't be a detriment to your career.
We were meant to have an Intercontinental Title three-way next between defending titleholder Ryback and his two challengers Big Show and The Miz. However, due to Ryback suffering a serious staph infection in the week elading up to Battleground, the match had to be called off. In its place, we had a Miz promo. Normally, I would consider picking up my phone and checking my messages at this point: Miz is charismatic, for sure, but he doesn't half drone on a lot of the time. But not here: Miz' interview segment (which was only here because his match couldn't take place) was brilliant; easily his best promo for years, if not his best ever. It was fairly short, but it had plenty of great lines, such as "When the going gets tough, Ryback gets injured", and his suggestion that he wishes Big Show would just retire and hasn't meant anything since the Attitude Era was greeted warmly, unfortunately for Show. Speaking of the giant, he came out to interrupt Miz with a KO punch. Is Show a babyface now? Who knows when it comes to the flip-flopping Big Show? Whatever the case, this segment was far more entertaining than I thought it would be. Oh, and Miz was wearing a rdiculous hoodie, and not for the first time in recent weeks. I like that, for some reason.
And so we come to the match which, realistically, everyone was watching Battleground to see: Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. When this was announced, Triple H said that this would prove if Rollins really was the diamond that he always hoped Seth would be. However, it was far more likely that Seth was going to get destroyed by the almost-invincible Lesnar. At best, Rollins was going to get hammered and then sneak away with the victory or at least the title; there was no chance of him defeating Brock on his own like he did with Dean Ambrose at Money In The Bank. And, without The Authority at his side, Rollins could only beat Lesnar on his own. Alternatively, Lesnar could have gone in, dismantled Rollins and easily regained the title, perhaps setting up a rumoured WrestleMania rematch with Roman Reigns (which may not have been popular, but would have been greeted warmer than their initial WM bout was when first announced). To be honest, that was the scenario that I was expecting to see here, although Reigns losing to Wyatt earlier on suggested that the course may be deviated from. I still felt going in that Rollins would lose the title, even if I didn't want him to. But how else would Lesnar be prevented from becoming champion again?
While the result was a source of intrigue and discussion, there was no doubt that the body of the match was going to feature Rollins taking a whuppin' from Lesnar. And most likely, due to a visit to Suplex City (for those unaware, this means Lesnar suplexing the living daylights out of his opponent, over and over, until he tires of it basically). And that's exactly what happened, with the fans counting along to each suplex (as well as Paul Heyman, who feels strange in the role of a babyface). Rollins did hit some offence but it was more than dwarfed by Lesnar's sheer dominance. At one point, Seth tried to run away through the crowd, but Lesnar prevented such a development by literally clearing the barricade in one jump, unassisted by his hands, which I have never seen before in WWE (illustrating what a great athlete the massive Lesnar truly is). So, it was obviously no surprise when Lesnar hoisted Rollins up for the F5, hit his finishing move, made the cover, and the referee counted one, tw ...
BONG!
To that sound, the lights went out but even in the darkness, you could feel that the crowd had just exploded. Could it be? Could it really be him?
BONG!
The lights came back on and ... OMG! The Undertaker had shockingly returned! Rollins and the referee were strangely nowhere to be seen; only The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar were standing in the ring, with Taker looking like he wanted to literally pierce Lesnar's throat, and with Brock looking totally shocked to see the Dead Man back. Undertaker charged at Brock and went for a Chokeslam, but Lesnar reversed it and attempted to F5 Taker, but the Phenom escaped and surprisingly booted Lesnar in the groin. This led to a Chokeslam, a Tombstone Piledriver, and then another Tombstone. Consider this revenge for Lesnar ending the Streak back at WrestleMania XXX. Undertaker left to the sound of huge cheers, despite pummeling a top babyface in a slightly heelish fashion, which closed the show.
I had seen rumours of a possible Undertaker appearance, enhanced by recent references by Paul Heyman on Raw to the events of WM XXX which he hadn't talked about since, well, the last time he and Brock had been on TV in the spring. I didn't think it would happen, though, so it was awesome when Undertaker did show up. It did serve as an effective way to keep Rollins as champ without derailing Brock's momentum. (By the way, the match result wasn't announced on the night; the following evening on Raw, it was officially announced that Rollins had lost by disqualification but retained the WWE Title.)
Of greater intrigue is how this (along with an awesome pull-apart brawl 24 hours later on Raw) sets up a Lesnar-Undertaker main event for SummerSlam. Undertaker's motivation is less about Brock ending the Streak but more that he and Heyman wouldn't stop bragging about it, and his only way to stop it is to get involved himself in Lesnar's business. As for Brock, his motivation is simple: Undertaker cost him the WWE Title, which he lost without dropping the fall back at WrestleMania 31. Assuming Undertaker is healthy (which you have to assume he is for WWE to book him on a non-WrestleMania PPV for the first time since 2010), he and Brock should have a great match at SummerSlam, one that will hopefully serve as the match they should have had at WM XXX. It will also be intriguing to see who wins: does WWE harm Lesnar's reputation as a monster by having him lose to Taker, or will Undertaker really fall to Brock again?
As for Battleground? I thought this was a very enjoyable and very entertaining show. Cena-Owens III was excellent, if a notch below their previous two supercard matches; Orton-Sheamus and Wyatt-Reigns were really good; the Divas bout was the best on a WWE PPV for some time; the tag match served its purpose; and Lesnar-Rollins, whilst one-sided, was still compelling and had a climax which ended the card with a bang. Hell, even Miz's promo was (to quote Miz himself) awesome. If SummerSlam ends up being the PPV of the year, then Battleground may fade into memory quickly since in many ways it was largely a bridge to the big show in Brooklyn on August 23, but judged on its own merits, I felt Battleground was well worth the three hours of my viewing, and in my opinion the second best PPV of the year so far after WrestleMania 31.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10 - Excellent
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