Battleground 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 177 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: September 14 2015

(To read a full event review of WWE Battleground 2015, click here.)

Battleground 2015 is one of those cards which, in hindsight, has slipped a little under the radar, perhaps because its main event was primarily used to set up the headline clash at SummerSlam the following month. However, when reliving the show, Battleground is definitely one of WWE's better cards of the year with some great in-ring action, making for an enjoyable DVD release.

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus is a good opener, enhanced by the strong atmosphere since the show was held in Orton's hometown of St Louis, Missouri. After WWE tries to remind us that Stephanie McMahon alone was responsible for what would become the revolution of women's wrestling in the company (which couldn't be further from the truth), we have a standard WWE Tag Team Title match between The Prime Time Players and The New Day, at a time when New Day were in the process of becoming the incredibly entertaining trio act that would result in their popularity exploding.

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Battleground 2016

Image Source: Fetch Publicity

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 192 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: September 19 2016

(To read a full event review of WWE Battleground 2016, click here.)

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

There was a danger that Battleground would have been a forgettable PPV, coming as it did just days after the Draft and right before the Raw and SmackDown rosters were officially re-introduced, meaning that much of the PPV card involved matches and storylines which could go no further beyond the show, with so many wrestlers assigned to opposite brands. However, the show succeeded due to a number of memorable matches and moments, and you can now relive the card on DVD.

For those who haven't seen Battleground, I won't spoil the identity of Sasha Bank's mystery partner in her battle against Charlotte and Dana Brooke, but it is a nice feel-good moment and the bout itself is a good one. It feels like forever now since The New Day took on The Wyatt Family, although Xavier Woods gets a rare chance to shine as part of his fear of Bray Wyatt, and Rusev vs. Zack Ryder is okay, albeit nothing special. Next up, we have an outstanding bout between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn which draws a line under their feud (for now). It wasn't quite the Match Of The Year, in my opinion, due to some slow periods early on and noticeable non-selling towards the end, but it is still a strong encounter and unquestionably the best on this particular PPV, as well as a fitting way to close a rivalry that we are told will probably never truly end.

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WWE Battleground 2016

Image Source: Wrestling News

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: July 24 2016
Location: Verizon Center, Washington, DC, USA
Attendance: 15,109

This year's Battleground event felt like a transitional show due to the Draft taking place last Tuesday. The WWE roster has once again been split into two, but the line-up changes would not become official until after Battleground. Only thing is, many of the PPV storylines had been compromised by the brand extension, meaning that some rivalries had lost any meaning, since the supershow bouts were now essentially pointless. That all being said, despite the less-than-enthusiastic feeling amongst fans prior to this card, the talent came through with several great matches and moments, all of which resulted in Battleground being one of the top events of the year so far.

The Kick-Off Show gave us The Usos vs. Breezango, a logical bout since the two teams were chosen by SmackDown. This was a by-the-numbers doubles match for the most part, with Tyler Breeze and Fandango repelling early offence by the supposedly babyface combo by taking control and wearing down Jey. He inevitably made the hot tag to Jimmy leading to an Usos comeback. Tyler prevented an Usos Doomsday Device but he and Fandango still tasted a high crossbody from Jimmy. In the end, Jey launched himself through the ropes to take out Fandango at ringside, and Tyler blocked a Jimmy splash and rolled him up for the surprise victory for Breezango.

It was a good start to the night, but more importantly Breezango were very well-received by fans, despite being a heel tandem on the very bottom of the proverbial ladder. In contrast, The Usos were heavily booed again, proving how damaging their alliance with cousin Roman Reigns has been to their popularity, and the fact that the tandem, which were once WWE's top team, lost to a comedy heel twosome here doesn't bode well for their futures. Like with Dolph Ziggler, The Usos are stale and really could benefit from a heel turn themselves. They've been babyfaces for five years, and both their fortunes and their crowd appeal have plummeted in recent times. A series between NXT call-ups American Alpha and a newly-heel Usos team has plenty of potential.

Battleground opened with another tag team match, this time pitting Charlotte and Dana Brooke against Sasha Banks and a mystery partner. Without getting into why the Women's Champion was in a non-title doubles bout for the second PPV in a row, the big intrigue here concerned the identity of Sasha's partner. As it turned out, Sasha's mystery partner of choice was none other than Bayley, who legitimately got a Rock-level pop for her long-awaited main roster debut. The babyfaces were attacked at ringside by the heels, to hefty boos, as Charlotte and Dana took control early of this match.

Bayley showed fighting spirit early on, but it was Sasha who received the brunt of the punishment by the defending Women's Champion and her not-as-talented partner in crime. The Boss soon tagged Bayley back in, and despite her taking a slightly ugly bump on the back of her head to the top turnbuckle, the former NXT Women's Champion proved why so many fans were excited to see her with some great offence, including her running knee attack into Charlotte at the corner. But Sasha would be the one who won the match for her team, locking Charlotte in the Bank Statement and forcing her to tap out. This sets the stage perfectly for Charlotte vs. Sasha for the Women's Title, where Sasha will surely win the gold that she should have claimed at WrestleMania 32.

The bigger story here was Bayley's debut, although the announcers pointed out that this was a one-time appearance by Bayley (for now). I suspect that WWE planned to install Nia Jax (who was called up in the Draft) as Sasha's partner, but the potentially negative reaction to it not being Bayley convinced them to change their minds, whilst emphasising that she hadn't been officially called up yet. You may call it a guest appearance. I can understand fans being unhappy that Bayley wasn't Drafted, but she still has business to take care of in NXT, with an upcoming title rematch against Asuka at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. After that show, Bayley will probably arrive on Raw or SmackDown for good, with a future title match against Sasha (assuming she is Women's Champion by then) seeming like a great prospect, perhaps for next year's WrestleMania, based on their classic NXT Takeover collisions in 2015.

Next up, The New Day battled The Wyatt Family in a six-man tag team match. This was the second bout of the night involving a champion (or champions) where the title would not be at stake. Also hindering this match was the outcome of the Draft: with Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan on separate brands to New Day and Braun Strowman, this intriguing feud (based on Xavier Woods genuinely fearing the Wyatts) had to end here, without the championships on the line. It also means that the recent six-man brawl on the Wyatt Family compound (which some felt had undeniable similarities to the Final Deletion match/angle involving Matt and Jeff Hardy in TNA) ultimately counted for nothing, unless other enemies to Wyatt end up visiting his gaff at some point.

That being said, this was still an enjoyable bout. New Day did their usual funny pre-match promo, and the bout itself told a logical story of how Xavier was trying to overcome his fear of Bray. After seemingly being mesmerised by the leader of this cult, Woods eventually did snap out of his trance and come out all guns blazing at Wyatt, hitting some nice offence to a big pop by the crowd. But it wasn't enough to seal the victory, as Bray caught him and dropped him with Sister Abigail for the win. It's worth noting that Big E nearly broke his neck hitting his spear through the ropes to the floor on Strowman, which hopefully will be sufficient evidence for the big man to remove this (admittedly impressive-looking) spot from his repertoire; the last thing fans want to see is one-third of their favourite tag team act suffering a serious injury, and I imagine that he wouldn't want that outcome either. Oh, and Michael Cole on commentary dropped a right clanger here, as he noted how Strowman swatted Woods like a fly, except it somehow came out as "flatted a swy". As Ron Simmons would say, "DAMN!"

We actually had a champion defending his title in the following match, as Rusev put his United States Championship on the line against Zack Ryder (who was sporting Randy Savage-esque attire based on the stars and stripes). Against all odds, Rusev's career appears to have been rehabilitated; it seemed like his main event prospects were dead after his turbulent 2015, but the last few months have seen the Bulgarian Brute regain much of his momentum (and the U.S. Title), making him a force to be reckoned with once more. Ryder has had an up-and-down year, although this latest title opportunity at least gave him another PPV match, even if the result was made obvious by the two men being separated via the Draft (noticing a pattern here?).

This bout was okay; nothing special, nothing offensive, but ultimately nothing too memorable. Rusev dominated the early going, with Ryder fighting back and strangely electing not to pin Rusev after a Rough Ryder, instead looking to confirm a victory with an Elbro Drop (that's the name for his top rope elbow; seriously, bro). But Rusev avoided this big finisher and clamped on the Accolade which, after an unsuccessful attempt by Zack to break the hold, earned the big man the submission victory. Rusev continued the beating afterwards, until Ryder's Hype Bros tag team partner on NXT, the called-up Mojo Rawley, ran out to defend his friend, with a bemused Rusev walking away. It filled air time, I guess, and it both continued Rusev's winning ways and gave an official debut on the main roster to Mojo, but this was definitely a match that lost a lot of steam due to the results of the Draft (namely, that they pretty much gave away the result here).

One match which wasn't hindered by the Draft was Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens; both were selected for Raw and thus weren't separated, which ironically flew in the face of expectations. However, this was still hyped as being the feud-deciding match between Zayn and Owens, who originally feuded for a lengthy period in Ring Of Honor in 2009-10 (when both were El Generico and Kevin Steen respectively), then on NXT in 2014-5, and finally on the main roster for most of the year so far. They had a terrific match at Payback, some great exchanges in multi-man battles at other points and stole the show in ROH and NXT matches in the past. Therefore, expectations were high for this, supposedly-final Sami-Kevin scrap.

To be honest, I found the first half of this match to be just alright; the action was watchable, but whether it was due to the slower pace, the less exciting offence than we saw at Payback or the crowd being a little switched off for the first few minutes, this match threatened to feel like a bit of an anticlimax. That was, until Zayn nearly crippled himself with a dangerous-looking fall off an attempted sitdown moonsault to Owens off the top rope to the floor. This increased the realism of the match, as Owens targeted Zayn's shoulder in typically violent fashion, and if Zayn wasn't legitimately hurt, then he did a damn good job of making people believe that he was through his selling and constant holding of his right arm. The match really went into turbo-drive when Zayn hit Owens with a jaw-dropping brainbuster on the ring apron, by which point the fans were now fully invested. Plenty of big moves followed, from a Blue Thunder Bomb by Zayn to a triple sequence by Owens that saw him avoid a through-the-posts ringside DDT by Zayn with a superkick, followed by a Cannonball and a huge Frog Splash. Zayn survived a Pop-Up Powerbomb when his foot just about touched the bottom rope, and Owens was drilled with two consecutive Exploder Suplexes (I thought KO had reversed the first one, but he hadn't; he just no-sold it, if we're being honest). This led to the finish, where Zayn whacked KO with a Helluva Kick, and in a moment reminiscent of a fight scene at the end of a movie, Sami chose to hit one more killer blow over ending the match with a second Helluva Kick for the pinfall win.

Fans were ecstatic, and the match was undoubtedly a great one. I'm not sure if it was a Match Of The Year contender, as some have said, due to the uneventful first half; but the second half was as good as it gets, and if this did indeed bring the Owens-Zayn feud to a conclusion, then the rivalry couldn't have ended any better. I personally suspect that the two will clash again in future, possibly after forming a team based on mutual respect (Owens is surely going to turn babyface at some point; the fans love him too much for this not to happen). So, KO and Sami are probably destined to "fight forever", as the fans chanted, but while their hostilities are placed on hold, they can savour the fact that their latest feud ended with a thoroughly enjoyable and dramatic match that pretty much stole the show.

Due to the excitement of Sami vs. Owens, the crowd seemed worn out for the next match, pitting Becky Lynch against Natalya (set up by Natalya turning heel on Lynch at Money In The Bank). They put on a good technical wrestling match, but the reactions were low enough to bring down the overall quality of the bout. Becky got a good reaction when she trapped Nattie in the Sharpshooter, but her Canadian adversary turned the tables and trapped Becky in the Sharpshooter, giving her the surprise clean heel win.

With both women on SmackDown, their feud is likely to continue. For Becky, though, her defeat here doesn't bode very well; she's likely to be pushed as the top female on Tuesday nights, but losing this match suggests that WWE is unlikely to be fully behind her. Natalya's fortunes seem brighter after this surprise win, although Becky aside, there aren't a lot of babyface females on SmackDown (Carmella, maybe?) for her to tangle with. Hurting both women the most, though, is the fact that the Women's Championship now resides with Raw, so unless the Women's Champion is going to roam between the brands, it could be a very long time before either lady even enters a title chase, let alone win a championship themselves.

The Miz defending the Intercontinental Title against Darren Young seemed like an odd meeting beforehand; despite Bob Backlund's campaign to make Young great again (was he ever great in the first place?), being fast-tracked into a title bout on PPV actually reduced his chances of getting over, if anything. That the two men were separated from each other via the Draft also meant that a title change was unlikely. And a pretty poorly-written and poorly-executed finish capped off an entirely uneventful match, which saw Battleground hit its low point for the evening.

To recap the conclusion: Bob Backlund and Maryse argued at ringside. Maryse slapped Backlund. Backlund fell down, and then Maryse went down, intimating that Bob had hit her. Then Bob tried to remove his shirt, but because he had braces on, this was a challenging task to pull off, leaving him looking absolutely ridiculous. In the meantime, Miz confronted Backlund at ringside, followed by Young, and the two men brawled as the referee counted them both out. And finally, Darren locked Miz in the Crossface Chicken Wing. So, the match had no winner, Miz was left laying, and Young didn't win the title; and, due to the Draft, there will not be a rematch. What the hell was the point of all that?

After a match where the crowd was largely unresponsive and a bout which was pretty awful, if we're being honest, the show took a step in the right direction again with a six-man tag team match, pitting John Cena, Enzo Amore and Big Cass against The Club. That Cena and AJ Styles would continue their feud in a multi-man match, and that both squads were split up by the Draft (if you class Cena and the Enzo/Cass team as a squad), made this match and the show as a whole feel second-rate. Still, Enzo opened proceedings with another unique and humorous promo, which the crowd simply loved. Enzo and Cass can do no wrong right now; it remains to be seen if their popularity will be matched by a push (a New Day vs. Enzo and Cass bout for the Tag Team Titles at SummerSlam would be a good starting point).

And this match was worth watching too. It dragged on a little bit, but it was a good effort by all. The Club dominated much of the contest with Enzo being the babyface in peril; at one point, Karl Anderson hit a sweet dropkick on Enzo to prevent him making the tag. He did tag out to Cass and later Cena, who took control of the match in his usual way (I believe the internet sarcastically call it "the Five Moves Of Doom"; or four, since he didn't hit the Attitude Adjustment right away, which he never does now that I think about it). I assumed going in that The Club would win, but no: after some back-and-forth exchanges, including a Styles Clash on Cena with Enzo breaking up the fall and Amore dropping Karl with a flying DDT at ringside, Cena claimed the win with a middle-rope AA to AJ. Cena vs. AJ will continue on SmackDown, with a probable rematch at SummerSlam forthcoming, although it remains to be seen as to what Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson will fare on separate brands to Styles. Might they recruit Finn Balor, the original Bullet Club leader in New Japan who has been promoted to Raw?

Before the main event, we had the return of Randy Orton on a Highlight Reel segment with Chris Jericho. The two went back and forth in pretty hilarious fashion, although the best comment came from Orton when he threw a barb at SummerSlam opponent Brock Lesnar, suggesting that he can beat Brock, "no enhancements needed" (in a sly yet possibly counter-productive reference to Lesnar failing a doping test prior to his UFC 200 fight with Mark Hunt). Unsurprisingly, the segment ended with Orton levelling Jericho with an RKO, as the Viper returned and officially set his sights on Lesnar ahead of SummerSlam. That both men were separated by the Draft (this is getting repetitive now) will make the promotion of their match a struggle, but it's bound to be a great showdown when they battle for the first time since 2002.

And so we come to the headline attraction: the long-awaited Triple Threat meeting of the three Shield members, as Dean Ambrose defended the WWE Title (that title's name has been shortened in recent weeks, presumably due to the potential fallout of the Draft) against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, who was returning off a suspension due to a Wellness Policy violation. It took a bit of time to really get going, but this soon turned into a very good main event, with a plethora of back-and-forth moves, fast-paced exchanged and double-team combos. At one point, Ambrose and Rollins - sworn enemies since Seth broke the Shield up in 2014 - teamed up to drill Roman through an announcer's table via a double powerbomb, which Seth followed with a chairshot to Ambrose (in a nice nod to Rollins' chair-assisted betrayal of his Shield "brothers").

From there, the big moves kept coming thick and fast. I loved one sequence where Rollins caught Ambrose with a reverse kick to the temple, which Roman followed with a Superman Punch to Seth, only for Dean to rebound off the ropes and clothesline Reigns (the rebound clothesline, which Ambrose now pulls out in every match thus reducing its impact, had a vital role here). With both Commissioners (Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon) and both General Managers (Daniel Bryan and Mick Foley) stationed at ringside, a potentially murky finish seemed likely, but it wasn't to be: after Roman was drilled with a Pedigree and a turnbuckle powerbomb by Rollins, Seth was levelled with a Spear, only for Ambrose to drag Reigns up and nail him with Dirty Deeds for the pinfall win. Dean's victory was met with a huge pop, which was expected given that the hated Reigns was defeated, as was his post-match celebration alongside the SmackDown roster (during which The Usos celebrated with Dean despite him defeating their cousin).

I was fully expecting Ambrose to lose the WWE Title here, so that Rollins or Reigns could take the gold to Raw in light of - yes! - the Draft. That Dean won was a nice surprise, and that he won cleanly was even better. As of right now, Ambrose is not only WWE Champion, but with John Cena's schedule reduced going forward, he is arguably the top man in the entire company right now. Beating Rollins clean on SmackDown prior to this, and the extended celebration here, seems to crown him as the new face of WWE, something that was unimaginable even six weeks ago.

Meanwhile, it marked a turning point for Roman Reigns. Having been pushed as the new top dog in WWE for so long despite the crowd simply not accepting him in that role, and with a suspension damaging his prospects even further, Reigns returning to lose cleanly here suggests that his big push is over, at least in its current form. The best thing that WWE can do right now is to turn Reigns heel, and while WWE has been reluctant to do so, the booking here suggests that this could happen; if Roman is to remain a top babyface, why have him lose cleanly again here? I predict and hope that Reigns snaps in the face of fan negativity and his own shortcomings, in a kayfabe sense (due to match results) and in reality (the suspension) and goes full-on heel, turning the more likeable Rollins babyface in the process. It will be very intriguing to see what happens and how WWE moves forward with all three (perhaps Ambrose is the one to really keep an eye on; after all, who on SmackDown could he realistically defend the WWE Title against at SummerSlam if Orton, Cena and Styles are booked up?).

So, for a show that had a B-show line-up (besides its main event), and which was hampered further by the Draft, Battleground was pretty damn good. Zayn vs. Owens slowly turned into an awesome match, the main event was very good, and there were big crowd-pleasing moments, namely Bayley's appearance and Ambrose retaining the WWE Title. It wasn't flawless by any means, but it was far better than anticipated beforehand, and hopefully WWE will continue to deliver strong PPV events going forward as a(nother) New Era commences, thanks to - one more time - the Draft.

Overall Rating: 8/10 - Very Good

WWE Battleground 2013

Image Source: Sportskeeda

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: October 6 2013
Location: First Niagara Center, Buffalo, New York, USA
Attendance: 11,700

The first ever Battleground PPV (which comes after the inaugural Payback supershow in June) felt like a transitional PPV, both beforehand and in execution. The in-ring action promised to be pretty good on the whole, and so it proved to be, with one match in particular standing out as being better than already-positive expectations. But the finish to the main event, the somewhat inconclusive ending to another big match and the promise of a more significant double main event at Hell In A Cell (made on Raw the night after Battleground) added to the feeling that this was far from a must-see show.

Following an enjoyable pre-show match which saw Dolph Ziggler beat Damien Sandow, Battleground opened with a Hardcore match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Alberto Del Rio and challenger Rob Van Dam, accompanied by Ricardo Rodriguez. There were a couple of ways this one could have gone, although if ADR was going over I would have liked to see a Del Rio-Ricardo reunion, since it just feels wrong that the two are apart (and both men have lost part of their charm without the other by their side). On the other hand, since Hardcore rules fits within Van Dam's ECW-based offence, there was also the chance of a new World Champion being crowned here.

That didn't happen, nor did the ADR-RR reunion thing, but we still got a rather good weapons-based brawl to kick off Battleground. A steel chair was introduced early with Van Dam DDT'ing Del Rio right onto it; that the chair came out so soon into the match suggested that the item, usually RVD's go-to prop, would be eclipsed by another object yet to be revealed. That came in the form of a ladder, which we haven't seen used casually during a weapons match for a while. Van Dam rammed ADR into the ladder in the corner, but ADR fought back to avoid more ladder-based pain and introduced a trash can, but RVD countered this by dropkicking the bin into Alberto's face (not quite Van Daminator-style). RVD took control with a split-legged moonsault while ADR was on the ladder, but Del Rio avoided a similar Rolling Thunder crush effect, leaving Rob to land hard. After Ricardo interfered and he and Del Rio exchanged shots with a bucket, Van Dam took an even harder landing when Del Rio dodged an attempted Van Terminator, followed by Alberto trapping Rob's arm with a steel chair for the Cross-Armbreaker, leading RVD to tap out. This was a very good start to the show, and the finish kind of protected RVD while also enhancing Del Rio. But with the injured John Cena announced as ADR's opponent for Hell In A Cell the next night on Raw, and with rumours that this was RVD's last match in WWE for a while, was this all ultimately in vain?

Following that exciting no-rules scrap, we then got something completely different as The Real Americans battled the comedy combo of The Great Khali and Santino Marella. I was going to describe the Indian giant Khali and the allegedly-Italian Santino as the "Non-Americans" to counter the name of the team managed by Zeb Colter, but since Antonio Cesaro is Swiss, that wouldn't work; as a matter of fact, there is still no explanation as to why Colter, who wildly opposed immigration in the spring, willingly accepts Cesaro, and as a man that he wants to manage no less. Jack Swagger was and remains American, though, so that's something I guess.

Given its placement after the fairly memorable opener and the personalities on the babyface side, it's not a surprise to say that this was little more than a run-of-the-mill tag team match. The lone highlight was a pretty good spot, mind you, as Cesaro unleashed his Giant Swing, which made its WWE debut a few weeks ago against Santino, but this time he caught The Great Khali with it, sending the huge man round and round with over a dozen rotations, to the awe of the crowd. The impact of this move was sufficient enough that it allowed Cesaro to immediately pin Khali and pick up the win for his team.

Curtis Axel met R-Truth next with the Intercontinental Title on the line. Given the fairly hefty push that Axel has received over the last few months, this pairing represented a chance for Curtis (and Truth, for that matter) to show us something special, something that we haven't yet seen, and something to get people talking about this match when Battleground was over (in the same way that Cesaro took the monster Khali for a Giant Swing).

Instead, this was just another match; competently executed, far from poor, but with nothing about it distinguishable from any other match on the card, or any other match that Axel and Truth have ever had really. It was hard to believe that the likeable but past-his-prime Truth was going to win the gold, and so he didn't as Axel picked up the victory to almost no fanfare. You get the feeling that both WWE and the fans are running out of patience from Axel to showcase that special quality which justifies his push, but it just doesn't seem forthcoming. Sure, he has the IC Title now, but once he loses that championship, will Curtis Axel's push end as well? If so, he can't particularly blame WWE, because he has received plenty of opportunities to have a truly breakout moment. This was another missed opportunity in that regard.

Brie Bella was chosen as the latest challenger to AJ Lee's Divas Title, as part of AJ's ongoing feud with the cast of Total Divas (and who better personifies that show than the Kardashian wannabe twins, the Bellas?). I have to be honest, I didn't have a great amount of interest in this match, largely because AJ's incredible improvement over the last few months and Brie's comparatively poor efforts, combined with terrible acting during a Randy Orton attack on her soon-to-be husband Daniel Bryan on the pre-Battleground episode of Raw and a non-existent babyface turn for The Bellas based solely on their engagement, all said one thing: AJ is much better than Brie.

Because of this, a Brie title win seemed very unlikely, and if such a result had gone down, many fans would not have been very happy (even though AJ is the heel). Therefore, it wasn't a shock to see AJ get the win with a roll-up after a distraction from her heavy, Tamina Snuka. To be fair, the match was more entertaining than I had anticipated, but it's hardly the sort of thing which I would go and watch back. If AJ is being pitted against those who are on Total Divas, she needs a more qualified opponent than Brie (Natalya, perhaps?).

Next up, we had the well-built match between The Rhodes brothers and The Shield. To recap, Cody Rhodes badmouthed The Triple H/Stephanie McMahon power couple a few weeks earlier, so after he lost to Randy Orton, he was fired. In response, Goldust returned to fight for Cody's job and had an amazingly good match with Orton himself. The brothers Rhodes then invaded Raw, having both been fired, and with their father Dusty Rhodes backing them up, it was announced that they would fight Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns (without their WWE Tag Team Titles at stake) here at Battleground, with the stipulation being that if the brothers won, they would be rehired, but if they lost, they and their father Dusty would all have their employment permanently terminated.

After a humorous yet effective backstage interview by the family, the match got under way, and soon blossomed into a really enjoyable doubles bout. It had an old-school vibe to its structure, but with the modern, contemporary offence of the likes of Rollins and Cody. Goldust, with new face paint for the first time in forever, proved once again that he can more than keep up with the present crew with some great fast-paced moves; the last month has actually been one of Goldust's best ever months from an in-ring standpoint. Dean Ambrose at ringside also took some licks from Dusty, who hit a few elbows on the United States Champion to a big nostalgia pop. I was expecting some shenanigans by HHH or Stephanie McMahon to deny the Rhodes brothers the win, but instead Cody actually got the victory for his team by hitting Rollins with Cross Rhodes. This was a very good match, capped off by a hugely positive crowd reaction as the brothers regained their jobs, and a post-match celebration between the Rhodes family and many of the wrestlers, plus such ex-wrestlers as Arn Anderson.

We then got Bray Wyatt's second PPV match, as he went one-on-one with Kofi Kingston. Given that the Wyatt character debuted in July and he and his Family sidekicks Luke Harper and Erick Rowan have been protected ever since, and that Kofi is a veteran of the roster who loses more big matches than he wins nowadays, this was another match on the show where the result wasn't very hard to predict.

Indeed, after some decent exchanges, Wyatt picked up the victory with Sister Abigail to continue his slow ascent up the card. This offered more action than the Bray Wyatt-Kane Ring Of Fire match at SummerSlam due to the athleticism of Kingston, and the unexpected spot during the match when Wyatt laid on his back, used his hands to bend upwards whilst his feet stayed planted on the canvas, and then began crawling as if he were a spider or a crab. This was the most memorable moment of the match, and fittingly it received the biggest pop of the bout too. Rowan and Harper helped Wyatt to deliver further damage to Kingston after the match.

In the latest extension of the CM Punk-Paul Heyman feud, we got CM Punk vs. Ryback next. Ryback entered the rivalry at Night Of Champions to help Heyman get an unlikely victory over Punk. His heel turn still doesn't feel right, although with Heyman as his manager he may settle into the heel role more (and some of their segments have been weirdly entertaining, as well as Heyman referring to him as "my big beautiful Ryback"). One of those, a brawl in Punk's hometown of Chicago, led to Punk awkwardly missing a table that Ryback tried to slam him through. That aside, Punk vs. Ryback has been inferior to their 2012 feud, largely because we've seen it before, when both men were more suited to their roles (Punk as the heel, Ryback as the face). All of which means that unless we're killing time until Punk faces Brock Lesnar again, this match felt inconsequential, and has threatened to make the previously-exciting Punk-Heyman feud hit the dreaded point of overkill.

Of greater intrigue was the potential result. Ryback shouldn't really lose the first match of a rivalry given his bullying heel persona, but since Punk hasn't won on PPV since defeating Chris Jericho at Payback (and this was his only PPV victory of the year up until this point), it was hard to envision that Punk would lose, raising the likelihood of either a draw or a controversial DQ/countout finish (hence part of the reason why Battleground as a whole felt like a transitional show). As it turned out, there was a controversial finish, but the dodgy moment (a Punk low blow) went unseen by the referee, allowing Punk to get the pinfall win. Match quality was alright, but nothing spectacular or memorable. It does appear that this feud, or at least the Punk-Heyman issue, will continue until Hell In A Cell; if the rivalry doesn't end on that particular card, then it really will become stale and uninteresting.

The video package played for Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton, but we then got some sort of botch as the video abruptly ended, and for around two minutes, we just saw ring announcer Justin Roberts awaiting his cue with the crowd also waiting for something to happen and no noise from the commentators. Eventually, this awkward silence ended, and we got the headline match as planned. Bryan vs. Orton would decide the fate of the WWE Championship, which was vacated after the controversial finish to their previous bout at Night Of Champions. Well, that's what we were told, but with Hell In A Cell on the horizon and no other obvious challengers to either man after Battleground when the show began, something told me that there would be shenanigans.

And that's exactly what happened, which was a shame because this was a really entertaining match; it still didn't quite reach the level of, say, Bryan vs. CM Punk in 2012 or Orton vs. Christian in 2011, but it was definitely a better match than their Night Of Champions showdown. Unfortunately, their strong efforts were all for naught when Big Show, who has been tormented for weeks by HHH and Stephanie and has been forced to carry out heelish acts against his will, came out and decked Bryan with a punch, as well as the referee. He then cracked Orton too to a big pop, and left with a smile on his face, almost accepting that he would be fired, and was now past caring. This major moment, however, was the way in which WWE ended the show; with both men laid out flat, with the match having no conclusion, and with nobody crowned as the WWE Champion. Fans were not impressed and nor was I, especially since we have seen other men kick out of a pinfall cover made immediately after a Big Show punch in the past. Had this been on Raw, it would have been a cool ending; on PPV, it was a damp squib.

Much happened on Raw the following night. Another Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton match for the vacant title was announced for Hell In A Cell, this time in Hell In A Cell, and after a fan vote between Bob Backlund, Booker T and Shawn Michaels to become special guest referee, Michaels was chosen. Bruno Sammartino made an appearance in his hometown of Pittsburgh during a commercial break. As alluded to earlier, it was announced that John Cena, who apparently is still injured, will be making a return to face Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Title at HIAC. The Punk-Heyman feud rolled on. And after being fired by Stephanie McMahon in the opening segment, Big Show returned to the arena after the main event and withstood a Shield beatdown to drop Triple H with an almighty punch to a massive ovation.

I mention all this because, when you analyse it, this edition of Raw was a lot more eventful than Battleground. Of course, Battleground had better matches, and three of them were good or very good, as well as culminating the ADR-RVD rivalry and being the base for Cody Rhodes and Goldust to earn their jobs back. But I felt going in that it would be a B-show, and despite some good action and productive developments, that's exactly what it turned out to be, epitomised by the endings to the final two matches (especially the main event). Hopefully, Hell In A Cell will be a step up, because while WWE has trotted out the "Best for business" phrase ad nauseum since SummerSlam via Triple H and Stephanie, the last two PPV events have been underwhelming to the point that it will not be best for business if these supershows continue to feel insignificant or in some way leave the viewers feeling unsatisfied.

Overall Rating: 6/10 - Reasonable

WWE Battleground 2014

Image Source: Wrestling
DVD Network

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: July 20 2014
Location: Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa, Florida, USA
Attendance: 12,000

Some supercards feel inconsequential beforehand. It doesn't mean that they will suck, nor that they won't provide entertainment. It means that in the grand scheme of things, they have little significance. There's usually at least one show a year with this vibe to it, whereby you could skip the show and not miss a beat, as far as following the storylines is concerned.

Battleground 2014 had that feeling beforehand. The main event was fresh, yet it also felt familiar, and the result seemed like a foregone conclusion. Not only was John Cena (Big Match John, don't forget) defending the WWE Title against former titleholder Randy Orton, the past-his-prime Kane and the not-yet-ready-for-the-title Roman Reigns, but heavy rumours stemming from a leaked PPV poster online suggested that Cena would be defending the gold against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. This show would be the last chance for WWE to pull a swerve and divert from that path, but was it really feasible? Meanwhile, with the exception of Bray Wyatt vs. Chris Jericho, nothing else truly stood out beforehand as being something that you hadn't seen regularly on Raw or SmackDown. Rollins vs. Ambrose and AJ vs. Paige sounded intriguing, but the show still felt like a preview to SummerSlam during its build-up.

So, how did it turn out? Did Battleground manage to exceed expectations, or did it prove to be as missable as we feared? More importantly, did WWE pull out any surprises on the night to avoid the feeling that this was a filler show before SummerSlam? Let's take a closer look ...

Before the PPV began, we had the Battleground Kick-Off show which consisted of two basic matches: Adam Rose defeating Fandango, and Cameron surprisingly beating Naomi. The Rose gimmick is fun, but it's hard to see how it can advance up the card; by being outsmarted by Summer Rae and Layla so often, Fandango's prospects definitely look gloomy. As for the former Funkadactyls: the more athletic and likeable of the two, Naomi, could be an important part of the Divas division given time, but despite winning here, Cameron doesn't exactly provide one with the same optimism about her future. Anyone who has watched Total Divas will know that she's not exactly the most likeable woman on the roster, and now that the Funkadactyl gimmick is history, it isn't difficult to envision that she has passed her peak in WWE.

The opening match of the PPV pitted The Usos against the Wyatt Family members Erick Rowan and Luke Harper. This was for the WWE Tag Team Titles, and it would be contested under Two Out Of Three Falls rules. After their enjoyable match at Money In The Bank, the hope was that the two teams would provide similar excitement in this extended rematch. Happily, they went one better by not only having their best match to date, but arguably the best match that either team has ever had; as a matter of fact, this ended up stealing the show.

There were plenty of big moves and close calls between the standard and logical tag team wrestling, built around the powerful domination by Rowan and Harper, the falls themselves, and the energetic and high-flying comeback moves by Jimmy and Jey. Harper got the first fall with a big boot to the face of Jimmy Uso. Jey managed to catch Harper with a roll-up to even things up at 1-1. Then, we were treated to a smorgasbord of great offence by all involved, from a Harper suicide dive to a Jimmy Uso corkscrew to a great near-fall off a Jey splash to Rowan. The contrast in styles provided us with moves and spots which you don't always see in WWE tag team bouts, and the crowd was completely immersed by the topnotch doubles action on display. In the end, both Usos hit both Wyatt members with superkicks and followed up with stereo splashes for the victory. A great start to the show, in the best WWE tag team match in years. The Wyatts were only enhanced despite their loss, and The Usos are having a career year as they are heading up what is turning into a vibrant and exciting tag team division.

We were supposed to be getting Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose next. Supposed being the key word. Instead, a backstage attack by Ambrose on Rollins led to Triple H having Dean thrown out of the arena. More on this later.

The next match to actually make the ring was AJ Lee vs. Paige for the Divas Title. This was set up by two brief matches on the April 7 and June 30 episodes of Raw where Paige debuted to end AJ's long Divas Title reign, and AJ's return to dethrone Paige and reclaim the crown. Unlike AJ vs. Kaitlyn in 2013, where the matches were a lot better than expected, AJ vs. Paige was actually expected to be really good once they had a proper match, and so it proved here at Battleground, as the two impressed in what was Paige's biggest match to date, even though she was back in the challenger role.

After Paige escaped the Black Widow submission and AJ kicked out of the Paige Turner (which was executed a lot better here than the bungled PT which saw Paige beat AJ the night after WrestleMania XXX), Paige locked in the PTO but after finding a way out of it, AJ connected with a Shining Wizard to win the match and retain the title. This was one of those matches where the result was both hard to predict and hard to book. AJ losing the title so soon into her second reign after having such a long first reign wouldn't have made sense, but to keep Paige strong (especially after her unexpected and probably premature heel turn) she couldn't just lose cleanly. Yet, that's the route WWE went down. One would assume that this feud will continue, given the lack of true competition for AJ besides Paige right now, but couldn't a roll-up finish have been used here to make Paige look like more of a threat when the two meet again? It wasn't a pull-your-hair-out decision, but while AJ winning was sound, having Paige lose decisively to AJ twice within a month doesn't exactly bode well going forward for the lady who was meant to change the face of the Divas division.

One person who did benefit from a turn was Jack Swagger, now an All-American, erm, American babyface defending the country's honour for the right reasons against Rusev. Given how WWE is building Rusev up, a Swagger win seemed unlikely, but due to him only recently turning, surely this was not the time or place for Swagger to be crushed, to quote Rusev's manager Lana. Therefore, WWE gave this match a feud-extending finish which we perhaps should have got in the previous match, as Rusev levelled Swagger with a kick into the post at ringside, and won the match by countout. No doubt, these two will meet again, probably at SummerSlam, where it's likely that Rusev will get the big victory he needs to move up the card, while it's hoped that new babyface Swagger won't be harmed too much by that particular result, when it happens.

Sadly, though, while this was watchable enough, nobody will remember this match for the action, but instead for a tasteless pre-match promo. In the low point of the show, as part of Rusev and Lana's pro-Russia rhetoric, Lana appeared to make reference to the Malaysian Airlines disaster when she said that Russia, and namely Russian leader Vladimir Putin, were "being blamed for recent world events". No, Lana didn't directly refer to the airline tragedy, but realistically what else could WWE have had Lana referring to? WWE put out a statement denying that the two were linked, but let's be honest, it doesn't require one much effort to read between the lines here. The promo would have been sufficient without this remark, and anybody with sense could have predicted an undesirably negative backlash to the line beforehand. WWE's denial of wrongdoing unfortunately suggests that there will be more bad taste promo content to come in future, and as an aside, this situation doesn't boost WWE's chances of successfully launching the WWE Network in those parts of the world which were affected or potentially involved in the disaster.

If the production of the show was starting to feel a bit dodgy, then the next segment didn't help matters. Seth Rollins came out and declared himself the winner of his scheduled match with Dean Ambrose since Ambrose, having been ejected, could no longer compete. Of course, that was the cue for Ambrose to come out and beat up Rollins, before the two were eventually separated by road agents and Triple H. There was no match.

Remember how I said that WWE was effectively using Battleground solely to promote SummerSlam? That was most relevant to this piece of business, to quote Jim Ross. By not having the match here, fans should be excited to see the two ex-Shield members finally collide at SummerSlam. The downside was that we didn't get what was probably the second biggest match on the card for reasons which I don't think were entirely justifiable within the confines of the storyline. WWE should have had them start the match, brawl everywhere for 5-10 minutes and then have it stopped in the exact same fashion, giving us a rematch at SummerSlam. By blatantly not giving us an advertised bout here, and not due to injury or another unforeseeable situation, WWE reduced fan interest in the show, and will have made some fans question whether advertised matches will be delivered in future. Which they mostly will, of course; but while the logic was reasonable behind this situation, by simply having the match degenerate into the brawl, rather than having a brawl instead of a match, fans would have been more satisfied by what they got. At this point on the show, we'd had one great match, an eagerly-anticipated match removed from the show, another match with a questionable finish, and the other match had a bad taste promo line. Not so good, WWE.

Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt made sense on paper. After Wyatt lost his feud with John Cena, he needed to decisively win his next rivalry, and the veteran Y2J, who is happy to put over fresh young talent (hell, he lost to Fandango at WrestleMania 29), seemed an ideal candidate. Jericho knows how to get the best out of his opponents and his feuds, and he can always be relied upon to deliver a good or great match depending on who he is sharing the ring with. So, a key win over a big name in what promised to be an exciting match; win-win, or win-win-win or Wyatt.

So you can imagine the surprise when Wyatt, erm, didn't win: after a smooth match with some nice sequences, as well as interference from Harper and Rowan, Wyatt unexpectedly succumbed to an out-of-nowhere Codebreaker. When the three count hit, my phone started banging itself on the table due to the online uproar from the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community). Okay, I'm exaggerating (obviously), but this was still a weird result; this was a must-win match for Bray, to the extent that barely anyone expected Y2J to come out on top. Which is probably why he did win, because few were anticipating it. It looks like the feud is not over, and no doubt Wyatt will win the rematch, but whilst one can understand Wyatt losing to John Cena, and of course there's no shame losing to Chris Jericho, this was a setback for the Eater Of Worlds, and his future prospects could now rest on how he performs when the two next lock up. (Incidentally, Jericho also beat Wyatt on NXT in 2013, so perhaps Y2J has Bray's number ... or something like that.)

After Ambrose ambushed Rollins once more in the car park (come to think of it, this whole situation should have been played out over the course of an episode of Raw; it would definitely have worked there), we had the Battle Royal for the Intercontinental Title, vacated after an injury to previous titleholder Bad News Barrett (who came out pre-match to deliver some "Bad News" about him planning to reclaim the title upon his return). Since the match largely consisted of also-rans, I'll skip ahead to the key moments, which saw Kofi Kingston once again pull off an unlikely escape from elimination with the unexpected assistance of Cesaro (followed by Cesaro humorously yet impressively suplexing Kofi back into the ring from Big E's shoulders outside the ring), Heath Slater surprisingly eliminate Cesaro (so much for him being built up to face Brock Lesnar), and after some iffy exchanges, Dolph Ziggler seemed to eliminate Sheamus to triumph, only for The Miz (who we were led to believe had been eliminated even though he hadn't) to run back in and dump Dolph out to win the whole thing.

Despite some cool moments, this match was a bit "meh", largely due to the outcome. Miz recently underwent a character transformation into a Hollywood superstar/wannabe, so him winning here on the back of a fresh push makes sense. However, Miz has held the IC gold several times before, and not one of his reigns was particularly memorable. Unless Miz has something hidden which will change people's perceptions of him forever, chances are that this reign will be equally uneventful. Of greater use for the title would have been crowning the recently under-utilised Cesaro as IC Champ, or Dolph Ziggler after a year of largely treading water. I was about to suggest Sheamus could have won, and then he could have been both Intercontinental Champion and United States Champion (thus allowing him to unofficially unify the titles), but since Sheamus' US Title wasn't mentioned here, which suggests it is currently irrelevant, that probably would have been a missed opportunity. For Dolph, the ending sequence suggests that he will get a crack at Miz's title and could dethrone him then, but on the night Miz winning was another moment where you felt that WWE had missed the mark.

And so we come to the main event. As mentioned earlier, a leaked PPV poster for SummerSlam, which was actually leaked before Money In The Bank in June, revealed a John Cena-Brock Lesnar WWE Title match. Therefore, Cena's MITB win was a foregone conclusion, as was his likely win here over Randy Orton and Kane and the now-solo Roman Reigns. In fairness to WWE, once Daniel Bryan was injured, and considering that most anticipated a Brock Lesnar WWE Title challenge (and likely win) ever since he ended The Undertaker's Streak at WrestleMania XXX, they had to cast somebody worthy in that role who could carry the gold and successfully headline SummerSlam against the Beast Incarnate. As noted earlier, Reigns isn't quite ready for that treatment yet, and a rush-job would be wrong for somebody who could one day be the face of WWE (no pun intended). Orton has been there before, and whilst Orton vs. Lesnar sounds fresh, it would require a sudden babyface turn which doesn't seem right at this point. Kane still has it, but making Kane WWE Champion in 2014 wouldn't be a good idea. The other candidates who weren't in this match have all received poor booking in recent times or simply aren't ready. When you break it down, only John Cena could have been utilised in this role. So, it's no wonder that Cena won at MITB, and therefore nobody should have been surprised if Cena won here, even if the SummerSlam poster hadn't been leaked.

What was for WWE to control, though, was how Cena survived Battleground with the title. The Fatal Four Way scenario would have been a cool Raw main event, but for a major PPV, it was only fair. For the reasons stated above, nobody bar Cena realistically had a chance of winning, and while the match itself was entertaining, its biggest spots (such as Cena and Reigns powerbombing Kane who was suplexing Orton from the top rope) were a little too familiar. The Cena-Reigns square-offs were interesting, which bodes well for Roman should the two meet one-on-one in the future. Reigns looked strong, and his performance was the highlight of the match. Crowd reactions to the big man were encouraging too, but this wasn't to be his night. Tension between Authority members Orton and Kane continued to escalate here, and perhaps a feud between the two is on the horizon. In the end, Reigns tasted an RKO, only for Orton to receive an Attitude Adjustment onto Kane, allowing Cena to pin Kane and retain the title.

No, there were no swerves; Cena does what Cena often does, and that's win. As noted, there really wasn't any other route WWE could have gone down, but an upset win for Kane followed by Cena winning back the title on Raw was one option. It was a tricky situation because you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't; keeping the title on Cena makes it predictable, but having the title change hands again (possibly twice, in the scenario I suggested) means that whomever has the gold is even less likely to win when Brock Lesnar gets his shot at SummerSlam. And, remember, Cena vs. Lesnar wasn't the original plan for SummerSlam; Daniel Bryan vs. Lesnar was. I just wish WWE had given us a memorable main event or at least an intriguing first-time clash to cover Battleground, as opposed to a match which was definitely enjoyable, but looked like being filler beforehand and ultimately, that's what it proved to be - not unlike the show as a whole.

So, in the end, Battleground 2014 really was just another PPV. With the exception of the frenetic and exciting opener, nothing on the show truly left a lasting impression. There were some good performances but questionable booking decisions, some very questionable promo content, unwanted predictability with the result of the main event and unwanted unpredictability with results elsewhere on the card left one feeling like it wasn't exactly WWE's best effort. Although the backlash to Royal Rumble 2014 was greater than to this event, I personally felt that Battleground was the weakest show of the year so far, simply because the card was unexceptional. Try and see the Tag Team Title match if you can, and some of the action elsewhere was fun to watch, but otherwise if you didn't watch Battleground live, then you probably did a good thing to save your money until (the hopefully superior) SummerSlam takes place next month.

Overall Rating: 6/10 - Reasonable

WWE Battleground 2015

Image Source: Social Suplex

Written By: Mark Armstrong

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