WWE Battleground 2016

WWE Battleground 2016

Washington, D.C - July 2016

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Dean Ambrose is the WWE World Champion, Rusev holds the United States Title, The Miz is the Intercontinental Champion, Charlotte is the reigning WWE Womens' Champion, and The New Day remain the company's World Tag Team Champions. 

COMMENTARY: Michael Cole, JBL, and Byron Saxton

Kicking off the show, Charlotte and her BFF, Dana Brooke, made their way down the aisle to take on Sasha Banks and her mystery tag partner, Bayley, who comes out to one of the loudest pops I've ever heard a womens' wrestler receive. Charlotte and Brooke go right on the attack, though, getting the best of the debuting former NXT Womens' Champ before Sasha Banks is able to get the tag and get some (imperfect) offense in. From here, the match goes through a somewhat stereotypical layout, plenty of back and forth with the heels cutting off the faces by slowing down the match and Bayley playing face-in-peril for a stretch to build up to a Sasha hot tag that gets the crowd on their feet. Really good work throughout with lots of "little things" to keep the audience engaged. With a solid finish that points to the expected SummerSlam Womens' Title match, this was a very solid opener that showed that the chemistry between the NXT grads has survived on the main roster. (3/5)

A lengthy video package prefaced our next battle, The New Day vs. The Wyatt Family. Michael Cole notes that they are the longest running WWE World Tag Team Champions in history...which is true if you look at those very specific titles, which have only been around since 2002. If you include the original WWE World Tag Team Titles or the NWA/WCW World Tag Team Championships, they're still close to the top, just not in the number one spot (for example, Demolition held the titles for over 450 days in the 80s). The Wyatts dominate early, using their size and strength to keep Kofi on the mat, but eventually Kingston is able to make the tag to Big E and New Day get in some big offense. The match's pace picks up big time here, the signature offense of both teams on full display and one can really tell how much keeping these teams in tact over the past few years has led to them developing expert timing for their most complex sequences. Like the opener, a definitive conclusion caps off a match that told a logical story and featured all the expected thrills and spills. (3/5)

Rusev defended his United States Championship against Zack Ryder next. The outcome of this one was fairly predictable considering Ryder was recently drafted SmackDown and Rusev was, at the time of the match, RAW's lone male titleholder. As one may have expected, this match had less heat than the previous two, neither guy coming into the show on much of a roll. Ryder hit a big missile dropkick off the barricade and followed it up with a Rough Ryder, but Rusev cleverly countered Ryder's Exclamation Point and was able to lock in a deep Accolade to seal the victory. Mojo Rawley makes his main roster debut in the post-match, but it seemed a bit non-essential here, more of a way to introduce him as Ryder's tag partner than as a singles competitor. Watching so much WCW in 97' has really made me happy to see so many clean, decisive finishes. (2.5/5)

Backstage, Seth Rollins is with Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon, claiming that he will take the WWE World Championship back to RAW tonight. 

Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens was next, a match billed as the culmination of their months-long feud. I'll believe that when they're kept apart from each other for longer than 3 weeks, something I doubt will happen now that they're both on the RAW brand. Solid back-and-forth leading to an absolutely insane duplex on the apron by Zayn, the crowd breaking into a "This is Awesome" chant soon after. A few minutes later, Owens got to pay him back by countering Zayn's through-the-ropes DDT with a super kick, a cannonball in the corner, and then a well-executed frog splash. This led to a brilliant sequence of signature offense and reversals, a standing ovation from the crowd and a loud "Yes" chant. The final minutes gave us one of the best finishes I can recall seeing in a long time, almost even touching on the classic "I Love You" spot between Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair at WrestleMania 24 in a weird way. Very strong match, but not necessarily the best or most innovative one they've ever put on. (4/5)

Becky Lynch challenged Natalya next, their animosity based on the way Natalya turned on Lynch in her feud with Womens' Champion Charlotte. Solid match between these two with Natalya showcasing her experience in terms of technicality and ring awareness, but not necessarily shining in the heel role, relying on generic heel showboating rather than coming up with anything that really stands out as "quintessential Natalya." Hopefully, her heel character will shape up more over the new few months. Becky Lynch was more than passable in her underdog role here, continuing her streak of strong pay-per-view efforts over the past few months. While not as recommended as the opener, this was a more serious, legitimate contest than practically any non-title womens' match that existed in the decade before it. (2.5/5)

Ho-hum Miz/Darren Young match. Forgettable bout that showed that, while both guys have made stupendous improvements over the years from where they started, neither is capable yet of piecing together a fully realized, well-paced battle that will sustain the crowd's interest. Bob Backlund and Maryse's involvement added an extra (necessary) element to the match, but still not enough to make this anything better than material to fast forward through. (1.5/5)

A video package highlights John Cena's on-going feud with The Club as a prelude to our next bout - Enzo and Big Cass and (the aforementioned) John Cena taking on AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson. Before the match even started, this one earned an extra bonus point just for Enzo's ridiculously sick promo. The comparisons to the New Age Outlaws are actually an insult to Enzo and Cass at this point - their shtick, while still full of catchphrases, is adaptable in a way that Road Dogg and Billy's never was. More of a TV main event than a pay-per-view match in some regards, Enzo is a sharp face-in-peril and, obviously, whenever Cena or AJ Styles were involved, the match was at its best, but Gallows, Anderson, and Cass are no slouches and the crowd was engaged throughout. The pre-match promo might have been most the "must see" portion of the entire contest, but the match itself was no worse than average. (3.5/5)

Chris Jericho hosts a long, fairly predictable Highlight Reel segment with guest - the returning Randy Orton. Orton looked more excited to be in front of the live crowd than he typically does in these sorts of segments, but he's never been a natural face, has never looked good pandering to the audience, and, while articulate, doesn't really stir emotions the way the best mic workers do. He got in one good line about his opponent at SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar, but aside from that, this wasn't worth the time it was allotted. 

Main event time - before the participants can make their arrival, Stephanie McMahon, Mick Foley, Shane McMahon, and Daniel Bryan each get their own entrance. Ugh. The past 20-30 minutes of this pay-per-view have been actionless. Finally it was time for our WWE World Championship match - Dean Ambrose defending against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in a triple threat match. The usual "These 2 Fight then These 2 Fight" triangle match, though, that's not to say it didn't have its great moments featuring all three competitors, including some fun brawling in the timekeeper's area, Rollins flying into the screen with a splash on Ambrose at one point, and Reigns dishing out a pair of Superman Punches (soon after there was an incredible sequence where all three men hit signature strikes and each ended up on the mat to pay for it). The loudest pop of the match may have been when Ambrose and Rollins turned their attention unto Reigns, powerbombing him through an announce table. At this point, the drama of the match built wonderfully, near-falls turning into other near-falls, Reigns getting the opportunity to showcase his strength while Rollins and Ambrose showed off their quickness and agility in equal measure. An entertaining bout with a somewhat unexpected finish put this show to bed by pleasing the crowd, something I was thinking the WWE had gotten away from too much over the years. Similar to the Zayn/Owens match from earlier in the evening, this one started off in good range and ended up great. (3.5/5)

With a pretty solid 2.94-out-of-5 score, Battleground 2016 may not have offered the peaks of last month's Money in the Bank (Cena/Styles, Rollins/Reigns, and the MITB Briefcase match all delivered), but it still ranks fairly highly when compared to other WWE Network specials of the 7 months (we'll leave the NXT Specials out of this conversation). What might be most commendable about the show is that, even compared to Money in the Bank, Battleground is clearly a "filler show," a concept that's only 2-3 years old plugged into the WWE's annual post-WrestleMania doldrums. Unlike Extreme Rules or TLC or Hell in a Cell, this show couldn't rely on elaborate set pieces and weapon usage to keep the audience engaged and, to the credit of the performers, I found it more exciting because of the limitation. Most matches ended cleanly, ref bumps were kept to a minimum (I'm not even sure there was a single one in the entire show), and even the "blood feud" matches (like New Day/Wyatts or Zayn/Owens) got their mileage out of character development and emotion (Xavier's interactions with Bray Wyatt, Zayn nursing Owens' head before finishing him off) rather than cartoonish props. This, of course, made the eventual table-smashing and chair shots of the main event more meaningful. With only one truly dull match, Battleground 2016 has me curious about where this brand extension will be taking us...

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand