WWE Battleground PPV Review
July 19, 2015
Review by: Jason Namako of Wrestleview.com
Well, for a show that is perceived to be not one of WWE’s bigger shows of the calendar year, the hype for Battleground coming into this show on Sunday night was pretty substantial with a big-time main event of Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar, a strong semi-main event of the perceived blow-off to the John Cena vs. Kevin Owens feud, a decent undercard and a lot of chatter about potential people who might show up. Did Battleground live up to the hype? Let’s find out, shall we?
Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar – A carbon copy mirror of the Lesnar-Cena match from last year’s Summerslam, with Lesnar demolishing Rollins with tons of suplexes with the only difference being Rollins getting a bit more offense than Cena did and a lot of cowardly heel running away. Lesnar hurdling the barricade to catch Rollins and stop him from fleeing was a great visual to behold. The non-finish with the return of the Undertaker to presumably set-up a Wrestlemania 30 match between he & Lesnar for Summerslam was actually fine as it kept Rollins from losing the title, kept Lesnar from winning it, but at the same time, protecting Lesnar in this angle as it took a chokeslam and two Tombstones to finally keep him down from the vengeful Undertaker. Taker looked in great shape, better than Wrestlemania 31 back in March and the best he’s looked physically in nearly a half-decade. Interested to see what Rollins is doing for Summerslam, but if this show is headlined by Taker-Lesnar II, completely OK with it and am actually intrigued to see what this match could be with a much more healthier Undertaker in it than he was at Wrestlemania 30.
John Cena vs. Kevin Owens – Another great match in their series, but like a lot of others, was not a fan of finish. Wasn’t even in the sense of Owens losing, because a flash pin or another flash AA by Cena wouldn’t have hurt Owens at all. Owens tapping out, however? Yeah, that does hurt him a bit. He’s not BURIEDZ by any stretch of the imagination, but tapping out does drop him down a peg. Just goes to show how absolutely afraid management is to completely move on from Cena as a commodity when clearly this US Title run has shown in terms of match quality and how the matches have been structured that its not Cena who isn’t willing to put guys over and make names out of them, its the folks behind the curtain who make the final decisions. Cena is on the best run of his career and is a sure-fire candidate for 2015 Wrestler of the Year as we sit here seven months in. The visual of him being in just absolute shock when Owens kicked out of the Super AA is one for the highlight reels to come. Not sure if this is the end of Cena-Owens as a feud, but if so, yeah Cena winning is not the end of the world, but the way management went about doing it will hurt Owens a decent amount going forward.
Charlotte vs. Brie Bella vs. Sasha Banks – Now this is how you follow-up on the beginning of the revamped Divas Division from RAW. Really fun 3-Way here, crowd got very much into it towards the final stretch and I’m sure that folks will give all the credit to Charlotte and Sasha Banks for how well this turned out, and they should deserve a good chunk, respectively, Brie Bella certainly held up her end in this match and put on one of best performances in the ring in eons. This was a good second step in the self-proclaimed “Diva Revolution”, let’s keep that ball rolling up the mountain in the days and weeks to come.
Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt – Really damn good match here. completely exceeded my expectations. These two beat the tar outta one another, very New Japan strong-style kinda stuff with the heavy strikes back-and-forth. Wyatt showed off a lot more heel mannerisms than he has done in recent memory and Reigns’ selling and comebacks came across very well and got the live crowd, who were split early, majorly behind him down the stretch. The finish with Luke Harper going back to the side of Wyatt and helping him win allows for three good things: 1) Wyatt wins a big match on PPV for the first time in forever, 2) Harper is back aligned with Wyatt as they shouldn’t have split to begin with and 3) Yes Reigns loses another PPV match, but the finish totally protected and sets up either another singles match with Wyatt, or perhaps a tag match involving Harper and Reigns having to find a partner. Good stuff here.
The Prime-Time Players vs. The New Day – Solid match here. Xavier Woods is downright AWESOME as the annoying nuisance on the outside, shouting something obnoxious at every turn, should never wrestle again, he’s got a long future as a heel manager. Young, Kofi and Big E looked fine and I love me some out-of-control, all over the place, Titus O’Neil hot tags.
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus – Really good opener, one of the better outings these two have had with one another. Could easily tell Orton had a lot of pep in his step, getting to work in front of his hometown St. Louis crowd. Had some real fun false finishes down the stretch, especially Sheamus’ Cloverleaf submission. Sheamus loses nothing in defeat by being caught with the RKO Outta Nowhere. Good start to this show.
Miz-Big Show interaction, Barrett vs. Truth – Interaction with Miz and Show was simple fodder to get them both on the PPV with the last-minute Ryback injury preventing the Intercontinental Title match from taking place. Miz is another real fun annoying pest of a human being. Finally, Barrett and Truth had another decent match, but hopefully this is the end of their feud, because it has nothing for either guy and really diminished Barrett’s King of the Ring win.
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Overall, Battleground was a show that really delivered in the ring, but left a little bit to be desired in terms of the booking going forward. Can tell there is a lot up in the air for Summerslam next month, but to me, the aura of the unknown of what’s gonna be on that card is very intriguing and has me interested in seeing what they do tomorrow night on RAW as they begin the road to the Biggest Party of the Summer.
You got my thoughts on Battleground, now what did you think of the show? Please comment below. With that, I bid you adieu, thank you for reading and have a good one!
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E-Mail me: Jason@wrestleview.com