Contrary to what you may think having read some of my recent reviews, I don't love to hate on SmackDown. In fact, post-brand split SmackDown was among my favorite shows, and Backlash 2016 was incredible, currently my favorite post-split pay-per-view. But even if I tried to make this as fair as possible, there was no saving this show. It was a trainwreck pretty much throughout with one incredible match and a boatload of terrible ones. Let's get into it already.
Battleground 2016 Score: 8/10
- Hey, remember Battleground 2016? That was pretty fun.
- We kicked off with a banger, as the Usos and the New Day got the show off to a really hot start. To their credit, the tag teams on SmackDown have really stepped it up lately, and it showed. An excellent back and forth match with tons of close near falls, and ended with Xavier Woods nearly flying into orbit. Good stuff.
- It's all downhill from here, folks. Hey, remember Shinsuke Nakamura? He was pretty fun, although I'm not sure what the main roster has done to him. Hooray for low blows!
- When a random thrown together five woman match with the cat lady going over is the runner up for match of the night, that's when you know you're in for a doozy. This match was nothing special, and Natalya-Naomi doesn't give me much hope for the future.
- Man, between a few encounters on SmackDown, their match at Backlash and in MSG, I get the feeling Kevin Owens and AJ Styles are tired of fighting each other. This was a lifeless match, punctuated by a ridiculous ref bump. Also, what on Earth was that finish?
- Hey, remember Rusev on a tank? That was pretty fun. Someone backstage thought it would be a good idea to have a 21 minute flag match. I want a nice face to face chat with that person. Both men phoned this one in, as did Philly, and John Cena defended 'Merica. Side note: what the hell was up with Rusev fighting for a Bulgarian Flag whilst wearing Russian colors?
- Sami Zayn defeated a nameless jobber on this show, remaining undefeated in one on one pay-per-view matches on SmackDown.
- Oh lordy, the main event. Nearly half an hour of steel-reinforced bamboo, Great Khali returns, Singh Brothers falling to their deaths and fans walking out of the arena. This was a trainwreck from start to finish, just a pure cluster that helped no one. Randy didn't care, Jinder didn't care, the crowd didn't care, I didn't care, and holy jeepers, Samir Singh just died.
2/10
This show came so close to the first zero in the history of my blog. If not for that opening tag match, it probably would've gotten that honor. You know, the real victims in all of this are the SmackDown and Philadelphia fans. You guys deserve better than this, and now I feel kind of bad for going after your favorite show for the past few months. Not that bad, though. #FireRoadDogg
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