Imagine, if you will, that you're running the biggest wrestling company in the world. Your fans are fed up with your current product, so you decided to give things a bit of a shake up by splitting your roster in two. Your split wasn't exactly well done, and leaves a lot of fans feeling down heading into your upcoming pay-per-view. How do you fix that problem? The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is WWE Battleground 2016.
What can I say about this show? This was, top to bottom, a fantastic show, built quite well and with several amazing moments throughout. There wasn't anything game-changing; no belts changed hands, no bombshells were dropped and only one new face debuted, but what a face it was. It was an intriguing decision to have the Women's tag match open the show, with the match itself seeming like a bit of a throwaway. That was, of course, until the Hugster herself made her main roster debut, helping former nemesis and 4 Horsewoman Sasha Banks defeat Charlotte and Dana Brooke. Bayley's debut got one of the biggest pops in years, definitely well deserved, and although this seems like a one-off appearance, it was awesome nonetheless.
The biggest down note about this show was it's undercard, and for the sake of convenience, I'm lumping all of those matches in here. First up, the Wyatt Family finally got a decisive win, defeating the New Day. There wasn't much to this match, but Xavier Woods proved that he still looks like the breakout star of the group. Rusev defeated eternal optimist Zack Ryder with his nasty modified Accolade. To prove that the WWE isn't always sane, Mojo Rawley showed up after the match for no real reason. Natalya got an odd clean win over Becky Lynch, and The Miz and Darren Young stunk up the joint. Randy Orton returned on The Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho. It was an entertaining segment, and Orton's "No Enhancement Needed" line was awesome, especially for it's hypocrisy.
Enzo and Cass proved they remain big stars, and John Cena proved he can still win matches, as the face trio defeated The Club. The match itself wasn't really noteworthy, and really could've used some kind of turn or debut(Balor, wink, wink) to spice things up. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens have been actively fighting in the WWE for over a year and a half now, and their feud was starting to get a little stale. Then they went out and stole the f'ing show, and everyone remembered why these guys are so great. Despite their MOTY candidate, I do hope this is the end of the feud for now, as both guys could definitely use some new opponents.
It's main event time, as the World's Sleaziest Man, Seth Rollins, faced the World's Most Likable Man, Roman Reigns and Renee Young's boyfriend. This match was amazing, not quite on the level of Zayn-Owens, but great in it's own way. It wasn't quite the spectacle everyone expected, as the 'E opted to go for a clean wrestling match. Dean Ambrose was built to epic proportions, pinning Rollins and then Reigns clean over the space of a week, cementing him as the face of Smackdown. With the massive boos Reigns was drawing throughout the match, you do wonder if the WWE will pull the trigger on his heel turn eventually, though we'll just have to wait and see.
This was a great show all around. It was only really a two-match card, but those two matches delivered and sent the fans home happy, which is all you can hope for.
8/10
What can I say about this show? This was, top to bottom, a fantastic show, built quite well and with several amazing moments throughout. There wasn't anything game-changing; no belts changed hands, no bombshells were dropped and only one new face debuted, but what a face it was. It was an intriguing decision to have the Women's tag match open the show, with the match itself seeming like a bit of a throwaway. That was, of course, until the Hugster herself made her main roster debut, helping former nemesis and 4 Horsewoman Sasha Banks defeat Charlotte and Dana Brooke. Bayley's debut got one of the biggest pops in years, definitely well deserved, and although this seems like a one-off appearance, it was awesome nonetheless.
The biggest down note about this show was it's undercard, and for the sake of convenience, I'm lumping all of those matches in here. First up, the Wyatt Family finally got a decisive win, defeating the New Day. There wasn't much to this match, but Xavier Woods proved that he still looks like the breakout star of the group. Rusev defeated eternal optimist Zack Ryder with his nasty modified Accolade. To prove that the WWE isn't always sane, Mojo Rawley showed up after the match for no real reason. Natalya got an odd clean win over Becky Lynch, and The Miz and Darren Young stunk up the joint. Randy Orton returned on The Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho. It was an entertaining segment, and Orton's "No Enhancement Needed" line was awesome, especially for it's hypocrisy.
Enzo and Cass proved they remain big stars, and John Cena proved he can still win matches, as the face trio defeated The Club. The match itself wasn't really noteworthy, and really could've used some kind of turn or debut(Balor, wink, wink) to spice things up. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens have been actively fighting in the WWE for over a year and a half now, and their feud was starting to get a little stale. Then they went out and stole the f'ing show, and everyone remembered why these guys are so great. Despite their MOTY candidate, I do hope this is the end of the feud for now, as both guys could definitely use some new opponents.
It's main event time, as the World's Sleaziest Man, Seth Rollins, faced the World's Most Likable Man, Roman Reigns and Renee Young's boyfriend. This match was amazing, not quite on the level of Zayn-Owens, but great in it's own way. It wasn't quite the spectacle everyone expected, as the 'E opted to go for a clean wrestling match. Dean Ambrose was built to epic proportions, pinning Rollins and then Reigns clean over the space of a week, cementing him as the face of Smackdown. With the massive boos Reigns was drawing throughout the match, you do wonder if the WWE will pull the trigger on his heel turn eventually, though we'll just have to wait and see.
This was a great show all around. It was only really a two-match card, but those two matches delivered and sent the fans home happy, which is all you can hope for.
8/10
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