King Barrett is still alive but I have no idea if that’s a good thing or not. A win is a win I guess.
Orton vs Sheamus was more or less as expected, but it was really the crowd who transformed this one into a good surprise. Firmly behind Orton, they made a rather average match seem better and somehow managed to put some heat on a rivalry that never really worked. Orton winning over MitB winner Sheamus can be argued with, but when has WWE ever booked it’s MitB winners in a flattering manner?
Can’t say I agree with the booking of the tag team match. While the Prime Time Players haven’t been bad at all as champions, I thought this would be a good spot to put the titles back on New Day. Remember the amusing skits they had during their reign? This would have been a good spot to do those again in the run-up to Summerslam. Now they run the risk of one of their most entertaining act losing all momentum after yet another loss.
Despite some hard work from both Wyatt and Reigns, the only notable happening in the first stretch of this one was the crowd booing reigns. Again. The ending was not bad at all, and I was glad to see WWE remembering they still had talents like Harper under contracts. There are rumors of Sting helping out Reigns for Summerslam but I would rather see Ambrose in that spot. Still, funny it took Luke Harper to make me care about this particular feud.
Several things were notable during the Diva’s match. First of all, the obvious difference of level between Brie and the NXT girls. Secondly, the obvious difference fo level between Charlotte and Sasha Banks. I’ve said so before, some were looking at Charlotte to “revolutionize” female wrestling, but the simple fact is that Sasha Banks is much more complete than Charlotte. If anyone has the skills to spearhead a Diva revolution it’s The Boss. Aside from that, good little match when Brie wasn’t involved.
Some are calling Owens vs Cena a great match. This time I disagree. This is something we’ve seen before, three times in two months to be precise, and I felt the repetition hurt this one. As for the result, what can I say? If WWE insists on taking the momentum out of one of their few success stories of 2015 in favor of a Cena win that is ultimately meaningless, who am I to argue? Do continue living on the past instead of investing in the future, WWE, I simply don’t care anymore.
And to add insult to injury we close down with a Main Event that was basically a non-match. Taker appeared to set up a feud against Lesnar. before the event I welcomed such a twist, not because I wanted to see Taker vs Brock part 2, but because I preferred to see Lesnar away from the title picture so that Rollins could get a feud where he was actually the one that mattered. Since WWE didn’t even bothered with a result I’m starting to fear they will go with a Three-Way, which is a terrible idea i n my opinion. Doing that will just mean the talented full-timer will once again be overshadowed by part-timers. And that can’t be a good thing.
Battleground was yet another disappointing event overall. The fact that they transformed their main event into a non event that would have been better suited on Raw make you wonder why WWE even bothers with B-level PPV’s.
