10 Thoughts: WWE Battleground 2013 (Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton, The Rhodes Family vs The Shield)

PPVs, Reviews, Shows, Top Story

WWE Battleground 2013

1. So this is coming up now because I slept on the PPV before I wanted to write anything down. There was just too much to process and I wanted to go into it with less emotion. (OK, so it ended up being two days. You deal with a two-year-old, one-week-old and food-poisoning. Also remember, these are written without having seen Raw at all.)

2. It’s really no surprise to see Damien Sandow in the PPV Kick-Off match but what the hell did Dolph Ziggler do to deserve this recent burial? And while he might not be over as much as a babyface than he was as a heel, he’s really done nothing but entertain when he steps in a ring. Sandow, on the other hand, is where he belongs. I know he has his supporters out there but what growth in character or ring ability has he shown since his debut? He just doesn’t scream “World Champion” and I’m still surprised he’s the Money In The Bank holder. I honestly thought that since he was selling an arm injury throughout most of this match that he would try to cash in later and end up tapping to the cross arm breaker.

3. Changing the World Heavyweight Championship match to a Hardcore match was a great idea, both story-wise & match quality wise. Last month’s match left a lot to be desired and while this may seem like a cheap way to make an uninteresting match, interesting; we all know what Rob Van Dam does best and Alberto Del Rio is beginning to hit his stride with his “vicious heel” character so a hardcore match just fit. The match itself got the actual PPV started off great. From start to finish, RVD & ADR went all out to tell the final chapter of what was a thrown together story. If RVD is truly working a “90 days on – 90 days off” schedule, he went out on a high note tonight.

4. The Real Americans vs The Great Khali & Santino Marella? This just seemed like a match put together so Antonio Cesaro can perform his “new” Cesaro Swing and guess what, that’s what we got! It didn’t make it any less impressive! There’s no way Cesaro would be allowed to do this move so often and to so many incredibly large people if the WWE didn’t have babyface plans for him in the near future.

5. I will fully admit that I expected a R-Truth IC Championship win here. EVERYONE seems to have cooled on the Curtis Axel experiment (myself included) and with the wins by Fandango recently, I thought Truth would be the babyface transition to get the belt off of Axel & onto Fandango. And hey, there’s still ANOTHER PPV THIS MONTH for it to happen! I really hate it when WWE books two PPVs in the same damn month.

6. The only reaction I had to the Divas match was that it is a damn shame that Natalya was replaced in this feud for Brie Bella. Sigh…

7. The Rhodes/Shield match was by far the match of the night. And not just because of the feel good finish. Dustin (Goldust) showed up in maybe the best shape of his career & his obvious veteran presence added a lot to the Rhodes side. Combine that with how good Cody is when he has a tag team partner and how fantastic The Shield are as a tag team period & you had all of the right elements for success. There was such emotion to back up the stellar in-ring action that everything came together for everyone involved. I just hope the WWE can capitalize on what could be the feel good story of the year in a strong tag team run for the Rhodes brothers.

8. I feel like CM Punk/Ryback should have had a bigger build than what we got. Even if they waited a few more weeks until Hell In A Cell, that’s 3 or 4 more weeks of Ryback attacks & Punk comebacks similar to the way Punk/Lesnar was booked. Instead we got a cheesy (yet entertaining) “proposal” from Paul Heyman to Ryback and a beatdown on Punk. I just felt like they could have created helluva lot more buzz for this match, especially since Punk is working through injuries and Ryback is just naturally limited in the ring. A stronger storyline would have captivated me more & I probably wouldn’t have been so down on the match quality itself.

9. Yup, our own Justin Czerwonka was in attendance:

HTC Pulsecast on Battleground

10. After the debacle that was the Night Of Champions finish and fallout the following night on Raw (which included PPV buyers asking for refunds!), you would think the WWE would try to play it a little safer with the finish of their main event! When you have a 41-year-old come down in the middle of a WWE Championship match and knock out two of the top stars in the company with one-punch and then END the show with no announcement or match finish at all, something is broken in your process. Daniel Bryan is 32-years-old while Randy Orton is only 33. If they choose to, both men could be involved in the upper echelon of the WWE for years to come whereas the Big Show’s ship sailed 10 years ago in 2003 after his feud with Brock Lesnar. I can concede (while I don’t agree with how it played out) that last month’s PPV & following Raw was to further the “Daniel Bryan isn’t good enough to be WWE Champion” story but this just felt like terrible TNA/WCW-esque booking that seemed to genuinely piss off a lot of WWE fans. The last clean finish we had to a WWE title match was when Daniel Bryan pinned John Cena cleanly and yet that only lasted for minutes before a Triple H heel turn and Randy Orton capturing the WWE Championship. I think a lot of people were hopeful and excited for a change in the main event picture when John Cena went out with an injury but instead all we’ve gotten is non-finishes and what appears to be a holding pattern until John Cena returns.

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