Belated Battleground thoughts

Here's a few thoughts I had on WWE Battleground from Sunday night, presented in handy bullet point format.

• Dean Ambrose proved his worth to the main event scene with a victory in a great main event. The Shield three-way should have main evented Wrestlemania, but all three men proved they should be contenders. 
• Randy Orton was on the top of his game with his mike work. He looked more alive and energized than he has in a very long time. Orton has the potential to look like a fresh character in 2016, something he hasn't been for years. 
• Natalya and Becky Lynch feel like two women that need more to their feud. They got shorted TV time due to the draft, so hopefully they will get more time to develop their storyline on Smackdown Live. 
• Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn lived up to the pressure another match between the two men meant. Zayn finally got a big win on the main roster while Owens did the job for his long time friend. Both should come out of the night looking like a million bucks. 
• Darren Young's new gimmick is gold and his wrestling style has seriously improved with the addition of some Backlund moves and mannerisms. 
• Zack Ryder looked great against Rusev. Teaming with Mojo Rawley on Smackdown Live almost feels like a demotion for him after the match.
• The New Day versus the Wyatt Family served no purpose, but the match was solid. It will be interesting to see how Bray is booked as part of the strangely designed Smackdown Live roster.
• Bayley is awesome. Her debut is everything wrestling should be. Her and Sasha put on a great match to kick off the show and her full time main roster spot can only be considered highly anticipated now. 

Image credit: WWE.com.

Battleground kicked out the stops and plowed right towards a Deadman!

WWE has put together several great pay-per-views—or perhaps I should join Michael Cole and call them specials now—this year. Last month's Money in the Bank was actually one of the most disappointing ones in my opinion, but in its third year on WWE's slate Battleground put on one of the strongest cards for a C-special in quite some time.

The show kicked off with Sheamus and Randy Orton. While this is a battle we have seen a million times before and easily the weakest match on the card, the two put on a surprisingly good battle. The fight almost seemed to be a throwback compared to much of current WWE, but the two former World champions beat the holy heck out of each other. Ultimately it was an RKO out of nowhere though that ended it well for the hometown fans.

The tag team battle between the Prime Time Players and The New Day was much like last month's match only with a lot more Kofi Kingston and a lot less Xavier Woods. I was a bit surprised to see the Prime Time Players retain with the hell ranks of the tag team division so light. I cannot imagine The Ascension will get a SummerSlam push, so maybe this feud hasn't ended just yet.

Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns put on a hell of a slobberknocker, but beating the piss out of one another was really the theme of the show. Both men gave probably their best accounting in the last few months. The finish started something that WWE desperately needed to do months ago as Luke Harper helped Wyatt win in a move that clearly brought two Wyatt Family members back together.

Seen here with Paige & other new recruit Becky Lynch, Charlotte
shined at Battleground. Image credit: WWE.com.

Two of the three new Divas got to show off their styles to a wider audience as Charlotte, Sasha Banks and Brie Bella battled it out in a three way. Sasha controlled the majority of the match as she looked absolutely dominant, while Brie got to show off several moves to show how much better she's in the ring now than at this time last year. Charlotte strangely got the least offense despite her larger size, but she did get the big win as she locked the Figure 8 on Brie in the center of the ring. I was a bit disappointed to see the match only go just under twelve minutes, but the commentary team clearly worked to improve how the match was presented. Little talk of attractiveness interrupted the flow of the match as Cole, JBL and Lawler actually stayed on topic.

Ryback out of Battleground, but where are the Divas?

Word came down yesterday that Ryback won't make an appearance at Sunday's Battleground due to a staph infection in his knee. Generally a minor injury, the infection will keep him out of regular competition for at least a couple of weeks. While WWE seems intent on keeping the Intercontinental title on the Big Guy, he will not have a defense Sunday against Big Show and The Miz. No replacement match has been announced for the Intercontinental triple threat which leaves the card sitting at only five matches:

• Brock Lesnar challenges Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight championship.
• Sheamus versus Randy Orton.
• Kevin Owens challenges John Cena for the United States championship.
• Two members of The New Day challenge the Prime Time Players for the Tag Team titles. 
• Roman Reigns versus Bray Wyatt

Beast In the East and Weekly Review

So all week I was looking forward to Brock's big event in Japan. I waited with anticipation to see who his opponent was going to be. I am not sure if it was posted online, I don't read online rumors because they always spoil the show for me, so I had to wait until about ten minutes before the match, literally right before the Divas match, before I knew who Brock was going to face.

Kofi Kingston. I was sure I was reading that wrong. Seriously, did Kofi piss somebody off in upper management? Kofi Kingston? That match isn't worth the flight to Japan! Maybe I am missing something, maybe Kofi is a huge star over there. . . is he?

At least Brock's going to take on New Day, right? No. . . apparently not. So it was just Kofi alone in the ring against the Beast. Brock barely broke a sweat. I can't say it was a let-down of a match, but I was expecting a better booking than that; hell at least throw a Japanese champion at Brock, right? Well, at least we got to see Brock manhandle New Day. I can watch those boys get beat all day long.

I started writing this blog post yesterday and since then I came the conclusion that Brock was never really the beast they were trying to promote in the East; that honor goes to the new NXT champion, Finn Balor. Finn is a major star in Japan and he certainly deserves the title, although I am not sure how well he's going to go over with the WWE crowd.Kevin Owens did a great job in the map and took a lot of kicks to the head before losing his title. If you thought Owen's attitude was bad before, just wait to see how he acts now that he's no longer the champ. I don't want Cena to lose the U.S. title, even though the rumor mongers say he will at Battleground. John Cena worked hard to give that title some prestige and dignity again, although historically it has been more a heel title. In the past, the US title was often given to heels who put over the main champion, or were too old to be main contenders, or for superstars who just weren't right for the World Heavyweight Championship. If Cena loses, it would mean he would have to work himself back into the world title scene, which is already crowded as it is.

Nice to see a Canadian in Japan, a big shout-out goes to Chris Jericho who, despite looking like shit, gave a great performance inside the Sumo Stadium.

Over the last two weeks I've watched almost every match Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins have had together, going all the way back to their first matches at what used to be Florida Championship Wrestling. As great as these two guys are, I am bored of it. I can't watch any more Kane and Seth Rollins matches either, these four guys have gone round and round for two months. Much like the Divas division, there needs to be some new angles thrown into the mix. Reigns has been taken aside and forced to deal with Bray Wyatt, which also doesn't thrill me, but at least I am giving it a chance. I can't see Seth Rollins beating Brock Lesnar and I think Ambrose vs Lesnar is a much more interesting match. We'll have to see on that one.

Nikki Bella continues to dominate, unfortunately I've watched the Bellas face Paige sixteen times this year and I am sick of seeing the same four Divas every week. Bring up Charlotte or Becky Lynch, even just for a couple weeks. I can't understand why the WWE has been in a holding pattern recently, afraid to make any big shifts in direction. Fortune favors the bold, Vince McMahon understood this. It's time for the new era to kick it into high gear. I know that Nikki is set to become the longest reigning Divas champion, they don't want that honor to belong to a loser who isn't with the company anymore. AJ Lee was one of the most overrated Divas of all time. I have zero interest in watching her or hearing about her legacy. Nikki will be the longest reigning Divas champion, you wait and see.

BATTLEGROUND is going to be interesting, because no matter what the outcome is of the matches, we're going to see some shake-ups afterwards. If Owens loses, Owens will be facing other WWE superstars on his climb to the top. If Brock loses, we're going to be firmly set into the era of the Authority. The WWE needs more chaos, damn it! And where the hell has Stardust been??

I actually missed Smackdown this week, instead watching NXT, which seemed to be focused on the Divas this week. Can't complain about that!

On Tough Enough last week they eliminated the guy I chose to win it based on submission videos. So much for that prediction! Interesting start to the show, but not sure if any of the personalities on the show have what it takes to make it in NXT. Going to have to get caught up with this weeks episode tonight.

If you ever watch a match in Japan again, try the game my wife and I invented: Spot the blonde. We weren't able to find a blonde in Sumo Stadium, although we did spot a white-skinned, American style redneck! Although he may have been a roadie. . .

Brock is Back!

So I just discovered the Total Divas TV show, luckily the wife is enjoying it too. I am going to be posting about it later when we've finished the first season. But I will say this: Eva Marie is a piece of garbage. She is the perfect example of all that I hate about people. I honestly can't believe they let her work there. I haven't even seen her wrestle yet but I doubt she can, she can't really do anything but start shit and bat her eyelashes. I feel bad for Fandango, who kept getting dragged into her shit in Season 1. Great show if you love to see a bit of what life is like backstage.

On Kevin Owens. . .

The John Cena, Kevin Owens feud continues, with Owens letting loose this week with a little bit of French, just to make the crowd boo him a little more. I was very impressed with John Cena's comeback, not only could he speak a little French, but he busted out some Chinese as well. Seeing John in Total Divas and comparing that to his in-ring performances and you can tell he is a born wrestler, he never shows as much emotion in front of the reality show cameras as he does in that ring.
Meanwhile, Kevin Owens talked about how, unlike Cena, he doesn't care what people think about him. Well Kevin, I call bullshit on that.

See, I remember what it was I said to him to get banned on Twitter. I sent him a tweet when I heard he was moving to the WWE roster, at that time I hadn't watched much NXT. I told Kevin something like: It's time to hit the gym, dude. Your moving to the big time now!

He obviously cares what people think, because he blocked me. I guess his tough guy, I don't care attitude is a facade, because clearly he can't take a little criticism online from a humble writer of books.

On a side note, apparently Hulk Hogan is a big fan of Kevin Owens. Here is the quote from Hogan, who I guess watches NXT.

Kevin actually reminds me of one of the older wrestlers of the late Seventies, some of those guys that didn't have the build, but they would scare you if you met them at a bar. What hooked me about him was that I was watching a match of his on NXT and I found myself disassociated with being in the moment, all of a sudden I started watching him and he made me believe again. I watched real close, and there were no holes in his boat - his punches, his kicks, everything he did looked like it was killing the guy, which it probably was. He caught me with my guard down and he made me a believer again, he hooked me. He's got that look, man; that demeanor and that swagger.

On Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns

I am not a big fans of Roman being dragged away from the main event for the summer and forced into a silly stunt. I like Wyatt, although I disagree with him being a face, and I totally agree with my Wrestling Weekday partner in thinking the Wyatt Family should be reunited. Hell I'd love to see Reigns take them all on, but I don't think they need to go so far with the games and manipulation. Let the in-ring action sell the feud, not pre-taped promo bits. I hate the idea that a wrestler is just going to stop in the middle of a match and run out of the ring because of something on-screen, the guys have more respect for the game than that.

I personally never saw the Wyatt family in more than one or two matches, so I have no problem with them getting more exposure. Speaking of which, I was glad to see Adam Rose getting some air time. I cheer for the dirty pirate because I don't think many people do and I think he deserves to be there, far more than some other people on the roster.

The big news of the week is, of course, the return of Brock Lesnar. Nice to see Seth Rollins get laid out a couple times with some powerful suplexes. I respect Rollins, but creatively I don't see how far they can take him as champ of the Authority. I'd rather see Brock VS Kane or Seth vs Triple H, Seth and Brock can only end with Brock winning, or Seth doing what seems unlikely and impossible. Seth Rollins defeating Brock Lesnar would make Seth the smallest guy to do so. It took the whole gang to take him down on RAW, does this mean Brock just turned face?

This weekend I'll be checking out Smackdown and watching the Dusty Rhodes story, so I should have a post Monday about it. I'm excited to see NXT matches coming out of Japan, not sure when that is.

AND we got our tickets for the WWE show at the Ricoh Coliseum here in Toronto! Not sure if it is live or not, but we've got seats at the base of the stage, on the floor. First time ever seeing a live wrestling event!

Keep reading and keep body slamming!