WWE’s Battleground 2017: The Good, The Bad, and The….Seriously?
Daniel Leon reacts to WWE Battleground!

WWE’s Battleground has come and gone, with the smoke now clearing and the dust beginning to settle in the aftermath of tonight’s event. In recent months, the WWE has been stringing together a series of Pay Per View endings that end up disappointing to say the least, with more emphasis placed on trolling fans to get a laugh from the boys backstage then sending the audience home happy. With that said, let’s look at everything that went down tonight, including the good, the bad, and the….seriously?
Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day defeat The Usos ©

Without a doubt the match of the night was The Usos vs The New Day. The two teams went out there and put on a performance that was just too impressive to follow. With more so many false finishes to the match it really was impossible to tell when it would end and who would come out on top. In the end, the NEW DAYYYY would become our new Smackdown Live tag team champions. A truly incredible performance by both teams, Uso’s ending their reign as tag team champions on a high note, and New Day showing the world that their time on the top of the tag team scene is far from over.
Baron Corbin vs Nakamura

It may not have been the people’s champion vs the corporate champion, but it certainly had that sentiment. With Nakamura riding a huge wave of momentum since debuting on SD Live, and with Corbin being the company appointed Mr. Money in the Bank this year. It seemed as if the fans were witnessing another struggle between the person we want and the person they want playing out before our eyes yet again. The match was a decent back and forth match, and would fit in nicely with an episode of SD Live. However, WWE wanting to continue their streak off disappointing PPV match endings, ended the match with a Corbin low blow. Bringing a lackluster feud to a lackluster finish. This in the latest of weak finishes in recent months, including the Usos getting counted out to retain their championships at Money in the Bank, Alexa Bliss doing the same to retain her women’s championship at Great Balls of Fire, and now we have a low blow at Battleground, coincidence? I think not Vince.
Women’s Fatal 5 Way Elimination for #1 Contendership

Smackdown Live has done an amazing job of keeping all of the women on their roster relevant, keeping the spotlight on several people at one time, and this match was no exception. Although only one person would leave the arena as the #1 contenders, everyone left as winners that night. A great showing by all the women involved, was not a disappointment in the slightest. Ultimately Natalya would come out the victor, which honestly came a surprise to this writer, as Natalya has spent a lot of her career on the back burner in the past few years, and with the introduction of the 4 Horsewomen to RAW and SD Live, the focus has been primarily on the likes of Sasha, Becky, Charlotte, and Bayley. This was a nice change of pace, getting to see Natalya climb back up the ranks was a sight for sore eyes. The match would end with Naomi offering up a handshake to the new #1 Contender for her women’s championship, Natalya. However, she would have none of it, and she turned her back to the champion and left the ring. Looks as if the Smackdown Women’s title match for Summerslam is starting to heat up.
Mike Kanellis vs Sami Zayn

Id like to think there was something more memorable to this match but I am struggling with this one. A decent enough back and forth match, reminiscent of their encounter last week on Smackdown Live, even including an interference from Maria when Zayn attempted the Exploder Suplex in the corner. Sami would come out the victor however. With the only memorable image from this match being Mike Kanellis’s awful Billy Gunn / Long John style tights he was wearing. Sooner or later, the “new car smell” of this gimmick will outwear it’s welcome, and it will no longer be enough to just be so in love with your spouse that you need a WWE contract to show it.
Flag Match: John Cena vs Rusev

I would like to take a moment to ask anyone reading, were there any fans in the world that thought Rusev was going to win this match? A Flag Match against the company’s golden boy John Cena in Philadelphia? You would have a better chance of seeing Vince Russo as head of creative. The match was what you would expect. Overly dramatic and sllloooowww “attempts,” if you could call them that, at climbing the turnbuckle. Someone must have told these guys it was a ladder match. We even saw a few of those “dramatic reaches towards the flag,” as if the flag was about to hop down and make it easier on them. In the end the match would end in dramatic fashion, with an Attitude Adjustment through two tables for the win. Cena winning the match for all of us fellow Americans, because in the end, how could we live with the shame of losing a flag match? How could we show our faces in public the next day! The shame!
United States Championship Match: AJ Styles © and Kevin Owens

Not to be outdone by how anticlimactic the low blow finish was, WWE wanted to do something special to ruin the amazing potential of an AJ Styles and Kevin Owens match. Honestly it was not what I expected between the two, and resembled more of a street fight and a brawl than the 5 star wrestling classic many would have assumed. Still a great match between the two, with the turning point being KO throwing AJ Styles into the referee, giving him an instant concussion and even blindness! The two would continue the match, trading submission moves back and forth, while the referee, staring right at the two men, apparently thought he was staring at two John Cena’s because he couldn’t see ANYTHING! There WAS something he could see however, after apparently deciding he was too tired to get into the correct position and proceeded to count what looked like a cover attempt by Owens from the corner of the ring (while Styles in fact had him in a submission) with Style’s shoulder (facing away from the referee due to the obstructed view) was clearly up. Now we just saw Lana get another title shot because her shoulders were up, but in this instance I’m assuming the referee’s decision is final right? Sigh…..typical.
WWE Championship Punjabi Prison Match: Jinder Mahal © vs Randy Orton

The only prisoners in this match were the fans! This 20 minute snooze fest extravaganza complete with dramatic crawling and reaching for the door, and all the rest holds, taunting, and plenty of stomps and kicks in slow motion to kill even more time. This match would have better been suited for the pre-show. I got so much more enjoyment out of the Uso’s / New Day tag match than I did this. Probably the worst thing they did for Jinder was, not only again getting the Singh Brothers in the match, but they spent so MUCH time involved in the match it seems an injustice to not officially book this as a handicap match. How does that make your champion look when he’s STRUGGLING to beat one man with the help of TWO other men for an EXTENDED period of time? Must be a serious Punjabi bad ass right? Thankfully for the fans the greatest part of this match would be that it would end. Unfortunately it would end at the help of the Great Khali. The returning giant not worthy of an NXT contract, would then climb the outer cage and choke out Orton so Mahal could win in true heroic fashion. Continuing the streak of disappointing PPV finishes, leaving this fan, and I’m sure many others, left wondering…..seriously?

