WWE Battleground PPV Preview
By: Larry Causion Jr. CausionCreations.com
Posted: Monday, July 20, 2015
Posted: Monday, July 20, 2015
Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar for WWE title
Well, this was a weird one. Obviously it's about drawing a rating tomorrow with Undertaker. So Lesnar gave Rollins 13 suplexes in nine minutes and hit the F-5. At that point the Undertaker's gong played. The referee and Seth Rollins both disappeared into thin air when the lights went out. Undertaker was in and laid Lesnar to waste with a high choke slam and two tombstone piledrivers and the show went off the air. The crowd loved the idea of Undertaker being there so it worked live. As far as a main event went, it was pretty bad as far as going anywhere. The action was fine but it was way too short. They didn't announce a finish or anything. The show ended almost 15 minutes early.
John Cena vs. Kevin Owens for U.S. title
Excellent match. Cena won clean in the middle with the STF after Owens had kicked out of Attitude Adjustments twice during the match as well as a third time off the middle rope. The match was mostly about them doing their moves and kicking out. Cena kicked out of the pop up power bomb. Owens used the Atitude Adjustment as well as the STF on Cena. The crowd was totally pro-Owens. I'd say this wasn't as good as the first two matches but still the best thing on the show so far.
Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt
Wyatt won when Luke Harper interfered and threw Reigns into the post and into the ring, leading to Wyatt hitting Sister Abigal in just over 21:00. Very good match with some cool spots including Reigns going for his dropkick on the floor and Wyatt clotheslining him. They were blocking each others' finishers. Wyatt also did a DDT on the apron and Wyatt kicked out of a Superman punch.
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus
Orton won using the RKO in a strong opener after getting to the ropes while in the Clover Leaf submission. Orton rolled away after a Brogue kick earlier in the match. Slow starting match but they built it well: a real professional slower style deliberate match with everyone doing all of their moves in a long match.
Prime Time Players vs. New Day for tag titles
The Prime Time Players retained when Titus pinned Big E with the Clash of the Titus. It was Big E & Kingston with Woods on the floor. Match was pretty well paced with a few missed spots, most notable O'Neil having to actually change direction so he could be in position for Woods to intefere. They did heat spots on Young most of the way, O'Neil made a brief hot tag. After a few quick tags, Young escaped from an attempt at the Big Ending and ducked when Kingston tried Trouble in Paradise.
Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte VS. Brie Bella
Charlotte used the Figure Eight on Brie to win via submission after Brie broke up Banks' with the Bank Statement on Charlotte and Brie went for the X Factor on Charlotte, but it was blocked. They didn't tear the house down by any means but this was a better match than the vast majority of women's matches in WWE. However, it was not close to the level of the NXT women as Brie seemed to hurt the match. The announcers were trying to push this like it was a revolution. It seemed like part of the crowd was more receptive than for a usual women's match on WWE PPV, but a lot of the crowd didn't see it as anything different.