Bizarrely, this is one of the few times I've written a review of a recent WWE PPV on the blog since I did Battleground 2013 a few years back. I'm normally to lazy to write up thoughts on a show, as there's usually one match I fancy skipping, but this year, the entire show looked decent. As it turned out, it was a good show all in all.
Dana Brooke & Charlotte vs Sasha Banks & Bayley
Huge pop for Bayley as the mystery partner. Bayley and Sasha
milk the audience reaction, so the heels jump them to start, which makes sense.
I also liked the ref checking with a beaten-down Bayley if she wanted him to
ring the bell, made it look like she was a fighter. The match was a really hot
opener, and I think all four women contributed to that. I’m not as high on
Sasha as a lot of people, and there were a few sloppy moments here (including a
terrible looking flying headscissors), but I think she did a good job on the
apron waiting for the hot tag. Likewise, I’m not as down on Dana as a lot of
others, I think here she showed she’s got a brain for how wrestling works.
Loved her petty little kicks in the corner after a few stomps, and her trash
talking is on point. Bayley takes a few nasty bumps here, including hitting the
back of her head on the turnbuckle, and both here and Dana really collide on a
double clothesline spot. Sasha nails a beautiful looking knee to the side of
Charlotte’s face. It all breaks down before Bayley wipes out Dana with a nice
leaping kick through the corner of the ring, and Banks locks in the Bank
Statement on Charlotte for the win.
The Wyatt Family vs The New Day
A nice reminder of WWE circa 2014, where there were great
6-man tags on a near weekly basis. This was the best the Wyatt’s have looked in
a long time, with Rowan and Bray both looking great. Rowan really laid in his
blows here, whilst Wyatt looked dynamic, getting great height on his senton. Kudos
to Kofi here, he made the Wyatts look gold, with a big bump landing him on his
head off a Wyatt clothesline. Big E looks great coming in off the hot tag – he’s
so athletic and his size makes him look like a missile as he runs the ropes.
His overhead belly-to-belly on Rowan was superb. The match had a fun underlying
story, with Xavier Woods still scared of Bray and showing signs of falling
under his spell, before Kingston attacking Bray snapped him out of the trance.
However, Bray does the spider walk to put Woods off his game for a second and
Sister Abigail gets three. Really fun.
Rusev vs Zack Ryder
Hard not to love Rusev’s trunks having “US Champ” on the
waistband. This was fought just about right for the respective levels of these
two. Rusev is so good right now, he was portrayed here and the dominant force,
with Ryder getting some well timed comebacks. Loved the brutality of Rusev just
laying into Ryder on the mat. I thought Ryder did well to show some spirit here
– for example, when Rusev caught an attempt at a boot, Ryder kept punching
Rusev in the head to try and get him to drop the foot, rather than just
standing like an idiot. I also loved Ryder hitting a desperation missile
dropkick from the barricades after getting dumped there by Rusev. In the ring,
Zack hits the Rough Ryder, but hasn’t worn down Rusev sufficiently, so the
El-Bro hits knee. Ryder still looks strong in defeat as Rusev is forced to use
the super-Accolade for the tap. Good filler.
Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens
It’s nice to see a feud ending match without any
stipulations for a change, just two guys finally sorting out who is the best.
Loved Owens immediately escaping the ring when the bell rings, suckering Sami
outside to hurl him into the barricades. Owens is great at making stuff look
natural – for example, after crotching Zayn on the top rope, Sami lands in the
corner and Owens seizes the opportunity by quickly going for a cannonball. It’s
the look he gives as if he’s just realised where Sami is, and that he can hit a
big move if he just goes for it quickly. Really enjoyed how Owens worked the
chinlock, including grinding his stubbly beard into Sami’s head just to be a
dick. Sami takes a nasty looking spill on a moonsault press, landing on a
shoulder which Owens then works on. There are some really big bombs thrown
here, and a lot of stuff kicked out of, but it works here in the context of two
guys who know each other so well and hate each other laying it all out in one
last grudge match. Zayn hitting a brainbuster on the apron looked sick, and
Owens sells it perfectly. Owens preventing the corner tornado DDT and hitting
another cannonball to the back of Sami’s head was a lovely twist on a familiar
move. The end is suitably climactic as well – Zayn nails the Heluva kick, but
instead of trying the pin, he looks at the beaten frame of his once-best
friend, and quickly nails a second knowing that one wont be enough to finish
Owens off. Really great match, really felt like a suitable ending to their
feud.
Becky Lynch vs Natalya
Hard not to feel bad for Becky being stuck in a feud with
Natalya, whilst Bayley and Banks soak up the adoration of the crowd in the
opener, especially as she’s now stuck on a show with no women’s title. Fun
start to the match, with Becky outwrestling Nattie and keeping her grounded. Natalya
is a bit robotic in her movements, but I enjoyed her heel work here, as well as
her focused legwork. Combining the two by posing whilst standing on Becky’s leg
is terrific. Hard not to love Nattie’s trash talking of “my cat is better than
you”. Becky showed great fire on her comeback, still selling the legwork, and I
loved Natalya just ramming her hand into Becky’s face to allow her to put on
the sharpshooter. Becky escapes, but Natalya kicks her leg out from behind the
official on a rope break and locks in another sharpshooter for the win. You can
tell Natalya raised her game working with arguably the best woman wrestler on
the roster, and this was her best match in years.
Darren Young vs The Miz
I’m so ready for this Darren Young mini-push, and it feels
like he is as well. Loved him throwing some big forearms, hitting great looking
overhead suplexes and still taking big bumps to the floor. Miz’s control wasn’t
particularly interesting, which is a shame as he’s been good this year, but it
felt a bit lacklustre here. Still, the good vibes I’ve had from the quality of
the show so far meant I was into this enough that I actually cared about the
outcome of a Miz/Young backslide struggle in 2016, so this did it’s job.
Terrible ending though, with both men disqualified after Bob Backlund and
Maryse get involved outside, but I did like Darren Young’s crazy eyes after he’d
snapped.
The Club vs John Cena, Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady
Enzo cuts a decent promo before the match, followed by a
pretty wretched effort from Cassady. His delivery is terrible. Luckily for the
match quality, Cassady doesn’t spend much time in the ring, and when he is in
there he’s mainly just throwing Enzo into their opponents. Luke Gallows may
have the worst ring attire in the company, but I really enjoyed him here,
hitting a nice Jackhammer on Amore and later hitting a Baldo Bomb on Cassady
which looked impressive. The Club work a long heat on Enzo, and AJ in
particular shows an impressive nasty streak. Loved him hurling Enzo into the
barricades. There’s a great cutoff of a hot-tag as Anderson just throws himself
at Enzo to prevent him reaching his corner. The match does break down a bit
towards the end, with it kind of degenerating into people entering the ring,
hitting a finisher, then turning around to get hit by the new guy entering the
ring. Also, there’s a horribly clunky moment when Cena sort of catches Enzo in
the air, and Gallows has to stand staring like a twat before Cena uses Amore as
a weapon. Still, this was pretty good, Cena finishing off AJ with a top rope
Attitude Adjustment
Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns
Despite a few nice moments, this really is a match that didn’t
feel like it added up to the sum of it’s parts. It starts well, with Reigns and
Ambrose teaming to repeatedly eject Rollins from the ring, and I liked the work
by both Ambrose and Reigns here. Roman felt like a big brick wall of an
opponent, ploughing through both guys on offence and standing up to a lot of
Rollins’ attacks. With this in mind, it made sense that mortal enemies Rollins
and Ambrose teamed up to powerbomb him through a table to take him out of the
match. Ambrose really felt like the scrappy underdog champion, and I loved the
spot where the other two were so preoccupied with fighting each other that they
failed to spot Ambrose running along the announce tables to hurl himself at
them. Two things let the side down: firstly the typical triple threat format
which required one person to be predisposed at any one time whilst the other
two fight. Secondly, I didn’t enjoy Rollins’ contribution to the match as much
as I did the other two. Hate his superplex which he chains into a falcon arrow,
it takes away all the impact of hitting a big top rope move. He also has a
dreadful looking pedigree, which he needs to bin off ASAP. The callback to the
Shield split with Rollins chairshotting both guys in the back was a nice touch,
but this match didn’t wow me. Still, good to see the champion put over strongly
with a clean win, leaving both opponents down for the count.
