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Hawke’s WWE Battleground 2015 Review

July 19, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke
2.5
The 411 Rating
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Hawke’s WWE Battleground 2015 Review  

WWE Battleground 2015 Official Poster.jpg

July 19, 2015
St. Louis, Missouri

Commentators: Michael Cole, JBL, & Jerry Lawler

 

King Barrett kicked off the pre-show by defending his King of the Ring Crown against R-Truth. This was a surprisingly average match and nowhere near as bad as I imagined. They had everything laid out well and execution was as good as you could possibly expect from these two. There is just no way to get invested in a match between these two given the context of the feud. I feel bad for Bad News, as he is too talented to be such a non-entity in the company. (**1/2)

 

The PPV started off properly with Sheamus taking on Randy Orton. If you want an example of two professionals working like they have absolutely nothing to prove whatsoever, this might be the best example. Sheamus has been one of the top workers in the company for a few years, but he worked with no urgency here. Orton put in his usual minimalist performance that only works when a crowd is irrationally hot for him. His hometown crowd was no such thing for him tonight. Sheamus hit the Brogue Kick and had the Cloverleaf applied for a while. Orton survived though and hit the RKO OUTTA NOWHERE to put us all out our misery. This was boring as fuck. I fucking hate boring matches. (1/2*)

 

The Prime Time Players (Darren Young & Titus O’Neil) defended the WWE World Tag Team Championship against The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E.) (w/ Xavier Woods). There were some real sloppy moments in this one (Titus changing directions when he realized he was out of position for a Xavier interference spot was particularly egregious), but it was just solid enough to be a fine addition to the card. The basic structure of heat segment/hot tag almost always works for tag matches, and this was no exception. These teams seemingly have the potential to have really, really good matches one day. Titus won the match for PTP after a spinebuster on Big E. I still have hopes for the WWE tag division. There is no real rational reason to be hopeful, but I am an optimistic guy. (***)

 

Roman Reigns took on Bray Wyatt in a match that none of my friends could explain to me why it was happening. Why should it be different than any other Bray Wyatt feud though? Roman Reigns has been delivering on PPV every time out this year, and he deserved so much better than a Bray Wyatt feud. Roman is far from perfect, but this is the critical time for him. This is the time for him to prove he can have good wrestling matches as often as possible. Getting dragged down in a nonsense Bray feud is just the last thing his career needs.

To their credit, they worked hard and did a handful of nifty spots that genuinely took me by surprise. This was not a failure of effort though. This was a conceptual failure. You have this supposedly intense/personal feud between two men, and you have work your standard, long-form WWE PPV match (complete with chinlocks, a double heat segment, etc.). They then had a storyline finish with someone running in and attacking Roman, which allowed Bray to pick up the win with Sister Abigail. Luckily, that person turned out to be Luke Harper. That will likely make Bray more tolerable for a bit and give Harper a better position on the card. (**)

 

We then got a Divas showcase match. Sasha Banks (w/ Naomi & Tamina) vs. Charlotte (w/ Paige & Becky Lynch) vs. Brie Bella (w/ Nikki Bella & Cameron). Unfortunately, I was having a number of issues with the WWE Network at this time and did not get a great sense of the match despite seeing 90% of it. The constant glitching going on made it hard to enjoy. It seemed like they were working hard though and getting a much bigger reaction (and much more time) than the Divas normally get on PPV. That is very encouraging and hopefully a sign that Stephanie’s involvement in the introduction of Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte did not harm them too bad for now. Charlotte made Brie submit with the Figure Eight. I will try to watch this match back later on and share my thoughts on it in the next WWE PPV review that I do.

 

John Cena defended the United States Championship against Kevin Owens in the next match. I went into this match hoping for something a bit more than their last two outings. They were both successful and fine for what they were, but these two wrestlers are capable of doing something more than a PWG match on steroids. Sadly, they just ended up doing the exact same match again. It’s not that the matches aren’t enjoyable, but they are limiting themselves by doing the same 50/50 movez/kickout-fest time and time again. They at least did a good job of escalating the moves so that the biggest kickouts were saved for the end of the match. There were also a handful of good moments in the match that helped this one to slightly differentiate itself from its predecessors. Owens distracting himself about halfway through by jawing with Cole and stealing Cena’s finishers was a nice bit. Owens resorting to a small package when he was barely alive late in the match was also a nice touch. I just wish they would explore things like that more instead of them amounting to throwaway moments. After surviving a super AA, Owens submitted to the STF. Kicking out of lots of moves in three straight matches just does not interest me. The fact that Owens lost the feud and left the feud with neither title he was holding/chasing also just left me with a sour taste in my mouth. (**3/4)

 

In the main event, Seth Rollins defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Brock Lesnar. Brock and Rollins were having a fun match and potentially on their way to doing something special. Then The Undertaker showed up, kicked Brock in the balls, gave him a chokeslam, and two tombstones. No finish was announced, as the WWE apparently thought the idea of Taker returning was big enough that they did not need such a thing.

On the surface, this seems like a creative disaster on a number of levels. For starters, your advertised main event basically did not happen and did not even have a finish. Your champion continues to look weak and undeserving in the role as champion. That was done to bring a wrestler back so past his prime that he looks like every step he takes is pure agony. That wrestler is also showing up to finish a feud with Brock Lesnar. Brock has been protected since Extreme Rules 2013 by not taking a pinfall or submission loss, squashing John Cena, and even getting the biggest kayfabe accomplishment in the last twenty-five years of WWE history (ending the streak). To protect him that whole time only to potentially have him lose to The Undertaker in 2015 or 2016 sounds like one of the worst decisions that Vince McMahon has made or approved ever. To say nothing of the fact that The Undertaker has looked dangerously out of shape at the last two Wrestlemanias and clearly has virtually nothing left. This was alarmingly dumb. (NR)

 

 

Watch some free wrestling:

Daniel Bryan vs. Finn Balor

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Satoshi Kojima

Sara Del Rey vs. Cesaro

Finn Balor vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Akira Tozawa

CM Punk vs. Chris Hero (90+ minute match)

Adrian Neville & Masato Yoshino vs. Ricochet & Naruki Doi

Drago vs. Pentagon vs. Fenix

GRAVE CONSEQUENCES (One of the best matches of 2015)

Road Warrior Animal, Gran Hamada, & Robert Gibson vs. Umaga, TAKA Michinoku, & Bull Buchanon

Check out some free matches from the Scenic City Invitational Tournament Project

2.5
The final score: review Very Bad
The 411
If you liked Sheamus/Orton, Bray/Reigns, and/or Cena/Owens (all matches I can conceivably see people liking), this was probably not a bad viewing experience for you. I thought the first was boring, the second was misconceived, and the third was too derivative of what they has just done on the last two PPVs. The bigger issue of this show is the fact that Orton, Bray, Cena, and The Undertaker were all booked to look very strong at the expense of either younger and/or better talents. That is just not a good allocation of resources in a time when WWE needs to be pushing newer stars and better wrestlers more than ever before. This was a "swing and a miss." Let's hope Summerslam is a bounce-back show for them.
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