Nate's WWE Battleground Recap, Live From The Front Row (NBD, Just Sayin)
What an absurdly long middle finger, good lord (sup ladies).
But on to the blog!
What a night in DC last night. Even better was watching it from the front row, which I was extremely lucky to do (and then we upgraded to better front row tickets somehow, so that was cool too. Again, very lucky.) As I wrote in the preview blog, the fact we got the Shield triple threat and Owens vs Zayn last night and not at SummerSlam was incredible, and neither match disappointed. Add in that we got to see Bayley’s debut, Enzo cut an incredible promo, and Randy Orton’s return, and all in all, it was one of the better PPVs of the year. Here’s my rundown:
Preshow- I usually wouldn’t care about anything in the preshow, but it’s kinda worth noting the team of Tyler Breeze and Fandango went over the Usos. It’s also worth noting Fandango is very good looking in person, and a pretty good wrestler too. I hope they let him get back to being relevant, and from the looks of it the Breezango team is here to stay.
Match 1 – Heyyyyy, Bayley!
Electric pop for Bayley. Everyone wanted it, the tension built, and the roof came off the place. Eventually Sasha will turn on Bayley, and eventually these two will headline a PPV together. The future is so bright with these two.
Match 2 – Wyatts vs New Day
I thought this match was booked extremely well. Great in-ring psychology and story telling by both teams. Big E took a nasty bump, hopefully he’s alright. And a nice way to send Bray on his way to Smackdown without the rest of the family. Can’t wait to see what he can do at the top of the card over there.
Match 3 – It’s Mojo!
Lana is so good looking in real life, TV doesn’t do her justice and she’s so good looking on TV too. Zack Ryder got pretty good pops and reactions and wrestled a good match with Rusev. Afterwards Mojo Rawley came down to the ring and barked in Rusev’s face, which was cool. Nice for Mojo to make his on-screen WWE debut in front of the home town fans. #HeATerp
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Match 4 – FIGHT FOREVER, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap
We knew this one was going to be a beauty. We knew these two were going to leave it all out there. And they did not disappoint. What a match between Owens and Zayn. I’m a big KO guy and not a big SZ guy, but when Zayn is working with Owens, he makes me appreciate him. I wanted Owens to win so Zayn could be more of that “underdog” character and Owens could be more a of an “I’m bigger than you” guy, but the outcome was fine regardless. It appears WWE is higher on Zayn than Owens, so the outcome is to be expected.
Match 5 – Intermission
Match 6 – Uhhhh, ok?
Nobody in the stands really knew what was happening in this match. Miz and Darren Young have a title match at a PPV and were doing rest holds for an extended amount of times. And then it randomly ended, and none of us knew why. A double DQ for hitting someone who wasn’t even in the match to begin with? Whatever. We were trying to care about Miz vs Darren Young and you reminded us we have no reason to. Oh well.
Match 7 – Ohhhhhh, Enzo Amore!
Enzo Amore is fully, a billion % comfortable on the mic and it is paying off in spades. The crowd was fueling him and he shot that promo to the moon. Cena sold the promo extremely well without even saying a word, and Big Cass wasn’t too bad on the mic himself. More about Cena though, I am thoroughly enjoying his work with Enzo and Cass. He’s putting them over, but he’s still crushing it himself. When he was in the ring last night everyone’s eyes naturally gravitated to him, just has that aura about him. Working with E and C is the first time his character has seemed fresh in a long time. Also, the crowd was going nuts during this– you can sort of tell on the Network, but the crowd mics seem low. It was SO loud for Enzo.
Jericho’s Highlight Reel, no enhancement needed
Shots fired, Brock! Love Orton going off-script there and Y2J breaking character and laughing. It makes me think the WWE lifers like them two are not the biggest Lesnar fans in the room. I thought this segment was very good. Orton came off well as a face, Jericho was entertaining as always, and it ended with an RKO. Just giving the people what they want.
Match 8 – Sierra. Hotel. India. Echo. Lima. Delta.
Prematch – First of all, the video segment before the match is a hard 12/10. Recaps their entire story since they joined the WWE. Whoever put that together deserves a big time raise.
Seeing these 4 absolute legends was really dope. Steph is the MILFiest MILF ever. Mick Foley looks good, for Mick. Shane and Daniel Bryan got huge pops as well.
Big time boos for Reigns. I haven’t gotten to it on the Network yet, but people tweeted me saying they lowered the mics and drowned out the boos. Par for the course I guess? Reigns got the most heat of anyone last night.
The match itself was awesome. Everything a main event should be. More good story-telling, physical, near falls, and Roman Reigns going through the announce table, SHIELD style
I like that Roman knows he’s deep in the dog house and has to take the big bumps (and the pin) to begin to crawl his way out of it.
Being hit with a steel chair, zero fun, sir.
You begin to grasp how big and strong these guys are when one just tosses another into the barricade 2 inches from you
Reigns took the pin, with Ambrose retaining and then being lifted onto the shoulders of Team SmackDown. I thought maybe there would be a post-match stare-down between Reigns and Rollins, but that also might have not been necessary. Keeping the belt on Ambrose, and cleanly at that, shows the WWE isn’t just viewing him as a place holder, they have him on the same level as Rollins and Reigns.
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One last thing which I think is really important- They do a terrible job on the Network letting you know how loud the crowd was. I touched on it with Enzo, but they really need to turn the crowd mics up when the place is going crazy. And the announcers need to stop yammering and let the crowd tell the story. Michael Cole, bless his heart, talks a million words a minute when less would be more. The crowd was red hot all night, and I feel the Network doesn’t do a great job of showing that.
All in all, a very good PPV and really amazing experience sitting that close. Is this blog sneaky a big humble brag/kicking dirt on Rico’s grave? Kind of, but it’s also that sweet, sweet #Content. Hopefully we’ll run it back for SummerSlam. Fuck you Rico.