Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

WWE Battleground


Ricky Jackson

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 221
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

 

 

It seems like Battleground is horrible every year, though. It's always the PPV that seems to draw the most ire from everyone.

The first one had that 4.5 star great great great Rhodes Brothers vs Shield match where they got their job back and Dusty was in their corner, at least.

 

 

I sort of don't count that one since it was in September. WWE sucks at doing July unless they are fake retiring Mark Henry.

 

 

Or CM Punk is fake leaving as champ. There is also that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate that Cena had to be Rusev's first opponent after the injury. I have no issue with Rusev losing to Cena but they could have taken advantage of the time away to revitalize Rusev. Now it feels like back to the same old.

 

Smackdown lately has had a real problem pairing up the right guys and finding things for them to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pre show and tag matches were fucking great. Also Jinder is a solid wrestler that can have very good matches depending on who he's facing - he's had a better match with AJ Styles than smark favorite Kevin Owens.

 

And Khali still gets a MASSIVE pop. In 2017. God save WWE.

Wait, are you shitting on Khali getting a massive pop?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Pre show and tag matches were fucking great. Also Jinder is a solid wrestler that can have very good matches depending on who he's facing - he's had a better match with AJ Styles than smark favorite Kevin Owens.

 

And Khali still gets a MASSIVE pop. In 2017. God save WWE.

Wait, are you shitting on Khali getting a massive pop?

 

Of course not! I loved that he got that big of a reaction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pre show and tag matches were fucking great. Also Jinder is a solid wrestler that can have very good matches depending on who he's facing - he's had a better match with AJ Styles than smark favorite Kevin Owens.

 

And Khali still gets a MASSIVE pop. In 2017. God save WWE.

 

Whats WWE's obsession with India? I mean they have a tour but that doesnt warrant to giving a Indian star the WWE Title.

 

Why did Dillinger job to English? I was expecting him to win this match given how they hyped him up since leaving NXT.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Pre show and tag matches were fucking great. Also Jinder is a solid wrestler that can have very good matches depending on who he's facing - he's had a better match with AJ Styles than smark favorite Kevin Owens.

 

And Khali still gets a MASSIVE pop. In 2017. God save WWE.

 

Whats WWE's obsession with India? I mean they have a tour but that doesnt warrant to giving a Indian star the WWE Title.

 

 

 

 

 

It's just so very very dumb to assume that WWE fans in India need to see an Indian wrestler on top in order to be interested. It's like NJPW thinking that putting Billy Gun on their card will draw more American eyeballs. Nope! That's not what the vast majority of American NJPW fans want to see.

 

NJPW fans want to see NJPW wrestlers fighting the NJPW style. WWE fans want to see WWE wrestlers, plain and simple. They would draw huge crowds in India with or without Jinder, or any Indo-Canadians, on the card, believe me.

 

No idea why so many promoters struggle with that basic concept.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Styles/Owens match really pissed me off. How the fuck can you not get me a replay of the ref actually getting kicked in the head? Secondly, it was clear the ref couldn't see 3 of the 4 shoulders involved in the pin fall. I'm sure they were going for that but even my wife was like WTF was that and she never says a lot about endings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Pre show and tag matches were fucking great. Also Jinder is a solid wrestler that can have very good matches depending on who he's facing - he's had a better match with AJ Styles than smark favorite Kevin Owens.

 

And Khali still gets a MASSIVE pop. In 2017. God save WWE.

 

Whats WWE's obsession with India? I mean they have a tour but that doesnt warrant to giving a Indian star the WWE Title.

 

 

 

 

 

It's just so very very dumb to assume that WWE fans in India need to see an Indian wrestler on top in order to be interested. It's like NJPW thinking that putting Billy Gun on their card will draw more American eyeballs. Nope! That's not what the vast majority of American NJPW fans want to see.

 

NJPW fans want to see NJPW wrestlers fighting the NJPW style. WWE fans want to see WWE wrestlers, plain and simple. They would draw huge crowds in India with or without Jinder, or any Indo-Canadians, on the card, believe me.

 

No idea why so many promoters struggle with that basic concept.

 

What makes it even more stupid is that Jinder is a heel. If they really wanted to appeal to the Indian market, than Jinder should be a babyface champion ala Bruno or Pedro.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The way Jinder cuts his promos makes me think that WWE believes he's being presented as a face to Indian audience.

 

 

BTW, is there any case in history close to the career of Orton? He's been a main eventer for 13 years, a total flop drawing wise and very few periods of consistently good/great work. I don't recall anyone having a decade+ of consistent pushes with so little so show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They do not treat Jinder as a face when he cheats or does heel shit, but they do not treat him as a dastardly heel either. "Ooh he cheated, that is unfortunate, should not have done that. But hey, Jinder wins!!" for example.

 

I guess they are looking at how huge Khali got over in India and want to replicate it. Except Khali getting over was due to a wide variety of reasons, none of which Jinfer can replicate. When presented properly, he looked like a physical marvel, was booked really strong when he won the title, including a clean victory over Taker, on a PPV, etc. Also, he was actually Indian.

 

WWE does not really need to have an Indian champ to sell out arenas here while touring. Wrestling is huge here and they will do so anyway. I remember John Cena being stunned at how many people turned up and how much they were cheering for him when he came here for a promotional tour in 2005, and this was when the backlash against him had firmly become a thing. When they came here last time, they sold out their shows while charging prices for tickets up to 4-5 times that of a normal American house show, if we look at price differential and in real value terms.

 

Jinder has got some traction on the news channels and everything, and mainstream newspapers reported the title change. But these papers also report other major events that happen in WWE. A face champ would be better perhaps, but I genuinely do not think they would book a face Indian world champ to have a multiple-month title reign.

 

I admit though: I do enjoy it when he trolls American viewers by saying shit like "Now, I will speak to my people, IN PUNJABI!!" It also sounds really entertaining when you are high.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My digital recorder didn't record the show last night. Not sure what the issue was.

 

Judging by this thread though, it seems to me that I won the fucking poney !

 

You take the silver. Will likely gets gold for seeing the tag title match and then checking out for thrones, but he may very well be docked serious points on the judges' cards if he stuck around for Baron/Nak.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quick thoughts I haven't seen mentioned. Full review on my blog -

 

Styles/Owens - For how much Owens gloats about his heel work on Twitter, if the ref goes down (even inadvertently), why not actually try to take advantage and cheat? Grab the belt, grab a chair, do something. Also, what this match needed was someone actually working a limb. It wasn't as bad as the "Your Turn/My Turn" movez-crazy match I was expecting, but it still lacked a solid thread.

 

Cena/Rusev - Didn't hate it and the added rule of the finish at least led to a really fun-albeit-cartoonish last third. This was the WWE microwaving a feud from 2015 and just like if you were to microwave a steak that's been in your fridge since 2015, the result wasn't great. Credit should be given, though, to Cena and Rusev taking such a stale match idea with such an obvious result and getting easily the best reactions other than the opener.

 

Zayn/Kannelis - The Power of Love thing is a "TV midcard" act with a ceiling...but I still believe that you don't debut a guy just to have him lose his first major appearance. For all the appreciation there is on this forum of 80s gimmicks, I'm a bit surprised at the derision to them here. To me, there's money in annoyingly romantic heel couple feuding with lovable pair of "normal"/"ugly" babyfaces (think The Boogeyman feuding with Booker and Sharmell) and while we may have seen it a million times before, on a TV show, it would be fine. Zayn wasn't the right foil and, even though I'm a fan of his, didn't gain anything by winning.

 

So, the Breezango reveal, which was mildly hyped on WWE.com as actually happening didn't happen. This wouldn't be so bad if the rest of the show was better - but it wasn't, so, yeah, I'll gripe about it. A minor bait-and-switch is still a bait-and-switch.

 

Orton/Mahal - Again, a table bump by a Singh brother is the best spot of a Orton/Mahal match. I find it interesting that there are people that are willing to defend Mahal as a "fresh" champion. I get it - Orton is super dull. But you don't have to like "Shitty Wrestler B" just because you've seen him less than "Shitty Wrestler A." This was actually the best match these two have had that I've seen - the gimmick being so ludicrous and contrived that the match at least seemed like an exotic spectacle. I'd love to hear the argument that a 3rd one-on-one singles match would've kept my interest more than this because nothing these two did in their first matches was better than just decent.

 

Finally, I've reviewed and rated 90+% of the Network shows since its inception. The only shows I haven't reviewed were ones I attended with friends and got drunk enough to enjoy just by being there. This show was, by my math, the absolute worst Network Special ever.

 

The other lowest scorers in my database are No Mercy 2016, which was salvaged by a good triple threat for the World Championship and a solid Ziggler/Miz match, and Survivor Series 2014 (a crowd-pleasing main event featuring Sting's return and a fun garbage match between Ambrose/Wyatt nudge it slightly above last night's show).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, the Breezango stuff was bait and switchy, but at least they put a lampshade on it with all the mentions of unsatisfying TV finales.

 

Interestingly enough Dave was mentioning how the original plan was to have the reveal be Rowan/Harper, and wondered if them putting it off when they were teasing this being the end means they are trying to get someone else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to PWI they are doing another "Superstar Shakeup" post Summerslam. Just 4 months after the first one. Sounds like they had buyers remorse on some of the moves they made. My guess is Charlotte is a lock to go back to Raw as she has been a pretty big flop as a babyface on SD and they accordingly have plans with her with Ronda

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...