WWE BATTLEGROUND

St. Louis

RANDY ORTON vs. SHEAMUS (16:54): Ugh...these two? And why are they even fighting each other? It wasn't bad or anything, just typical, same-old, nothing-to-see-here. I want fresh matches, compelling feuds, excitement, drama. Alas...we got this. * (out of ****)

THE PRIME TIME PLAYERS vs. THE NEW DAY (8:50) I dislike The Prime Time Players. They're just boring in the ring. The New Day is at least mildly amusing. Eh. *

BRAY WYATT vs. ROMAN REIGNS (22:42): Long, dull match. It's pretty rare to see either of these guys in a good match. Luke Harper interfered to cost Reigns the match. *

CHARLOTTE vs. BRIE BELLA vs. SASHA BANKS (11:30): The NXT women's division has infiltrated RAW and now a ppv! Which means we got this absurd, weird, three-way. What was weird was that there were three other wrestlers, Nikki Bella, Paige, and Becky Lynch, at ringside. Why not just have a 3 on 3 match? Either way it was better than the typical drivel the Diva's division puts out there. Even the crowd was a bit more into it. Too bad AJ Lee quit, as she finally has some good competitors around. **

JOHN CENA vs. KEVIN OWENS (22:11): Not as good as their first two but still better than anything on this show. Owens tapped out. It's probably WWE's fault to have these two fight each other on three consecutive ppv's in less than two month's. It's been one of the best feuds of this year but even I'm already a little tired of it. **1/2

BROCK LESNAR vs. SETH ROLLINS (9:00): Suplex City! Rollins did have a short spurt of offense but this was mostly Lesnar tossing Rollins around like a rag doll. When Lesnar finally went for the pin The Undertaker's gong hit and the lights went out. The lights came back up and The Undertaker was in the ring. Strangely, Seth Rollins and the referee were gone. So The Undertaker chokeslammed and pile-drived Lesnar and then left and that was the show. Huh? Where was the ref to call for a DQ? Or Rollins pinning Lesnar? There was no ending which was bizarre. And, really, The Undertaker hasn't been in a good match in years. Who the hell wants to see him fight Lesnar? And why'd The Undertaker take a year and a half to finally seek revenge? Not that a dead-man wrestler with mysterious powers makes plot sense either but c'mon! I'd rather have seen a back-and-forth match. A one-sided match with a non-finish was just awful. This was the worst WWE ppv in some time. *1/2

NJPW DOMINION

Sunday, July 5th, 2015 from Osaka, Japan

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. reDRAGON vs. BARETTA & ROCKY ROMERO (14:30): Great match. More of the same, but more of the same involving The Young Bucks means fast-action and insane high-flying and, of course, comedy. Rocky Romero is amusing as well and Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of reDragon are decent enough wrestlers so this was a fun, exciting match. The Bucks kept the IWGP Jr. Tag titles.
*** (out of ****)

TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI (8:50): So Naito is a heel now. Okay. He non-chalantly walked to the ring, refused to be tagged in at times, and left before having his hand raised after the victory. Honma is a crowd favorite and just a hell of a wrestler. His diving head-butt that never delivers is hilarious. The other team sucks, though, so there wasn't much here. *1/2

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA (11:48): Excellent match. Someone should tell Shibata that wrestling is fake. It was mostly just stiff strikes and kicks and holds but it was fucking brutal. In one sequence, Shibata picked up Sakuraba and pulled both of his arms back in a submission hold so Sakuraba had to pull them both to the ropes so he could bite the ropes to end the hold. Wild stuff. ***1/2

KUSHIDA vs. KENNY OMEGA (20:44): The last few minutes were stellar. Kushida is fucking dramatic, right? He could win an Oscar for those facial expressions alone. Omega is a bit better than average but the early part was slow when Omega beat down Kushida for ten minutes so it wasn't all fantastic. Kushida won the NJPW Jr. title here. Good match. ***

TOGI MAKABE vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (17:50): I love Ishii. It's probably because I can't figure out why he's not in a wheelchair by now. He always puts his body on the line. Early on he did a top-rope front-flip to the floor and missed Makabe and landed on his back. Later on he seemed to hurt his shoulder so the ref and ringside doctor looked like they were going to call it off. Ishii is usually in exciting, brutal matches but this one was just brutal. Makabe retained the Never Open Weight title here. *1/2

DOC GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON vs. THE KINGDOM (10:09): Ugh. The only good thing about this feud is the fact that Doc Gallows and Maria have a weird, stalker thing going on. Unfortunately that comedy schtick was barely used and we were left with a dull match. The crowd fell asleep. Gallows and Anderson won the IGWP Tag titles here. *

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. TORI YANU (12:32): Yanu is kind of like the R. Truth of NJPW. When he comes out you want to change the channel. He was kind of humorous here as the villain. He constantly grabbed and knocked the ref over then used a steel chair. Tanahashi is one of the greats so he's good with just about anyone but this was mediocre stuff. **

HIROOKI GOTO vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (22:40): Like all NJPW title matches, the final few minutes were awe-inspiring. Nakamura is, really, the best in the business at being weird and quirky but also captivating. Goto is your typical strong brute. Not awesome or anything but a good match. Goto retained the IWGP IC title. **1/2

AJ STYLES vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (26:16): Phenomenal match. One of the year's best. They wrestled a few times before but this was their masterpiece by far. The only complaint I have is that AJ didn't win. Wasn't this his first title defense? Early on The Bullet club interfered so the ref banned them from ringside, even going so far as to giving them the "suck it" hand motion. I'm sure red shoes learned that from Earl Hebner. The reason this particular match was so good was because of the back-and-forth and counters at the end. The final flurry was impeccable. I'm not even the biggest Okada fan but they both put on a hell of a show. AJ might be the best wrestler in the world these days so it's sad to see him lose the IWGP Heavyweight title. Just an awesome finish to a great show. ***1/2