If you're a wrestling fan, this was a fairly eventful week for you. New Japan's G1 tournament started on Monday and, so far, has had 4 shows (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the other three). New Japan also started their 2 day Super J Cup on Wednesday (the final night is next month for some reason). And now Battleground...featuring the legendary Shield 3-way match for the title...a match much-rumored for the main event of a Wrestlemania, now being held in July (?). I do have to admit...Battleground was the best show I watched all week. Losing Nakamura and AJ Styles really hurt this year's G1. Oh, well.
CHARLOTTE & DANA BROOKS vs. BAYLEY & SASHA BANKS (7:25): This was the best match on the show. Bayley was Sasha Banks' surprise tag team partner. She's still on NXT, and the crowd fucking loved her (good crowd tonight in D.C.). Bayley and Sasha actually had a match last year that made my Top Ten Best Matches...so I am entertained by them. But this match was wild. It was short but super-entertaining. Everyone was flying around and getting destroyed like rag dolls. The Banks/Charlotte match at Summerslam for the title should be awesome. And when I have ever been excited about a women's match on a WWE ppv? ***1/2
THE WYATT FAMILY vs. THE NEW DAY (8:47): The final flurry was great. It started a bit slow, but by the end when everyone was in the ring and all over the place it was kinetic and fast-paced. Big E. almost landed on his head doing his stupid spear to the floor. Bray pinned Xavier Woods after Xavier put a wild beat down on everyone. **1/2
RUSEV vs. ZACK RYDER (7:01): I didn't watch this. Rusev retained the U.S. title that, unfortunately, nobody cares about. Remember last summer when the U.S. title was a big deal?
SAMI ZAYN vs. KEVIN OWENS (18:22): Good match. Zayn attempted a bounce/flip off the top rope to Owens on the floor but ended up just falling onto the edge of the ring. It seemed like he legit hurt his shoulder or arm, although perhaps that was just part of the story since he did finish the match. By the end they were both delivering big moves and both were kicking out. Zayn finally gave Owens two Hula kicks and pinned him. ***
NATALYA vs. BECKY LYNCH (9:04): Half paid attention to this. These two are on Smackdown. They split the company in two last week because USA didn't like Smackdown's low ratings...so now Smackdown is live on Tuesdays and they split the roster. RAW has Stephanie and Mick Foley running the show, Smackdown has Shane O'Mac and Daniel Bryan in charge. If you recall, they did this about ten years ago and what happened was the Smackdown-only ppv's sucked and the ratings for RAW and Smackdown both went down. They're repeating the same mistake...which I'm not happy about at all. And most of the women are on RAW...but these two are on Smackdown...so, what, are they going to fight each other every week until the end of time?
THE MIZ vs. DARREN YOUNG (8:41): This was for the coveted IC title. It was lame. I only saw the ending. Young used to be part of the awful tag-team, The Prime Time Players. Now he's coached by Bob Backlund. Yep. It's 2016.
JOHN CENA, ENZO AMORE & BIG CASS vs. THE CLUB (14:30): I would have rather just watched a Cena vs. AJ match. This was just a RAW main event, really. Enzo Amore is amusing on the mic...but out of NXT these two are just mediocre in-ring. The ending was decent with some good action, but, eh, it was just okay. Cena's big final move was an AA on AJ off the top rope...but Cena struggled to finally pull it off. Maybe Cena is just officially over-the-hill? **
THE HIGHLIGHT REEL: Randy Orton returned to be interviewed by Chris Jericho. Jericho is a lot more entertaining on the mic than in the ring, so this was a lot of fun. Orton made a joke about Brock Lesnar being, "enhanced" (he's facing Lesnar at Summerslam for no reason...and Lesnar, after winning his first UFC match in years a few weeks ago, tested positive for a steroid). Jericho got an RKO. I guess they could've just had this on RAW? Because this show ended at 11:17...a little too late, no?
DEAN AMBROSE vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. ROMAN REIGNS (18:03): Decent main event, albeit not spectacular, nor something anyone should go out of their way to see. Rollins and Ambrose teamed up to put Reigns through the Spanish announce table. Rollins had a near-pin on Reigns and Michael Cole thought it was three (which means this "story line" will assuredly lead to a new RAW-only title for who ever wins between Reigns and Rollins at Summerlsam). Dean Ambrose surprisingly pinned Reigns clean and kept his title. I was a little surprised, as I figured they'd do a stupid double pin or something. The funny thing is that this should have been a really big main event for a big show like Wrestlemania or Summerslam. A 3-way Shield match for a title? Reigns tested positive for a steroid and was suspended for a month...so he wasn't around to build this match up. Ambrose just won the title last month and has been treated like a joke by Stephanie and JBL which doesn't exactly make his championship reign seem important. And Ambrose is now only on Smackdown whereas Rollins and Reigns are only on RAW. It was an entertaining main event, just not the epic, awesome match we all wanted. **1/2
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