WWE Battleground Reax

Read on for my thoughts on last night's WWE special event.

- Kickoff:

Ryder's just a genuinely likeable guy. He's not trying to be a character designed to be liked; he's just an authentic, fun personality. I'm glad he hasn't gotten frustrated enough to pull a Cody Rhodes yet.

I really don't see Nia working as a face, but she's good enough to debut in the match as Sasha's partner. She works a more methodical pace, though, which wouldn't necessarily mesh with the others in the match.

Interesting they teased Lita getting back in the ring. That's not the first time that hint's been dropped. Maybe at WM33?

It looks like Cesaro's post-draft promo got him a position he wanted to a degree. Standing up and asking for a bigger role is generally respected if you haven't been entirely pegged as a low/mid card name (Cody).

I really think Cesaro's setting himself up as the guy they'll pay lip service to but not actually give too much of a push to. They're right that he's got a niche audience that will keep watching him/talking about him no matter what they do with him.

I share Bryan's hope that the in-ring talents will be the focus of the shows, not the GMs and Commissioners.

Terry Funk in a behind-the-scenes role for WWE would be big. Today's talents could use notes in raising hell.

I'm totally good with Bryan and Foley each wanting both shows to improve instead of just "I want to beat the other guy's show." There's no need for two retired wrestlers to take up screen time feuding. As cool as Bryan vs. Foley would have been in their prime, it's just not something that should be attempted now.

I loved Darren training while Miz was getting pampered. A simple showcase of how the two of them differ.

- Usos vs. Breezango:
Breezango are getting smoother as a team. While I imagine they'd both rather be higher up on the card, they should seize this opportunity for all it's worth.

I liked the superkick sequence leading to Fandango going for a pin.

Nice sequence with Breeze breaking up the Doomsday Device attempt.

Clunky dives spot. I hope tonight isn't too heavy on flashy spots. Certainly you need some of those, but they're often done for the sake of a cool moment instead of adding to a story of competition.

Kind of a clever ending. I'm glad Breezango scored a win.

- Battleground:
Wow, they're jumping right into the women's match. I'm worried that means they have a disappointing partner in mind and want to get it out of the way.

That's a really good reaction for someone who's never appeared on the main roster before. She's definitely earned it.

It is kind of weird Sasha and Bayley are on the same page, but I'm glad the former NXT Women's champion has been called up.

- Sasha/Bayley vs. Charlotte/Dana:
Charlotte and Dana already treating their opponents as a threat. That's good.

So, does Bayley's popularity challenge Sasha's? I worry one could overshadow the other. They're both great, though.

Bayley's fired up and I can't blame her.

Bayley vs. Dana could be fun given their styles and personalities.

I'm glad Sasha didn't kick out of Natural Selection.

I'm excited for Sasha vs. Charlotte at Summerslam. I really hope they don't kick that to the side in order to Charlotte vs. Stephanie.

I really want Bayley and Sasha as a team, but I also think Smackdown needs the boost.

I had to look up that Bonecrusher reference, but otherwise I enjoyed the promo.

- New Day vs. Wyatts:
I like a good mastadon mauling every once in a while.

I really hope Big E's got a bright future in WWE. He's got size, strength, technical ability, and speed in addition to promo skills. He could absolutely be an important singles player.

See, Kofi's big dive there made sense to take out Rowan. It wasn't showy for the sake of it.

Good domination by the family.

Xavier FINALLY escaping Bray's spell like a house of fire.

Big E's really going to hurt himself on that spear through the ropes spot.

That was pretty good. I hope we see good things from Bray on Smackdown. Bray vs. Dean for the title could be fun.

- Rusev vs. Ryder:
Ryder deserves a Woo-Woo-Woo-S-A chant for that outfit.

Ryder's a solid veteran to have around. I'm curious to see if Curt Hawkins ends up working with him again.

I like the story of Zack giving it all against the wall of humanity that is the super-athlete Rusev.

ROUGH RYDER OUT OF NOWHERE!!

And a really brutal bicycle kick to the back of the head.

GREAT ending to give Zack just a little hope before being Matchka'd by the champ.

Rusev's just like "who is this goof?" He might not be HYPE, but he could probably break Mojo in half.

I like Rollins justifying his actions and viewpoints. Funny closing remark.

I would have loved Ambrose vs. Foley in their primes.

- Zayn vs. Owens:
Fighting right out of the gate, as they should be.

Zayn's getting pretty acrobatic for someone in a heated feud. I don't think they need to try to do a UFC bout, but it strains believability of this being a fight between two people hating each other when Zayn's running up the ropes on a wristlock.

Owens is a believable hard-hitter.

Zayn damn near killed himself on that springboard moonsault.

Either the "botched" moonsault wasn't a botch or they're calling a masterful improv with the crossface story. Is Zayn going to be the new Jeff Hardy as far as crazy acrobatic acts of destruction?

Thank you Taz for inventing the idea of moves on the apron. One of his many innovations. Seriously, though, that was scary. I was much more concerned for them following the bump than I was excited they pulled off a cool move.

Both men are going to be sore as hell after this one. This is a brutal match.

And now we're getting into "big spots with lots of kickouts" territory.

That was a good ending. No one actually kicked out of the other man's finisher, but they both gave it their all.

- Becky vs. Natalya:
I like the fired-up action early. Both women are good wrestlers.

Natalya going after Becky's leg is an obvious strategy, but an effective one. Also, it makes sense for this one to have a more measured pace after the 100 mph ending to Zayn vs. Owens.

Submission-based stories are a little bit of a lost art at a time when so many submission artists just use holds as more spots, switching between several in rapid fashion just to show off (rather than it actually looking like they're trying to make someone give up).

Poor Becky. :'( At least Natalya looks credible again.

Bryan firing up Ambrose was good. I'm glad we have him cutting promos again. That said, him saying he didn't worry about Rollins and Reigns kind of threw them under a bus. They were/are certainly worthy of being worried about.

- Miz vs. Young:
Backlund's as fired up as ever.

I'm a little surprised WWE let Young advertise a campaign on his tights. 

OH MY GOD THEY'RE WEARING EYES WIDE SHUT MASKS. I really don't think whoever approved that has seen that movie...

Young's definitely got a solid technical background.

I would watch a Maryse/Backlund comedy match. I'm not even kidding.

Don't sell Miz short as a wrestler in the technical sense.

Fine action so far.

I would watch the hell out of Miz vs. Backlund. It'd be a nice sequel to Miz vs. Lawler.

That was a good ending to save face for Young not winning the title.

I wish we had 2003 John Cena cutting a promo alongside Enzo and Cass. That would be AMAZING.

Enzo gets a little too far into bathroom humor at times, but other than that, he was fire on the mic.

Cass is great on the mic, too.

- Cena/Enzo/Cass vs. Club:
AJ needs to embrace soccer mom chants like Sheamus embraced "you look stupid."

I'm never really crazy about a spot that takes out your partner. Throwing AJ onto The Club and Enzo was odd in that sense.

This is good so far. Cena's letting the younger guys shine quite a bit.

OH MY GOD WHAT A BOOT FROM ANDERSON. That took some real timing to prevent Enzo from tagging in.

Nice AA to Pele spot.

Good spots with Cena and AJ inadvertently hitting their partners.

I'm not a fan of overly-choreographed spots, but sometimes elaborate sequences of everyone hitting each other are quite impressive.

They've really got something with Enzo. He's got more personality than at least two-thirds of the ROH roster and all of the X-Division.

I was a little disappointed with Cena beating AJ, but it took a big AA to do it (after AJ had already taken one). I definitely think AJ can rebound from that on the road to Summerslam. It only took him one night to get over the loss at WM32.

- Highlight Reel:
Orton as a pandering face is so weird.

I'm glad Jericho keeps bringing new things to his character instead of just trying to cash in on his catchphrases and getting things to trend on Twitter.

I thought that was a burial of Fandango, but it was a reference to Y2J's old Mania fight. Funny.

The Viperville line was cheesy, but goofy Orton is growing on me.

So they did go there. They might as well, since they threw Reigns under a bus for his drug test.

WWE needs a Chris Jericho "stupid idiot" shirt. He's fun in this ridiculous role.

That wasn't bad. Hopefully Orton has a less one-dimensional character now.

I really hope the GMs/commissioners don't get involved here unless it adds to the match.

- Ambrose vs. Rollins vs. THE BIG DOG ROMAN REIGNS HHHOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAHHH:
Rollins is in something of a difficult position considering he's outnumbered by the babyfaces,

I'm liking the action so far. The hard-hitting Reigns provides some nice contrast to the smaller, quicker guys.

I like this being more of a fight than a wrestling match.

I liked Reigns going to spear both and that sequence. Everyone's giving it their all.

Good callback to the Shield's signature spot.

And another good callback to Rollins turning on both men.

I'd much rather see the superplex/Falcon Arrow be something someone else uses to end a match instead of someone kicking out of it. It's a big, impressive move.

Roman's certainly improving.

I would have been so OK with Rollins winning with the Pedigree. That was a great setup.

Very good ending. Everyone did good work there, and Reigns has officially served his sentence.

More wrestling coming up.