WWE Battleground 2013

[Brian Fowler]

RHODES FAMILY.

 

Dusty seemed to be legit emotional over his two sons teaming together. 

 

Dustin looked awesome.  Then Dustin went out and did Dustin things, namely being fucking awesome.  Cody is more interesting than he has ever been.  Bryan/Dust/Cody/Show/Miz? vs. Orton/Shield/Triple H, War Games style cell match, followed by title tourney at Survivor Series?

 

Seriously, though, you can do just about anything you want on the rest of the show if you are going to let the Rhodes family be awesome.

[Brian Fowler]

However, Arn Anderson being part of a Rhodes family celebration is a bit odd.  I mean, isn't he the guy who bragged about breaking two different generations of Rhodes family members' arms in two different decades?

[DJ Hero Morganti]

Goes back to big dust's Hall of Fame speech.  The new Horsemen are Dusty, Race, Flair, and Anderson.

[The Natural]

I knew Battleground was this Sunday but only learnt on the day it was free over here.

 

Watched the four matches I wanted to see (Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes/Goldust vs. Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns vs., CM Punk vs. Ryback and Alberto Del Rio vs. Rob Van Dam). Liked them all particularly the tag match, my Match of the Night and Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton, I knew we would get a screwjob finish. Just remembered Antonio Cesaro giving new meaning to the Giant Swing as well, man he’s strong.

[The Natural]

 

[Go2Sleep]

Better than NOC, but a pretty average show overall. 

 

ADR/RVD was solid as the hardcore stip covered for lot of RVD's shittiness. There were a couple awful whiffed kicks, and the selling/transitioning wasn't the best, but the chair and ladder spots made for a good spectacle. The finishing spot was nice and put over Del Rio strong. Was this supposed to be RVD's last appearance?

 

Surprised to see a match like Real Americans vs. Santino/Khali make ppv, but anything that's used as a vehicle to get Cesaro over is fine by me. If he turns face, he's the next big thing in WWE.

 

Divas match was forgettable. AJ's awesome, but those other 3 can't act at all. Face Bellas just aren't working.

 

Axel/Truth was exactly what you'd expect, although with that dropkick, Axel might move up from "irredeemably boring" to "Maven-esque."

 

Shield/Rhodes family was easily the highlight of the show. Perfect formula tag with a happy ending. Ambrose and Dusty actually contributed in their roles. While not as flashy or life-threatening as his other bumps, Rollins did easily have the best Cross-Rhodes bump ever. I'm not sure how you'd transition to it, but I'd love for Dustin to be Del Rio's next challenger. 

 

Kofi/Bray was a little better than expected. Nothing exciting most of the way, but the finishing run was a lot more inspired than I thought it would be. Killer dive by Kofi, and Bray adding that exorcist crawl to his arsenal was a good touch to his character. 

 

Punk/Ryback was there. Love Ryback's new gimmick, but I'm still not feeling him in long matches against an even opponent. I would be interested a cell re-match if Heyman is in there massaging Ryback (to prepare him for the match of course, nothing else) then Punk sneaks out under the ring and chains the door shut and the match is built around Ryback trying to stop Heyman from getting killed. 

 

The main event wasn't something that should be run when you're trying to establish a new guy as a ppv draw. Match was fine with a decent finishing stretch until Show's music hit. Why would they have him KO both guys fighting for the abeyanced title? This was a Raw ending, not a ppv ending. I keep telling myself "3 shows in 7 weeks, 3 shows in 7 weeks, but god damn that was a terrible finish to a ppv and no one came out of it looking good. And in kayfabe, why the hell is HHH leaving halfway through the ppv?

[Bustronaut]

Speaking of Dustin looking awesome, someone tweeted a screencap of him at Battleground and I seriously thought Cody had put on the paint in solidarity.  I was shocked when I realized it was Dustin.

[MarcosLoura]

Rhodes vs Shield was everything pro wrestling should be. Fucking awesome.

 

EDIT: Coincidentally the two retards shouting ECDUB after the Kofi dive to the outside are everything pro wrestling shouldn't be.

[Library Dude]

Just watched the Rhodes Family vs The Shield and it was great. Dustin looked fantastic, that missed cross body bump was nuts. Everything else from Battleground sounds skippable but that was a great match and great moment at the end.

[HumanChessgame]

This was a surprisingly good show wrestling-wise.  I was prepared to be pretty much indifferent to the whole thing but found myself actually liking a good portion of the matches. 

 

RVD/ADR started out like a standard WWE Hardcore Title match where ladders and such would be introduced, but it just felt like they were trying way too hard to make things "extreme".  It picked up towards the end and I actually dug the chair armbar spot.  I wonder if that's going to be cause of some injury angle that explains RVDs departure, should the rumors of his contract being up be true.

 

Enough has been said about the Rhodes/Shield match, but for a second when Dusty took off his belt I thought he'd brought out the cowbell on a bullrope match again.  Has there been anyone in recent memory who has had a late in their career run as good as Dustin as far as match quality goes?  He was always a good hand but I think his ringwork was overshadowed by the Golddust gimmick and for the past several years he's been in the doldrums in TNA.  I guess he knows this is his last chance to have a major run.

 

The rest of the matches weren't half bad.  I hope last night's match is finally the catalyst that breaks Cesaro out of Team Zeb.  It's not that he's a bad fit for the team, but he's just way too good to not be doing his own thing.  Bray Wyatt looked awesome and the Exorcist walk made the match for me.  I've never been a fan of Ryback but thought he looked especially bad tonight.  It didn't have the heat the rest of this feud (which I'm assuming will end in a Brock/Punk HIAC match) has had.

 

Fell asleep before the main event (had to be up early this morning for a meeting) but the finish sounds balls.  I could see them wanting to do a fuck finish to keep the title vacant if this were right before the rumble, but I don't get what they're going for here.

[Mr Harms]

My favourite part was when Cesaro went to hug Swagger and Swagger pushed him away like "what the hell, bro?" But was clearly corpsing and had to turn away.

[tbarrie]

However, Arn Anderson being part of a Rhodes family celebration is a bit odd.  I mean, isn't he the guy who bragged about breaking two different generations of Rhodes family members' arms in two different decades?

He was out there to break Cody's arm, but the presence of the rest of the face locker room made that awkward, so he just went along with the celebration.

[Josh Mann]

However, Arn Anderson being part of a Rhodes family celebration is a bit odd. I mean, isn't he the guy who bragged about breaking two different generations of Rhodes family members' arms in two different decades?

He was out there to break Cody's arm, but the presence of the rest of the face locker room made that awkward, so he just went along with the celebration.

In other words, Arn couldn't MAKE IT GOOD, so he made it good.

[MarcosLoura]

I still don't understand the direction of the Punk vs Heyman feud. Bringing Ryback in after Lesnar makes no sense story wise.

 

Punk's going through motions, Ryback is Ryback, Curtis Axel just is, only Heyman is going all out and being great. Isn't Punk hurt and needs a vacation? Just end this already.

[Matt D]

Natural,

 

Thanks for posting the Voldo spider-walk. I'd read about it but I hadn't actually thought...

 

well, it cracked me up. 

[Disposition]

Rhodes-shield made me excited to call myself a wrestling fan. Simple, well-executed booking from top to bottom. Even the backstage interview prior to the match was top notch. By the end, entire evening came off like a magical moment. I felt that was enough to make Battkeground PPV at least worthwhile.

[The Natural]

Natural,

 

Thanks for posting the Voldo spider-walk. I'd read about it but I hadn't actually thought...

 

well, it cracked me up. 

 

You're welcome. Glad you liked it. No likes left today but will give you one when I can.

[Raziel]

This is seeming like they went from JCP Booking with the Title, to AWA's "Verne won't pull the trigger on Hogan" booking.  Not comparing Bryan to Hogan by a longshot, but Its just in that similar vein where the crowd is rabid for Bryan to get the belt, but for whatever reason they won't pull the trigger.  

 

Sadly for Bryan, there's no place to jump to that'll open the throttle all the way on a push.

[JohnnyJ]

With booking there is a thin line between intrigue and disappointment. You can only build up intrigue for so long with no payoff. If you build it up for too long, people start expecting a screwy finish and there is no interest in what you're doing.

 

Punk-Heyman went off the rails at Night of Champions when Heyman didn't get his comeuppance. Ryback further dilutes the "heyman guy" brand and comes off as just another obstacle in what was already a long feud for wwe standards.

 

Bryan-Orton has lost all focus. Is Orton his own man? Is he HHH's pawn? Why isn't Bryan just going after HHH already? Seems like any normal person would have given up on his pursuit of the title already and gone after the guy who keeps on screwing him out of it over and over again.

 

And the title has now been vacated for three weeks. If Russo was in charge, there would already be a wrestlecrap feature on this.

[Rehabilitated Rick]

All of Rhodes' promos backstage were gold, but Cody impressed me the most. It seems he's in his comfort zone with this and is relishing the opportunity to work with his brother and be in a major feud with the big boys. This has given him a platform to finally fulfill his potential (and the reputation of his family) we'll see how he handles it, but he could be big if he stays focused and given the content to work with.

I can't get over how good that match was, why didn't they end the show that way? Makes zero sense.

[Overly Critical Man]

When Goldust went up to the top and stood with his back to the ring, for a second there, I thought 40-plus year old Dustin was going to do a fucking moonsault and lost my shit.

[Greggulator]

Dusty needs a beer.

 

So friggin' awesome. Wrestling can be really, really, really friggin' awesome. What a great morality play and life lesson. I'm not kidding. Good guys win.

[Greggulator]

And when they put that match together, how stoked do you think Ambrose must have been inside when it became time to take the elbow? He was playing his scumbag role perfectly, naturally, but you can't be more thrilled as a wrestler to be able to do that for an absolute legend. 

Let's not undersell The Shield in this, either. What an absolutely epic year those dudes are having. Somebody has to have a list of all of their classics so far. When has anyone in the WWE come out of the gate like those three guys? I want them to never, ever break up. Every single show they tear the house down.

[Brian Fowler]

The Shield hit the WWE as absolute masters of tag formula.  It's insane.

[Greggulator]

The Shield hit the WWE as absolute masters of tag formula.  It's insane.

 

Especially since those three never tagged together before hand. Did Reigns even work with Rollins and Ambrose? Rollins and Ambrose had a lot of great matches against each other but them together has been awesome. Three dudes who are perfect fits. They're a modern day Freebirds.