Battleground will go down as one of the more underwhelming PPVs in recent memory. It really seems to serve solely as a placeholder event, with very little resolved. The immediate reaction has been generally negative, and with good reason. Like a car stuck in the mud, WWEs tires were spinning Sunday night, but the vehicle didnt really go anywhere. However, there are a couple glimmers of hope buried within this subpar special event, a few things that hopefully provide something to build upon. But lets not try to polish this one up too much: even some of the positive developments from Sunday night are tempered by some drawbacks. So as WWE begins its careening course toward SummerSlam, what actually emerged from Battleground? And how do these developments fit the narrative going forward?
4 Positives...
4. AJ And Paige Finally Have A Real Title Match
If were going strictly by match time, AJ and Paige improved threefold from their previous two matches combined. In trading the Divas Championship between them, their first two encounters lasted less than two-and-a-half minutes total. Neither match really got started or went much beyond a ridiculously brief attack by the champ before the challenger surprised her and scored the pinfall. Sunday night, they at least had a seven-minute match that had some flow to it. There is plenty to complain about here the total lack of any real development in their storyline or characters, a completely clean win for the champ but for the first time in three matchups, two of the more capable female wrestlers actually got to go out there and have a match. We also got to see Paige on offense more in this match than probably all of her title defenses against Alicia Fox combined, so thats another plus. But for this match to actually mean something, there needs to be some movement forward with Paige. No one is buying her fangirl/best friend act (including the announcers, which is a surprisingly smart move), but she needs to start showing some cracks in this façade soon. Perhaps Paiges foot being under the ropes on the pinfall or using the ropes to try to pin AJ would show a little color.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.
