Ranking Every 2017 WWE Pay-Per-View From Worst To Best

16. Battleground

The Good: The New Day and The Usos stole the show with a spellbinding battle over the SmackDown Live! Tag Team Titles. Long before it was quite apparent how incredible the chemistry was between the squads, Jimmy, Jey, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods let it all hang out in a festival of high spots and high drama. A frenzied fightback by Woods in particular after Kingston was floored with a powerbomb outside the ring kicked off a year in which he'd confound critiques that considered him little more than a third man.

The Bad: The Punjabi Prison (and The Great Khali's one-night return) at least added something to Jinder Mahal's dull defence of his newly-won WWE Championship, as did some more suicidal Singh bumps to mask the inadequacies of the man charged with holding the top title. Mike Kanellis' prospect looked suitably doomed following a moribund defeat against Sami Zayn, whilst Kevin Owens and AJ Styles again struggled to rise above the convoluted finish needed to facilitate Shane McMahon's placement as referee in a SummerSlam rematch.

The Ugly: Rusev had already gone back on his word to abandon SmackDown Live! after Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon failed to bow to the pressure he'd put on for a title shot, and looked weaker still when John Cena flattened him in a jingoistic flag match. In an emerging pattern for 2017, 'The Bulgarian Brute' ended his one-month rivaly with John Cena in far worse shape than he started it. The less said about Shinsuke Nakamura's disqualification victory over Baron Corbin, the better.