WWE Battleground 2017: 8 Things WWE Got Right
All hail The Maharaja and his giant friend...
It was pretty weird to see The Great Khali return to WWE and aid Jinder Mahal in defeating Randy Orton. Even stranger was seeing Khali repeatedly grab the WWE Title from Jinder and hold it aloft as Battleground faded to black. You're not the Champ, big man, so just settle down.
Despite Khali's bizarre need to pose with the title, the Punjabi Prison match between Mahal and Orton turned out better-than-expected thanks to some pretty stiff brawling, big bumps and the aforementioned surprise return. Although it wasn't perfect, Battleground certainly wasn't a one-match show either; WWE got some things right elsewhere on the card.
There will always be criticism regardless of pay-per-view quality; that's just the way wrestling is. Few can have any complaints about the standard of matches like The Usos vs. The New Day or the main event though.
WWE got more big decisions right than they did wrong...
8. Opening With The Tag Title Match
There's a case to be made that the opening match was the best on the card in terms of pure wrestling. This was no nonsense from WWE, and it worked. Just stick great teams like The New Day and The Usos out there, give them 15 minutes, tack a solid finish on the end and you're always going to get results.
Lengthy and packed with a ton of near falls that had the Philly crowd enraptured, this SmackDown Tag Title effort was a blast from first bell to last. Best of all, it set the tone for the rest of the show by being a never-say-die battle between teams who clearly cared about the titles they were fighting for. Just great stuff all round.
Starting any pay-per-view out with a tag match is smart, because there's rarely a lull in the action if done right. Usos vs. New Day was worked well, and the live crowd adored the fact that Big E, Kingston and Woods now have gold back in their camp.