10 New Directions After WWE Battleground 2016

At Battleground this year, we seemingly saw the end of a number of ongoing rivalries.

We finally witnessed Sami Zayn close the book on his feud with Kevin Owens, while Natalya had the last laugh by submitting Becky Lynch. And in the evening’s main event, Dean Ambrose was left standing tall after his third WWE Championship match in the space of seven days.

But on top of all that, Battleground was also one of the final vestiges of the pre-Draft era. Not only did this mean that there were a number of loose ends to be tied up, but the event’s card featured a number of pairings - both friend and foe - that have since been prised apart.

Various factions on the show’s card, such as the Wyatt Family and the Club, have since been separated as a result of the brand split. And the challengers for both the Intercontinental and United States titles are now on different shows to the championships they were chasing.

So for all the change we’ve seen in the past couple of weeks, it looks like it isn’t over yet. With WWE in need of new directions coming out of Battleground, let’s delve into some of the potential avenues that they may wish to explore.

In Breezango, the Ascension, and the Vaudevillains, SmackDown’s new roster is home to just about all of the company’s jobber tag teams. Chances are that those duos are going to cross paths with one another at some stage and, given that two teams can’t both lose a match, someone’s going to get the rub.

That means there’s a real opportunity for one of these teams to put together some victories and, God forbid, maybe even get themselves over.

And with Tyler Breeze and Fandango defeating the Usos on the Battleground kick-off show, why not make them the lucky team to step out from the shadows of lower-card nothingness?

You could argue that they're too much of a comedy act to be taken seriously anymore, but a big part of their comedy act is their confidence in themselves. And if you simply change the content of their backstage skits to something a little more serious, I’m sure that confidence will shine through and turn whatever they do into a success.

American Alpha are going to need credible heel opponents and, as crazy as it sounds right now, barring an unlikely Usos heel turn, investing in Breezango could be the best option.