Pop quiz: What was the big shocker, the big takeaway from Battleground? If youre struggling to come up with something, then you see what the biggest problem about Sunday night was. To call Battleground a placeholder of a PPV would almost be an understatement. A new IC champ was crowned, but what else came of it? Rusev/Swagger ended in a countout. Bray Wyatt lost clean. And Cena found a way to overcome the odds. But most importantly, there was no development that came out of the four-way title match. There was no mention of Paul Heymans Plan C, and Triple Hs Plan B was rendered unavailable by Ambrose. Blowing one of Brock Lesnars limited appearances unannounced would not have worked, but even an appearance from Heyman at the end letting Hunter know that Plan C was available and ready to go would have been something, which is better than nothing. If WWE is going to sell the Network on the promise of must-see TV, then their special events need to deliver. Storylines need to move forward at these events, not just on Raw. Aside from an outstanding tag title match and a great Ambrose/Rollins brawl, a nonsubscriber didnt miss anything. And that wont help drive subscriptions. Not every PPV needs to be a WrestleMania, but WWE has to put a better foot forward.
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 fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
