5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE NXT Battleground (Review)

Tiffany's coronation, Melo's homecoming, Wes Lee's heart power developmental PLE.

Carmelo Hayes
WWE.com

NXT entered the weekend in a pretty difficult spot: They already were being pegged to put on the third-best PPV/PLE of the holiday weekend no matter how well Battleground went. The only question was whether it was still a really solid affair or something that you’d expect from a developmental brand.

But now that the dust has settled, let’s give NXT a slow clap for Battleground, which delivered a pretty good show, all things considered. They weren’t going to outshine the other two major shows, but knowing that heading into Sunday night, it was a perfectly fine performance from the young superstars.

You’ve especially got to be impressed by Tiffany Stratton (and Lyra Valkyria), Wes Lee (and Tyler Bate and Joe Gacy), the Creed Brothers, and Dijak and Ilja Dragunov, all of whom hit their mark. Stratton in particular deserves praise as a WWE factory creation with less than two years under her belt who mostly held up under the spotlight and earned her shot at leading the women’s division.

Sure, there were some misfires along the way, and we still need to grade on a slight scale in some cases, but this was an easy watch and an easy show to enjoy.

Let’s get to it…

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Contributor
Contributor

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.