6 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Battleground 2016

Downs...

9. D-Young Loses It

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Maybe the writers have something clever up their sleeves, but until proven otherwise, all we got Sunday night was a match between Darren Young and the Miz that could have taken place on Raw or SmackDown, not a PPV Intercontinental Championship match.

The bout itself came a couple matches after Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens sucked all the oxygen out of the arena, but it still wasn’t anything special. The “highlight” came when Miz escaped a Crossface Chickenwing and attempted to leave, only to have his exit blocked by Bob Backlund. Maryse then slapped Backlund, which set the Hall of Famer off. He snapped, ripped his shirt off and started screaming, which drew Miz outside (presumably to protect his wife), which then drew Young outside.

Darren slapped a Crossface Chickenwing on Miz outside the ring for a double-countout, then stared at his hands, much in the way that Backlund used to during his 90s WWF run. It was a cute nod – and it could be interesting – but the entire episode was just strange, and it was a horrible way to end a PPV title match.

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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.