WWE Battleground - 6 October 2013.

This months PPV, Battleground, was one that stood on the fence. With a mix of highly anticipated matches alongside a few that were a little give or take, I was a little unsure going into it whether it was really going to capture my attention or if I would be fast forwarding to the main matches I had mainly tuned in to see. 

One thing to point out before anything else, if you woke up this morning waiting to see who the new WWE Champion was going to be. There isn’t one. Another pat on the back to WWE for absolutely nothing. But all shall be revealed below.

Starting off with a match for the World Heavyweight Championship was Mr. PPV himself, 

Rob Van Dam, against the current champion, Alberto Del Rio. This hardcore match fell nicely into RVD’s favor and had me thinking that maybe now the time had come that Del Rio would loose the title. Despite the silly gimmicks and Ricardo Rodriguez controversially switching employers, the Del Rio story line has run dry and, since returning to the WWE at Money in the Bank this year after a highly anticipated comeback, the company hasn’t done much for Van Dam.

As expected, the chairs, ladders and trash cans flew throughout this match and both RVD and Del Rio looked stronger than ever at times. But even with an interference from Rodriguez, RVD was unable to end the streak of the current World Heavyweight Champion, Albertooooo Del Riooooo.

With both men pushing each other to the limit, Del Rio was struggling to even get out of the ring and back to the locker room. In my eyes, and many others, this would have been the perfect opportunity for Mr. Money in the Bank, Damien Sandow to strike, cash in, and gain that Heavyweight Championship. For a brief moment it was expected, but an injury gained during the Pre-Show match against Dolph Ziggler ment that it was probably a wise choice to save it for another day.

This match was followed by one that I’m guessing was thrown in last minute due to someone being ill, or an unexpected injury? Quite honestly, I’m not really sure what they’re trying to achieve with The Great Khali and Marella team apart from a bit of light hearted comedy and the chance to go and make a cup of tea. The only worthwhile part of this 7 minute match was seeing Antonio Cesaro perform the Cesaro Swing on the Great Khali, leading to a win for The Real Americans.

The next two matches consisted of Champions who retained their titles. With Curtis Axel defeating R. Truth for the Intercontinental Championship and AJ Lee defeating newly engaged Brie Bella. 

The Axel/R. Truth match came about after a rematch was granted due to an interference on last weeks Monday Night RAW where CM Punk’s mind games cost Curtis Axel the match. Axel may have been distracted by Punk’s entrance music last week but he was completely focused on the matter at hand tonight and got the job done. Obviously we saw interference of some sort during the match for the Divas Championship when Tamina appeared, grabbing Brie’s sister Nikki, causing a distraction that lead to AJ keeping her beloved belt.

Next was a match that I hadn’t initially been too bothered about, but ended up being one of, if not the best, match of the night. After a few weeks of appearances from different members of the Rhodes family on RAW it was finally time to conclude the story of their fate. In a match against Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins of The Shield, if Cody Rhodes and Goldust were to loose, both these brothers and their father, Dusty Rhodes would be banned from the WWE forever. 

This was a great match with such a mix of old and new coming from the two generations of Rhodes brothers. Putting aside their differences they worked together to break down The Shield who used every trick in the book to win. With ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes even getting in on the action, the Rhodes family defeated The Shield and secured their place back on the WWE roster, and Dusty in the NXT training school. As Cody hit the CrossRhodes on Seth Rollins, it was an emotional ending to a storyline that had definitely captured a lot of peoples hearts, and all three generations earned their place back where they truly belong. 

After weeks of taunting, Kofi Kingston was finally able to get his hands on Bray Wyatt. Obviously Wyatt took the victory, but I’m still not sure what is going on with this concept. There’s a lot of cryptic messages, weird goings on, I get that, but maybe they have dragged it out too long to find out what it is and why it’s happening. There seems to be something about the WWE at the moment where they are spending so much time and effort on the promotion of the build up of a new wrestler, but when they finally arrive they’re not really used for anything or, in this case, strung out until nothing better can be done.

Next up was a match that I had been waiting for since it had been announced. After defeating Curtis Axel last week on RAW, Ryback was next in line for the 'Best in the World' on his mission to get his hands on former manager and friend, Paul Heyman. The match started with both men showing promising signs of finishing the match early, but in the end it was Ryback who was on the brink of finishing. But with a turn of events, Heyman interfered in favour of the monster, taking the mic to distract Punk from the match. The referee clocked on early though and whilst his back was turned, Punk took a leaf out of his former managers book of cheats and shot a low blow into Ryback, knocking him out cold. At this moment the ref turned back around and counted 1,2,3 and giving Punk the win he so desperately wanted.
Although the match was entertaining, I feel it was a little anti climatic. There is always going to be a great show of wrestling when CM Punk is on the card, but there was something missing in this match. I just hope that Punk will finally get his hands on Heyman and claim back his 'Best in the World' title that was snatched from him last month by a loss against Paul Heyman at Night of Champions. If Punk can successfully end the third chapter of this saga and shut the Paulrus up once and for all, the world will be a better place.

Now the match that I had been waiting for the most all night, the main event for the WWE Championship between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton. After Triple H had stripped the belt from Bryan after Night of Champions because of an apparent 'cheating' incident with the assistance of a rouge referee, both Orton and Bryan had been furiously battling it out for 3 weeks seeing the return of, what 'The King' would describe as Vintage Orton. There was so much hype already going into this match alone, more so than the whole PPV put together, so we were all anxiously waiting on the crowning of the new champion.
As expected the match was good, seeing both men go to their limits and giving all they had to show just who truly deserved that title belt in, hopefully, the last match in this war orchestrated by Triple H and the McMahon's. Personally, I think that there is no one more deserving of the title than Daniel Bryan who has fought long and hard, time and time again to prove just how much he craves it. There was always going to be a hurdle to just though and this is where WWE definitely let the fans and the wrestlers themselves down with another turn in this storyline that quite frankly had gone stale a while ago.
With Bryan looking favourite to win the match after a long and exhausting fight, of course the Big Show makes an appearance. Obviously under the orders of Stephanie and Triple H, who had left the arena earlier in the evening and left Brad Maddox in control of the night, he approaches the ring and knocks out Daniel Bryan in one swift blow. Thankfully, Big Show has seen the light and despite being under the thumb of the WWE management decides to carry on and do the right thing. With there being no referee now present, shady referee Scott Armstrong from the match at Night of Champions appears to count the one fall of Daniel Bryan and no doubt crown Randy Orton the new WWE Champion once again. Big Show sees the light and not only knocks out Armstrong but also Randy Orton leaving both men out cold in the ring and the Championship belt, still, up in the air and unclaimed.

There seemed to be a lack of excitement going into this PPV compared to the previous build up to Night of Champions and the highly anticipated November event, Hell in a Cell. With the general morale being quite low going into tomorrows episode of Monday Night RAW, hopefully someone will pull something out of the bag and give the fans what they’ve been waiting for. There’s no point in having a monthly PPV, if some are going to be better than others. Granted, there will always be your Wrestlemania and Money in the Bank, but fans shouldn’t have to sit through 3 hours of mediocre matches for the sake of 2 or 3 good ones. But hey, here’s to Hell in a Cell!