WNS Column: The Elbow Drop!

 

 

For an event with the potential to glide in and carpet bomb the arena like a B-52, it in fact felt more like the WWE was keeping its ammunition dry for another day. A night of confusing booking and let-downs left me (and the *takes deep breath*...Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, FL) suffering a nasty case of trench foot.

A set of unsatisfactory outcomes from the evening point at something, which, far from being a crisis, are indicative of the sweaty rut the company currently finds itself in.

 

-The enforced absence of top level, bona fide stars in the WWE (Daniel Bryan to injury, CM Punk to apathy, Brock Lesnar to holiday) had created a vacuum in the top of the card that the company struggled to fill. Never was this more obvious at Battleground. 

Bray Wyatt's undercooked bout with a returning Chris Jericho, had little to no build up, other than a surprise beatdown by the other members of the Wyatt Family on Raw. Y2J surely couldn't lose his first fight back from hiatus could he? The answer sadly, was no. 

He cleanly defeated 'The Eater of Worlds', much to the chagrin of the Florida crowd who cheered him on throughout the match. That the part timer came in and pinned one of the hottest rising stars in the company is a huge setback to the development of Wyatt. His stellar efforts against The Shield, Daniel Bryan and John Cena in 2014 - combined with his continued outstanding promo work - had seen Wyatt build up real momentum leading up to this event. Despite being booked to stare at the ceiling in the previous two ppv's, audiences still seemed behind him (I'm pretty sure by WrestleMania 31 the lights on his entrance will be visible from space...) 

He'd been given the seal of approval from 'HBK' Shawn Michaels, and all that was needed was a strong but beatable opponent to help him continue his upward trajectory. There would be a queue of guys around the building looking to work with someone as relevant as Wyatt right now. Surely this match could have happened a few months down the line, with these two given a few weeks of verbal jousting on the mic. Bray will be gutted at this loss...  

 

-The Shield had been ripped apart to allow Roman Reigns a run with Cena (more on the ex-Shield beast later); leaving Rollins and Ambrose to scrap over the chair shot dished out by the former a few weeks prior. Glancing down the card, this fight was one that many fans were excited about, hopefully conjuring some of the magic that hallmarked Shield encounters with Evolution and The Wyatts. As a spectacle, it fell far short of those classic encounters. The battle was downgraded on the night from advertised match to angle when Ambrose was apparently ejected from the building for jumping Rollins. In true WWE fashion, Ambrose avoided security and got back inside to rumble with Rollins all over the arena. The fight picked up later on in the parking lot where Mr. Lunatic Fringe jumped out from the trunk of Plan B's car (how did he get in there?) to dish out a vicious beating to the briefcase-toting bad boy. Luckily, Rollins hopped inside the vehicle and drove off not to be seen again that night. Two things to mention: Firstly, if I'd paid $500 for a ringside seat to watch Battleground, and one of the main draws was turned into an angle with no real outcome, I'd be left with a pretty sour taste in my mouth. Secondly, it seems you should always leave the keys to your car in the ignition, you never know when you might get jumped in the parking lot...

 

-Going back to the top of the show, the event itself opened with The Uso's squaring off against the non-Bray-members of the Wyatt Family, Eric Rowan and Luke Harper, Tag belts on the line, 2-out-of-3 falls. Now these guys have wrestled a solid programme over the last few weeks and this match was no different. It went about twenty minutes and featured a bunch a cool spots, near falls, and special move kick-outs; WWE's ppv speciality. In the run up to the deciding fall the "This is awesome!" 'chants' started up amongst the crowd, and this is where your loyal writer started to claw at my own shirt like Hulk Hogan in a strip club. Whilst the match was as good any served up by these teams recently, in the echelons of Tag-Team wrestling I would merely file it under 'watchable'. To anyone who grew up watching the likes of The Rockers; The Hart Foundation; The Road Warriors or The Brain Busters; These were teams capable of knocking out matches like this every week. Uso'sVsWyatt's was a great effort, but maybe its a clear indication of how far standards have dropped for your average WWE punter.

Once reserved for the true WrestleMania moments, or once in a lifetime spots, the "This is Awesome" treatment gets wheeled out for any match which builds up a good head of steam at the moment. Bring back the heartfelt ECW hand-clapping please, guys...

 

-The night after Money In the Bank, Triple H, proclaimed that new champion John Cena would have to do things 'the hard way', thus pitching him straight into combat at Battleground against half the line up from the previous night's ladder match - namely - Kane, Randy Orton, and man-of-the-moment, Roman Reigns. (No mention of what Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Cesaro, and Bray Wyatt had done to get themselves excluded from this one.)

It's seemed pretty clear for a few weeks now that the WWE were building towards a Cena/Reigns title match at SummerSlam, and I for one think that Roman's fast track to the main event is going to do him more harm than good. The office have flirted with the idea of giving the golden rub to other performers in recent months (Cesaro and Bray Wyatt to name just two) and maybe they were worried about missing the boat with Reigns. But the jury is still out on whether he can put it together in single's competition. He looked fantastic doing his dropkick-on-the-apron and 'Superman punch' spots alongside the high-flying Rollins and gurning Ambrose; and in gimmick bouts at Money in the Bank and Battleground; but I do worry if it's too much style over substance (even if they have given him some fancy green trim for his outfit). He only need look around the locker room to see a blueprint for how things could turn out for him. I'm looking at you Dolph, Miz, Del Rio and Sheamus...

 

The WWE turned in a real five out of ten event with Battleground (two points especially for the Wyatt's and the Uso's). It was an event when smarter booking could have really given a push to guys in need of a lift. Would it have killed them to have given Bray Wyatt the chance to arrest this slump and get a victory over a future Hall of Famer? For Cesaro to win IC gold in the Battle Royal? For Rowan/Harper to get the Tag straps? Any one of these would have felt like things were moving in the right direction. As it was, decision after decision went against the will of the Tampa crowd, leaving them lifeless by the time the main event came around. Hopefully they can put things right by the time we get to the Staples Centre in four weeks time... 

 

-John Paul Sutherland