KELLER’S WWE BATTLEGROUND PPV REPORT
JULY 20, 2014
AIRED LIVE ON WWE NETWORK & PPV

-After some in-arena pyro, Michael Cole, JBL, and Jerry Lawler introduced the show.

1 - THE USOS vs. ROWAN & HARPER - WWE Tag Team Title match

Early on the announcers debated whether the best of three falls format benefited one of the teams. Harper pinned an Uso in the first fall. Cole said that took all the wind out of the sails of the Usos. Lawler said it’d be a miracle of the Usos could win one fall now. JBL predicted a tag team title change. Rowan tagged in the second fall and continued on offense. When JBL said Rowan and Harper were in control, Cole asked, “Do you think they’re aware they are?” The Usos tied things up after a short second fall.

Rowan tossed Jey Uso with a fallaway slam. More announcer predictions of a heel tag team win, and JBL practically writing their eulogy at the start of the third fall. This heavy-handed transparent reverse psychology gives away way too many finishes and underestimates much of the WWE audience’s ability to see this formula for what it is. Jey knocked both heels down and out of the ring, which led to a hot tag for Jimmy. Jimmy dove over the top rope onto Harper. He then sidestepped a charging Rowan who fell to the floor; then he dove onto him, too. Jimmy ran along the ringside barrier’s top edge and dove onto Harper, and then body-pressed him off the top rope in the ring.

Jimmy continued to dominate, landing an enzuigiri on Harper mid-ring. Then he butt-splashed him in the corner. Harper immediately recovered and charged into Jimmy. When he went for a powerbomb, Jimmy escaped and hit a flip dive off the top rope onto Harper. Good series, although Harper’s sudden 100 percent comeback after some big moves and big selling seemed a little unrealistic. Harper sent Jimmy to ringside with a running boot to the face. The Usos came back with some clever double-team moves, but Harper hit a sudden powerbomb for a believable near fall. The crowd popped. Cole said, “What a match!” An obligatory “This is awesome!” chant broke out.

Rowan tagged in and climbed to the top rope. Cole said, ‘You gotta me kidding me!” Jimmy avoided his top rope splash. Harper climbed to the top rope, but Jimmy knocked him off balance. Jimmy hot-tagged Jey who top rope splashed Rowan for a near fall. Unfortunately, the kickout was given away by Cole’s heavy-handed, “He’s got him! He’s got him!” during the ref’s count. Another “This is awesome!” chant broke out. Jimmy climbed to the top. Harper from ringside pulled on his boot, giving Rowan a chance to get up and punch away at Jimmy. When Jey climbed to help Jimmy, Rowan knocked their heads together. He then superplexed both of them. Rowan scored a near fall.

Harper nailed Jimmy with a nasty looking clothesline and scored a believable near pin, broken up by Jey. Great crowd heat continued. Jimmy side-kicked Harper, tagged in Jey, they both side-kicked Harper, then the knocked Rowan off the ring apron. Then the Usos both leaped off the top rope together and landed on Harper for the win.

WINNERS: The Usos to retain the WWE Tag Team Titles at 18:57. (***3/4)

(WK Reax: Very good tag match with great crowd heat that built the longer the match went. The finishing sequences and the near falls were all executed very well. Just good chemistry and tremendous effort and execution. As always with two-out-of-three falls matches, the early pitfalls felt “premature” but overall hard to argue with the crowd heat for the final few minutes.)

-After a video package on the Seth Rollins-Dean Ambrose feud, Tom Phillips interviewed Rollins backstage. He said since he has dismantled the Shield, Ambrose has been like a cockroach skittering around and he’s been trying to squash him, but he keeps getting away. He tonight he’ll squish him once and for all. Rollins said Ambrose knows what he is capable of and tonight he’ll get all he bargained for out of me. Ambrose eventually barged in and attacked Rollins. He pulled off by various producers in suits. Triple H eventually ordered Ambrose led away and shouted, “You’re not going to screw this up!”

-They went to the announcers who wondered if Triple H just kicked Ambrose out of the arena. Cole said Ambrose has been waiting weeks and weeks for this match. JBL said it’s Ambrose’s match if this match doesn’t take place because he couldn’t wait a few more minutes. Lawler said Triple H is overreacting. JBL said Ambrose is a lunatic out of control.

-A video package aired on the A.J. Lee-Paige saga.

2 - PAIGE vs. A.J. LEE - Divas Title match

Paige smiled and applauded Lee as she came to the ring, with that gooey phony friendliness she’s pretending to have toward Lee. Cole shifted into a plug for WWE Network. I can’t imagine the PPV carriers of this PPV on cable and satellite are thrilled, although they pushed the archives more than the bargain price for live PPVs that come with it. Lawler said when he sees “BFF,” at his age it usually means “Best Friend Fallen.” Somehow the announcers turned that into a joke at Jim Ross’s expense and a Montreal reference. I have no idea why or how that connects. The women countered each other’s finishers. Paige was despondent after Lee kicked out of the Paige turner. She then went to the PTO, but Lee countered with a roll-up. Paige rolled through. Lee then hit the Shining Wizard for the pin.

WINNER: Lee at 7:13 to retain the Divas Championship. (*3/4)

(WK Reax: Good content here, but it lacked flow. There were some spots nicely while making things look like they were fighting.)

-Backstage Randy Orton asked Kane to apologize for punching him the face. Kane said, “Being the Devil’s favorite demon means never having to say you’re sorry.” Orton said they’re not each other’s enemies; their enemies are Reigns and John Cena. Kane assured Orton that the winner of the Fatal Four-way “is standing right here.” Orton, of course, didn’t know quite how to take that.

-They went to the panel in the arena where Renee Young, Christian, Alex Riley, and Booker T discussed the show so far and what was still to come. Christian said a true champion hates to lose more than he loves to win, and that’s the case with Cena. But he picked Reigns, “the man with all the momentum.” Booker accused Orton of politicking like he was in D.C., but he picked him to win. Young threw to a clip of the debate with Rusev and Zeb Coulter earlier.

-Lana accused Americans of having a propaganda machine. She said they shouldn’t blame Russia for “recent events” because it’s their war-mongering that is to blame. “You Americans should be assaulted/insulted and afraid. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You always jam your Western civilization and your so-called democracy down everybody’s throats. You Americans are leaderless. We call your President a wuss unlike our true leader, Vladimir Putin.” Well, that shows that WWE is not pulling back at all on Putin despite the possible involvement of Russia in the airline being bombed and nearly 300 civilians dead. Lana said Putin will crush Americans and Rusev will crush Jack Swagger.

3 — JACK SWAGGER (w/Zeb Coulter) vs. RUSEV (w/Lana)

Swagger knocked Rusev out of the ring after he went after Zeb before the bell. A “Let’s Go Swagger” chant rang out as the bell rang to start the match. Swagger led the crowd in a “We the People!” Swagger had a great look of Patriotic determination on his face. He went for an early Patriot Lock, but Rusev bailed out. Lana yelled at Rusev for his lack of effectiveness early. Swagger dominated the opening minutes. Rusev finally took control and settled into a long nerve hold on Swagger’s shoulder/neck area. (Maybe Vince McMahon was checking Twitter to see how much outrage there was over Lana’s promo to see whether he should go with Swagger over Rusev to try to quell outrage or just put more momentum behind Rusev. Yeah, as if Vince would care what Twitter opinions were.)

Swagger made a comeback and landed a corner swing splash for a near fall. He powerslammed Rusev next in a nice display of power for another two count. A “USA” chant rang out as Rusev took back control. He stomped the mat bare-footed and then side-kicked toward Swagger, but Swagger caught his foot and applied the Patriot Lock. Rusev yelled out in agony and shook his head “no” as the ref asked if he gave up. Rusev crawled toward the bottom rope, but Swagger yanked him back to the middle. Rusev teased tapping out, but then lunged to the bottom rope and forced the break. Rusev rolled to the floor and limped back to Lana for support. Swagger hit his leg from behind and then applied the Patriot Lock at ringside. Rusev tried to crawl away, but Swagger held on. Rusev yanked his legs and sent Swagger head-first into the ringpost. Rusev rolled into the ring just to beat the ref’s ten count.

WINNER: Rusev via countout at 9:54.

(WK Reax: The match wasn’t structured to be a classic, but it told a story effectively. I’m not surprised they resorted to a soft finish. It would have been inflammatory and made Lana’s comments worse if they jobbed out Swagger to keep Rusev strong. So they went to the rare countout finish to “protect” Swagger and they gave Rusev a little extra heat afterward. The whole thing, though, just felt like it brought everyone back to real world events that people tune into WWE to escape.)

-A medic came down to check on Swagger afterward. Rusev threw Swagger back into the ring. Cole was outraged. Rusev put Swagger into his Accolade mid-ring as several refs tried to get him to let go. Rusev released it on his own after a few seconds, continued to sell an injured ankle, and then raised his arms in front of the Russian flag.

-A backstage segment aired with Goldust and Stardust. Usual stuff we’ve been seeing with them.

4 — SETH ROLLINS vs. DEAN AMBROSE

Rollins came out to insist the ring announcer proclaim himself the winner of the match against Dean Ambrose by forteit. Lawler asked how Ambrose could be considered to have forfeited when Triple H threw him out of the building.

Ambrose then arrived in a fury and attacked Rollins. Ambrose aggressively beat up Rollins at ringside and near the Spanish announce table. Security came out and did their thing, pulling Ambrose away only to have Ambrose break free. Triple H showed up and pulled Ambrose away. He was furious with the whole situation. Rollins then jumped Ambrose as Ambrose was being carried away by security. Hunter eventually helped Rollins scurry away and Ambrose was forcefully escorted out by security.

WINNER: Rollins via forfeit.

(WK Reax: They weren’t ready to do a “finish” between these two, and they felt - perhaps justifiably - that the intensity of the rivalry at this point would make a straight-up match feel almost too formal. Still for those who tuned in to see a full-fledged match, this probably feels like they were shorted.)

5 — CHRIS JERICHO vs. BRAY WYATT

After a few minutes of action, the ref ordered Rowan and Harper to leave ringside due to interfering too often. Bray looked bug-eyed at the loss of his troops. He charged at Jericho and knocked a distracted Jericho off the ring apron. Bray took over offense and methodically beat on Jericho. Jericho side-stepped a charging Bray who went shoulder-first into the ringpost. Jericho side-stepped Bray one sequence later and then dropped Bray with an enzuigiri leading to a two count. Bray countered a Lionsault and then went into his crab crawl. Bray then one-arm slammed Jericho for a two count. The crowd wasn’t buying the near falls as possible finishes yet. Bray continued on offense for a few minutes, including slamming Jericho on the edge of the ring apron and scoring a two count back in the ring. Jericho hit a Code Breaker out of nowhere for the sudden and surprising clean win.

WINNER: Jericho at 15:03. (**1/4)

(WK Reax: I wouldn’t say that is a sign of any loss in belief in Bray long-term, but more of a sense that they needed to give Jericho a big win to set up the Wyatt’s getting their heat back on Jericho big-time to take the feud to the next level. I cannot imagine WWE moving on with a part-time aging-out Legacy star proving to be clearly the better wrestler of the two in a one-and-one feud. As for the match, just average. Both guys seemed a little sluggish.)

-Backstage Seth Rollins was shown walking out of the building rolling his luggage. It was a strange scene because there was no reason to show it unless they somehow knew something was going to happen. So in other words it was very phony and cheesy. Seth told two security guys he didn’t need any help and he told them to leave, but then he acted all paranoid like he had an eerie feeling Ambrose was lurking around a corner. Ambrose then came out from a trunk in the parking lot and went after Rollins. Seth escaped into his car and sped off after a few seconds.

(WK Reax: Segments produced in such a cheesy fashion as that can even hurt the characters involved. It’s just low-IQ lazy production, but at least we didn’t get a POV camera angle in this one.)

6 — BATTLE ROYAL FOR INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE

All of the ring entrances took place. No Rob Van Dam. Then Bad News Barrett walked out and took some digs at old people retiring and thinking they’ll enjoy the new lifestyle, but in reality it’s just a countdown to death. Nice. He said the same is true for the IC Title battle royal winner - it’s just a matter of time before he takes it back and they meet their demise.

Typical series of lots of relatively random battle royal spots. Bo celebrated when he got an elimination. Kofi and Cesaro were isolated i a battle. Kofi tried to sunset flip Cesaro off the ring apron, but Cesaro held on. Cesaro yanked Kofi his by hair in a really heelish move, then headbutted him. Neither were eliminated and they both took a rest in the corner as Ziggler andf Del Rio battled. The number of people just sitting and looking like they were having rough bowel movements was a little much to take throughout.

Big E caught Kofi on his shoulders at ringside to help him avoid elimination. Cesaro went after Kofi and tried to suplex him back into the ring. Kofi landed in the ring, then charged to knock Cesaro off the apron. Cesaro caught him with a kick. He then finally backdropped Kofi over the top rope. Health Slater then eliminated Cesaro in a pretty big surprise. As Slater celebrated, Sheamus attacked him and kicked him off the ring apron to the floor. Bo went after Sheamus next. Sheamus pounded his chest with forearms. Ziggler then kicked Bo to the floor, although he was aiming for Sheamus. So it came down to Sheamus and Ziggler. Cole said this could lead to the U.S. and IC titles being unified once again.

When Sheamus lifted Ziggler. Ziggler tried to punch out of it. Ziggler fell backward and Sheamus nearly sat on him in a botched spot that could have turned out worse. The announcers sounded concerned at first. Sheamus launched Ziggler over the top rope. Ziggler held onto the ropes and avoided hitting the ground. More spots on or near the ring apron. Ziggler kicked Sheamus off the apron, but then Miz showed up out of nowhere to win. Cole said he was never eliminated. That quickly cut off the crowd pop for Ziggler’s win. JBL said he knew Miz was going to pull it off and he just didn’t want to spoil it. On replay, they showed that Sheamus’s foot actually touched on the spot before he was kicked by Ziggler and clearly landed on the floor. Either way, it didn’t change the outcome. A dejected Ziggler sat at ringside and watched Miz celebrate. Cole said it doesn’t matter how you win, it just matters that you win. Cole seemed to defend Miz’s strategy, but then seconds later was outraged that JBL was praising him.

WINNER: The Miz at 14:05 to win the IC Title.

(WK Reax: Seems to me to be a set-up for Barrett to return as a babyface to end the insufferable reign of The Miz. I’m not a fan of a heel being able to totally make a mockery of the rules and usurp any credibility the winner of this type of match has. Cole should have been even harder on it because it does undercut any credibility the title has, and it makes WWE look ridiculous for having a battle royal without a count out. I know this has been done a long time, but it’s time to change the rule so they don’t all look like buffoons. I’ve been seeing this gimmick since Bobby Heenan tried it back in the early 1980s.)

-The announcers pushed the WWE Network and then threw to a Summerslam preview video.

7 - JOHN CENA vs. ROMAN REIGNS vs. KANE vs. RANDY ORTON - WWE World Hvt. Title match

At 5:00 Cena went into the You Can’t See Me routine on Orton, but Orton pulled himself over the top rope to the floor to escape the AA. Back in the ring it looked like it was going to be Cena vs. Reigns. Cena relished the moment, but the heels barged in and broke it up. Why did they do that? They shoulda just sat back and watched. A couple minutes later Orton ended up a victim of a triple superplex. Not the crowd pop you’d expect for that spot. Reigns and Cena then teased facing off again, but then Kane sat up. Reigns and Cena turned attention to Kane. Kane scored a near fall, broken up by Orton. The announcers gasped at that.

After some rapid-fire action including a double submission scene mid-ring, Cena put Orton in the STF mid-ring once Reigns and Kane were knocked to ringside. Orton crawled toward the bottom rope. Cena yanked him back to the middle and re-applied the STF (as badly as ever - this is just inexcusable). Reigns grabbed Orton’s arm and threw him to ringside and over the announce table. Reigns then leaped back into the ring for a face-off with Cena. They exchanged punches. Reigns collided with Cena mid-ring, then clotheslined him in the corner. Cena ducked a short-arm clothesline, but Reigns gave Cena a Samoan drop. Reigns got a mix of cheers, boos, and indifference. This is not the reaction WWE is aiming for. Cena ducked a Superman punch and then went into the You Can’t See Me routine. Reigns cut it off with a Superman punch that landed. When Reigns covered Cena, Kane interfered. Cena lifted his head and watched Kane the whole way.

Reigns speared Orton at ringside through the barricade in the timekeepers area. And by timekeeper, I mean bell ringer. A “This is awesome” chant broke out briefly. Back in the ring, Reigns leaned in the corner. Cole said he could be honing in the World Title. Kane went for a clothesline, but Reigns blocked it and landed a spear. Cena broke up the pin attempt. Cena went for a pin on Kane, but Reigns broke it up. Cena gave Kane the AA, but Reigns broke it up. Reigns went for the cover, but Cena broke it up. The announcers called this incredible and nail-biting. It wasn’t quite as executing or thrilling as the announcers tried to sell it.

Cena gave Reigns his AA, but Kane broke up the pin. Reigns kicked out after a Kane chokeslam. They went into another rapid-fire sequence with Reigns blocking a Kane tombstone and landing a spear, Orton running in and delivering an RKO, and then Cena giving Orton an AA onto Kane and then scoring the pin on Kane to retain the title. They closed the PPV with a close-up of Reigns sitting at ringside reacting in disappointment. Cole pushed an exclusive post-show interview with Cena on WWE Network.

WINNER: Cena at 18:16 to retain the WWE World Championship. (***)

(WK Reax: Okay main event. WWE didn’t get the reactions they were aiming for when it came to Reigns, I suspect. The crowd was more into the Usos than Reigns. Maybe it was just a long night or the Lana promo brought them back to reality and they lost focus. Who knows? Again, an okay main event that had bright spots but also felt a bit orchestrated with the multi-man spots.)

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