WWE Battleground is tonight in Washington D.C. and it is headlined by the long-awaited triple threat match between champion Dean Ambrose and his former Shield brothers Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. The first post-draft PPV also features a showdown pitting longtime rivals Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens against each other. There are also a pair of mouthwatering six-man tag matches: The New Day vs. The Wyatt family, and The Club vs. John Cena, Enzo and Cass.
I’ll keep you in the know with full results, recaps, and YouTube highlights.
WWE Battleground 2016 Live Stream: How To Watch PPV Online
Breezango defeated The Usos by pinfall (Preshow)
This happened.
Sasha Banks and Bayley defeated Charlotte and Dana Brooke by submission
The crowd popped like crazy when Bayley was announced as Sasha Banks mystery partner. In her debut Bayley earned the victory tagging with her former NXT foe. Sasha made Charlotte tap to the Banks Statement after Bayley mitigated pest Dana Brooke outside the ring.
The Wyatt Family defeated The New Day by pinfall
A fun six-man match that focused on Xavier Woods nearly succumbing to Bray Wyatt’s mystical powers, until he was able to regather himself and show an impressive flurry of offense to nearly single-handedly win it for the New Day. Ultimately, Woods’s effort came up short and Bray planted him a Sister Abigail to earn the pinfall win.
Rusev defeated Zack Ryder by submission; retains United States Championship
While Rusev is awesome, this match felt like filler. Rusev won with The Accolade, as expected. Then Mojo Rawley made the save to keep his NXT tag team partner from suffering a post match beatdown. If you don’t know the debuting Mojo Rawley- who was drafted by SmackDown- he’s Rob Gronkowski’s friend whose gimmick is he “stays hyped”. And he is a total buffoon.
Sami Zayn defeated Kevin Owens by pinfall
As is expected whenever these two renew their blood feud, this was the match of the night. Kevin Owens nearly won after pop-up power bombing his sworn enemy, but Zayn just was able to get his foot to the bottom rope a split second before the ref counted 3. Sami Zayn came back to deliver a helluva kick to Owens and then another for good measure to defeat Owens. While WWE has suggested that this is the final chapter of their feud, both Superstars were drafted to Monday Night Raw, so maybe they’ll fight again in the not-so-distant future.
Natalya defeated Becky Lynch by submission
A cool-down match after the insane Zayn vs. Owens match. While both these ladies are talented, the story continues to fail to captivate the audience. A decent match between the two SmackDown draftees is capped off by Natalya making Becky tap to the sharpshooter.
The Miz defeated Darren Young by disqualification(?); The Miz retains the Intercontinental Championship
With Bob Backlund in his corner, the world would find out if the Hall-of-Famer had made Darren Young great again- though it’s unclear when he was great before. After Maryse and The Miz rough up Backlund outside the ring, a pissed-off Young loses it and locks Miz in the Backlund-taught crossface chickenwing. The match then ended though it was entirely unclear whether there was a count-out or a disqualification. Alas, The Miz remains the Intercontinental Champion. The crowd isn’t that into this match either, which is a theme for the lesser matches on this thin card.
John Cena and Enzo & Cass defeated The Club by pinfall
After a firery Enzo & Cass promo, another fun six-man tag team match. Cena connects with the Attitude Adjustment on AJ Styles from the top rope to earn the babyfaces the win.
Randy Orton is interviewed on The Highlight Reel by Chris Jericho
There were some funny parts of this, including Orton referencing Brock Lesnar’s performance enhancement and Jericho’s typical heel shtick (“drink it in, maaaaaan”). After saying the whole time how he would not get RKO’d outta nowhere, of course, the segment ends with Jericho doing just that. While it could have been much worse, it was an unnecessary segment to have on a show that ended at 11:20.
Dean Ambrose defeated Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns (Triple Threat) by pinfall; Dean Ambrose retains the WWE Championship
The moment we all were waiting for. And the match lived up to the hype. A returning-from-suspension Roman Reigns got predictably hostile treatment from the D.C. crowd. After a series of near falls on finishers, it looked like Reigns was going to win it after superman punching and spearing Rollins. But then Ambrose snuck in and landed the Dirty Deeds on Reigns and pinned him to retain the title. This means that the WWE Championship is going with him to SmackDown, and Ambrose rejoiced with SmackDown head honchos Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan after the match.