PPV Review: WWE Battleground 2016 - Dean Ambrose v Roman Reigns v Seth Rollins

It's all been going on in WWE recently, hasn't it? Title matches on TV, the big ol' draft with the brands and what have you, NXT call ups and Zack Ryder ending up with a US title shot for reason that I'm even sure he understands. But were Vince and the boys going to stop there? Hell na, where they! Bring on a PPV, because...PPV. How would the WWE landscape look after Battleground and more importantly, would it be any good? 

Let's get down to business straight away, Dean Ambrose only went and retained his WWE Championship in a triple threat match with Seth Rollins and the returning Roman Reigns. What a moment for Ambrose here, that really solidified his title reign, just five weeks after a Money in the Bank cash-in, as he went over two of the top names in the company, clean. No shenanigans, Ambrose hit Reigns with Dirty Deeds and that was that. Whether it was a huge statement of belief from WWE on "The Lunatic Fringe" as a prolonged headliner or whether it came down to circumstance with the renewed brand-split a few days earlier and wanted to stack Ambrose's Smackdown with legitimacy (think the same reasons John Cena and Randy Orton ended up on the show), I think we'll have to wait a bit longer to find out. However, it does mean that Ambrose should get an opportunity to headline next month's SummerSlam special, which would be a massive moment for Dean, right now. 

The triple threat was an extremely satisfying main event, that worked towards the crowd reaction and played to what the majority of fans wanted to see. I mentioned earlier how the match went with what the audience wanted to see and this was obviously in reference to Ambrose and Rollins teaming up together to take out Reigns. The crowd was so hot for Reigns, that had it gone any other way, then the reaction would have been nowhere near as strong. There was so much to like from the match taking this route, like the sequence with a suicide dive from Ambrose and tope conhilo from Rollins, the old Shield style powerbomb and into Rollins nailing Ambrose with a steel chair invoking images of the groups original break up. Another great sequence of action from Rollins and Ambrose was the icing on the cake. The structure of the match, seemed to be Reigns being put in his place by WWE's chunky cheeses, as even though he clearly wasn't "buried", he definitely wasn't allowed as many moments to shine or "look strong" as he would have been a six months ago.

The contest took a while to find it's rhythm with a few minutes of "one in, one out" stuff, but once the three guys got going and the story of the match began ticking over, with the twists and turns started coming, it built into a hell of a three way. As soon Reigns had hit his Drive-By kick on Rollins, it was time to buckle in, because the match really took off at that point. It built and built and built with extra layers being added, whether that be through sequences of action, something extra for the story or a immense near fall, it had the people hyped until the final moments, especially with Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan out at ringside to lift them when needed. The finish felt like it came a little too soon, maybe because of the way it was put together, with "The Lunatic Fringe" nicking in on Reigns with Dirty Deeds after he'd hit a Superman Punch and Spear on Rollins. It was such a sudden conclusion and I feel like there was a bit more to see here with these guys, so maybe there's a plan for another three way somewhere along the line. 

Before I get into John Cena, Enzo & Cass going over The Club, it'd be almost rude not to talk about Enzo Amore (and to a lesser extent Big Cass) bringing his A-grade promo skills to PPV and whipping the Verizon Center into a complete frenzy. Amore had managed to run down all three members of The Club on this past Monday's RAW and he went topped it here. With a special ability to be funny, but completely serious at the same time, be able to get the audience to laugh with a line about the Scream trilogy one moment and then make them want to see a fight the next moment, Amore makes every second he's one the screen count. Just like their in-ring partnership,  Cass is always there to provide one hefty exclamation point on the whole situation and that's why I'm so happy that the duo weren't broken up last Tuesday! 

Amore would play a major role in the set-up of the match, being part of the hot face shine, that included Cass lobbing both Amore and AJ Styles over the top on the other Club members, before becoming the Certified G in peril. "Jersey's Finest" has really carved out a niche for himself in this position during his time in NXT and now on the main roster, not many can take a beating quite like Enzo. The bruising style of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson played well into this, with there being a strong dynamic between the three, that got the crowd super invested into every hope spot for "Muscles Marinara". I love to see what Enzo & Cass and Gallows & Anderson could do together as a foursome if given the chance on Monday Night RAW. The moment when Amore was able to take out the entire Club on the outside of the ring, only to get nailed by a huge flying knee by Anderson, was worked to perfection by everyone involved and possibly my favourite sequence of the entire night. It did mean however that the actual hot tag, that saw Amore dodge a splash from Gallows, was a little flat by comparison. 

Although I'd have liked to have seen more Cena v Styles one on one, the final third of the match was equally as entertaining as what had came before it, with the tempo being upped and all six guys getting involved, in-side and out-side of the ring. After we'd got passed the shoe-horned stuff involving members of each team accidentally hitting each other, the match erupted with Cena taking a spinebuster from Anderson onto the announce table and Amore nailing "The Machine Gun" with a planted DDT off the step. The booking off the final straight worked for me, with Anderson & Gallows looking dominant against Enzo & Cass, hitting the Magic Killer on "The Big Bambino" before Gallows bested "Smacktalker Skywalker" with a big ol' superkick, there window was left open for a future feud between these teams on Monday nights. The culmination with Cena and Styles battling on the top rope wasn't quite as smooth as it shoulder have been, with "The Phenomenal One" struggling to avoid a Super Attitude Adjustment never seeming to be going in any other direction, but it was definitely a cool way to bring the feud to end, although I can't help feeling that the pair deserve to have one more singles match together.

Sami Zayn defeated Kevin Owens and it was exactly how grudge matches are supposed to be presented in 2016. These lads made you think they hate each other and went at it from the opening bell, with every move being delivered with that extra bit of malice and intent, making for a compelling contest. By the end of the match, you could see what it meant for Zayn to have defeated Owens, like a proper no doubt about it, clean as a whistle win over his friend turned arch nemesis. He showed it in every movement he made during the match, but especially in the closing sequence as he nailed an exploder suplex into the bottom turnbuckle, a half and half suplex and two Helluva Kicks before draping himself over his opponent. After the match he looked liked he'd won a title belt, which considering the pair have cost each other World title shots, the Intercontinental Championship a few times and the Money in the Bank briefcase, felt particularly fitting. A real lesson in making a non-title contest feel as important as any prize in the company (without actually doing any damage to any other trophies, obviously) 

Christ, there was so much I liked about this match, that I'm struggling to formulate a coherent review of it. There were a collection of things that all contributed to the fight being a brilliant experience from beginning to end. Owens being an absolute boss when in control, managing to be annoyingly entertaining, as he trod on Zayn's hand and locked on head locks to spite the live audience. "The Prizefighter" targeting the arm after Zayn appeared to injure it on a botched Arabian Press attempt (that was probably the only foot put wrong in the entire match) in a case of the performers taking a negative and turning it into a positive, with it leading to a nasty looking Crossface "near fall". Then there was stuff like the brainbuster onto the apron by Zayn, Owens hitting a cannonball on Zayn with the later draped upside down in the turnbuckle, a superb sequence with Zayn nailing two half and half suplexes after Owens blocked the Helluva Kick and emotionally fueled slap battle. Then there was the near falls and falsies for Owens, first off a well-timed Frog Splash and a Pop-Up Powerbomb where Zayn got his foot on the ropes, simultaneously popping the people, whilst protecting Owens finish. Yeah, I liked this match, it was entertaining, emotional and clever wrestling. One more match at SummerSlam please? Surely these boys can't be on the same brand and not wanted to rip each others heads off and piss in the hole? I'll leave this here...ladder match, loser leaves RAW...gew on. 

You know how much I lurve a talking segment on a PPV! They are just the best, aren't they? I much prefer talking to wrestling. All those words that people use to convey meaning about things they have done or plan to do in the future. Okay, so Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel with a returning Randy Orton was actually an entertaining talking segment, that managed to tell a cool story and promoted Orton's upcoming match on 21st August with Brock Lesnar. But on PPV? Or Network special? Or whatever we're calling these situations in 2016. Nah, thanks. "The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels has left the building" "I know 1004 holds and wrote them all down" "Say Goodbye to CM Punk" "Rick Rude or Robert Roode or whatever that jabronis name is" all brilliant talking segments (okay, maybe not that last one) for various reasons, but you know one things about them? They didn't happen on PPV. No. Stop it, WWE. This would have been a huge headline segment on tomorrow's RAW, but kind of got lost in the mix on this show. 

That's the rant bit over (for now), let's bring a bit of power of positivity to this hizzouse! Jericho and Orton owned this segment, like the two veteran performers that they are. The whole section was based on the idea that everyone knew how it was going to end, a bit like Romeo and Juliet, I suppose. Randy Orton was never going to leave that ring with nailing "Y2J" with one of those jumping cutters that he's so bloody fond of. This lead to a lot of build up with Jericho antipating the move and constantly calling "The Viper"'s bluff, which meant the spot got much more meaningful pop. Jericho worked his role as host well, finely walking the line between annoying and entertaining, just to the point where you'd quite like to see some lad try to yank his head off a bit. Orton on the other hand was dropping bombshells on Brock Lesnar about taking naughty substances and getting UFC all huffy and kind of also making WWE look a bit shitty for not doing anything about it. It was pretty cheap, but it got the crowd to pop, and will get some coverage, I suppose. Orton's clearly forgetting his two previous wellness policy violations under WWE, but let's brush that under the carpet, eh?

For the second PPV in a row the Women's Champion featured in a tag team match, as Sasha Banks and a debuting Bayley defeated Charlotte and Dana Brooke. It was a feel good moment to see Bayley turn up on a WWE PPV and her entrance got a tremendous reaction at the start of the show, a reaction which probably drove the match, in all honesty. Removed from the hype of Bayley's debut, this was an alright match in-ring. The action was pretty back and forth in the early going, with no one getting too much time in control. The audience was still hot for everything that was going on, as Bayley briefly slotted into a face in peril role, before Banks had a face shine/hot tag situation and Charlotte would take back control. It took a while to find it's grove, but once Brooke had taken advantage of Charlotte distracting Bayley, pulling her off the middle rope and sending her head crashing into the top turnbuckle, everyone found their place in the match and played it up well. 

The closing stages of the match struggled to keep up with the ideas that were involved, with a everything feeling a little rushed and more than a few timing issues. The biggest example of this was Bayley charging in way too early on a Natural Selection false finish, breaking up the pinfall before the referee's hand had even slapped the mat. Obviously, if you break up a cover this early, it stops being a falsie and takes away part of the drama that should have been building in those closing stages. The ending with Brooke interrupting a Banks Statement on Charlotte, only for Banks being able to lock it in again was another piece of action that didn't quite come across as I feel it should have. Brooke pulling Charlotte out of the ring looked rough and lacked the finesse that a major spot should have and I feel it took a little away from the finish. This was a solid tag match, but had the potential to be much better than that.

The Wyatt Family conquered The New Day in a surprisingly compact match, that was put together pleasingly but didn't quite break out into the top speed that I think I was expecting. Whether that's that Braun Strowman isn't as strong a worker as previous Wyatt Family member Luke Harper, or that the match was dampened slightly to allow the other six man tag to take the spotlight, I'm not quite sure. However, what was on display here was a gratifying watch with a handful of distinct elements that kept me interested from start to finish. Stuff like Kofi Kingston taking a beating and Big E going nuts on a hot tag, nailing an overhead Belly to Belly suplex on Erick Rowan, were all well and good, but the thing this match did best was the showdown between Xavier Woods and Bray Wyatt. Every hung on Woods firing up and finally going for Wyatt after being supposedly "under his spell", it could have came off as a bit corny, but the crowd popped big for it and Woods' going for it hammer and tongues produced a cool moment. The finish did feel anti-climactic as Wyatt simply used the spider walk to confuse Woods, a similar ending to their singles match on Smackdown last Tuesday.

Many years from now, wrestling fans will mingle with one another at a show and one will say to the other..."Do you remember when Darren Young got an Intercontinental Championship match on PPV?" the reply will be "No". Literally the only thing that happened before the finish was a fan heckling the phrase "Straight to DVD" at The Miz. I have no notes on anything else, so I have to accept that as gospel. I'm not even sure what happen during the finish, if I'm brutally honest with you. Miz's wife Maryse slapped Young's coach Bob Backlund, so Backlund took a back bump and then struggled to take his shirt off. Something else would probably happen and then Young locked in a Cross-faced Chicken Wing on Miz on the outside and the ref just called for the bell. I don't know. I don't know. Why were Young and Backlund so bloody happy to have not won anything at all? Why any of this? 

In another weird title feud, Rusev defeated Zack Ryder to retain the United States Championship. This match actually came off much better than it's IC counterpart, telling a simple underdog USA story for "The Long Island Iced Z" and keeping things lively with plenty of hope spots for Ryder as Rusev attempted to machka his American arse. The dropkick from Ryder off the barricade was the highlight of the match, being a well thought out spot that gave the pair plenty of time on the outside to re-group before heading for the finish. I was genuinely excited when Ryder hit a Rough Ryder and seemingly had the win, but then he weirdly went for an Elbow Drop instead of going for a pin, which would ultimately be his downfall. A long-ish spell in the Accolade, including a strong moment where it appeared "The Ultimate Broski" may have escaped, would spell the end for ol' Zachary. Oh yeah, Mojo Rawley turned up as well. I tried Mojo, but I couldn't even get hype for you, let alone stay hype, bud. 

Natalya defeating Becky Lynch with the Sharpshooter, probably came out being my sleeper match of the night. It wasn't anything spectacular, but the pair wrestled a solid match, that featured some lovely technical chain wrestling. The section when the pair both went for their respective finishers was super smooth and a real pleasure to watch. The finish was also novel idea, that involved the former Diva's Champion getting behind the referee in the corner, before kicking between his legs towards "The Lass Kickers" knee when the latter approached, in a decent end to the story the pair had told. I'd have liked that story to have kicked in just a little earlier as Natalya took quite a while to formulate a simple game plan of attacking Lynch's leg and with the contest not having a lot of time I'd have preferred to see it get straight into the narrative. Top marks to Lynch for her selling which was consistent throughout, although I think if we'd see Natalya do a bit more damage then it would have warranted the level that Lynch went for. Weirdly, Natalya sold her own leg at the end of match, maybe she just got confused? 

Results 

Tag Team Match: Bayley & Sasha Banks def. Women's Champion Charlotte & Dana Brooke in 7 minutes, 25 seconds.

Six Man Tag Team Match: The Wyatt Family - Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt & Erick Rowan def. Tag Team Champions The New Day - Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods in 8 minutes, 47 seconds 

Singles Match for United States Championship: "The Bulgarian Brute" Rusev (C) (with "The Ravishing Russian" Lana) def. Zack Ryder in 7 minutes, 1 second. 

Singles Match: Sami Zayn def. Kevin Owens in 18 minutes, 22 seconds 

Singles Match: Natalya def. Becky Lynch in 9 minutes, 3 seconds 

Singles Match for Intercontinental Championship: The Miz (C) (with Maryse) v Darren Young (with Bob Backlund) ended in a No Contest after 8 minutes, 41 seconds 

Six Man Tag Team Match: Big Cass, Enzo Amore & John Cena def. The Club - AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson in 14 minutes, 30 seconds 

Triple Threat Match for WWE Championship: Dean Ambrose (C) def. Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in 18 minutes, 3 seconds 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 6.39/10

After a busy week in the WWE, the company produced another good PPV with a strong variety of matches across the card with Battleground. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens stole the show with their passion and hatred fueled epic, but the three way main event also provided enough thrills and spills to end the show on a high and the semi-main with Enzo & Cass teaming with John Cena against The Club was also a high quality outing with some savvy booking. The mid-card held itself up nicely for the most, with a debut for Bayley, another fun six man between The New Day and The Wyatt Family, a forgivable talking segment between Randy Orton and Chris Jericho and a sleeper bout from Becky Lynch and Natalya. 

Had the Darren Young and Bob Backlund fiasco not been on the show, I'm sure we'd be seeing the years highest PPV rating. 

Content by James Marston.

PPV Review: WWE Extreme Rules 2016 - Jericho vs. Ambrose (Asylum), Reigns vs. Styles (Extreme Rules), Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Zayn vs. Miz

On 22nd May 2016, WWE aired Extreme Rules 2016, sponsored by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, live on PPV and the WWE Network, from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, USA. Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose looked to put their feud to bed in the first ever Asylum Match, Roman Reigns put his WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line against AJ Styles in an Extreme Rules match and Kevin Owens, Cesaro and Sami Zayn all had a shot at The Miz's WWE Intercontinental Championship...but was it any good? Let's find out! 

extreme rules 2016 match card

Match 1 – Tornado Tag Team 

The Usos: Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

Match 2 – Singles for WWE United States Championship

“The Bulgarian Brute” Rusev with “The Ravishing Russian” Lana vs. Kalisto ©

Match 3 – Tag Team for WWE Tag Team Championship

The New Day: Big E & Xavier Woods © with Kofi Kingston vs. The Vaudevillains: Aiden English & Simon Gotch

Match 4 – Fatal Four-Way for WWE Intercontinental Championship

Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn vs. The Miz © with Maryse

Match 5 – Asylum

Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose

Match 6 – Submission for WWE Women's Champion

Natalya vs. Charlotte © (If Ric Flair comes to ringside, Charlotte will forfeit WWE Women's Championship)

Match 7 – Extreme Rules for WWE World Heavyweight Championship

AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns ©

Commentary

John “Bradshaw” Layfield, Michael Cole & Byron Saxton

fast-forward... Funky Extreme Rules 2016 hype package, with a focus on there being “No Rules”, whilst looking at a handful of matches on the show's card “Tonight we go extreme”...

gallows and anderson defeat the usos 

The show opened with an enjoyable Tornado tag team bout, that utilised the rules of the bout to create a different feel that suited the feud between the two teams. Before the bell had even been rung I was into the bout as The Usos went straight after Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, as they attempted to get a modicum of revenge on the team that had cost them their place in the WWE Tag Team Championship Tournament a month or so prior. The contest kept up a strong pace, with lots of dives to outside from Jey and Jimmy, whilst Gallows and Anderson brought their powerful, brawling style. I was particularly into the finish where Gallows looked to introduce the ring bell into the match, before a couple of twists and turns allowed the heels to hit their Magic Killer finish and pick up a fairly comprehensive victory. Personally, I'd have liked the bout to go on a little bit longer, but it's clear that WWE was looking to showcase both Gallows and Anderson here, against a recognisable WWE tag team, and this match definitely managed to work towards that aim. Judging by the crowd reaction to them, it's time to freshen up The Usos, perhaps a heel turn or anything that gives them a bit more character development than being "Roman Reigns' cousins" 

rusev defeats kalisto to become wwe united states champion 

I'm not sure I enjoyed this match all that much. I say I'm not sure, because there were parts of it that I thought were really quite cool, but then there were other parts that really ground on me, for just being a bit shit. Obviously, the contest was a Power vs. Speed type affair, so you had Rusev attempting to dominate Kalisto early doors, getting near falls of an elbow drop and a clothesline, before locking a couple of submissions. Bear hug, yeah I'm having some of that, Rusev is a big lad and can squeeze the shit out of Kalisto. Torture Rack, um, nah mate. Whilst The Bulgarian Brute chatting shit whilst having Kalisto in the rack was pretty funny, it just made it harder to buy Kalisto being able to get out of the hold. Kalisto's sleeper hold then looked like a pile of wank stained rags, thus making Rusev look like a burk for having to sell a poorly applied sleeper hold by a smaller man. 

Where the match did work was when Kalisto had the momentum and was scoring a couple of close pinfalls. Rusev provides a solid base for "The King of Flights" aerial offense and he made sure that each of Kalisto's moves looked as good as it possibly could have. With Michael Cole and JBL proclaiming that this was "Fun to watch", the finish of the bout was the most interesting part of the entire contest. Rusev sent Kalisto crashing off the top rope onto the apron, with the commentary team reminding us of the injured back and pentecostal muscles Kalisto had suffered recently, even if the spot itself didn't look all that devastating. The angle with Rusev refusing to let the doctor look as Kalisto and repeatedly attempting to lock in the Accolade, before eventually ignoring the referee and just locking it on was played well and made the Bulgarian Brute look like an utter cumbasket. However, in kayfabe, shouldn't the referee have disqualified Rusev for not letting the ref check over the injured opponent?   

new day defeat the vaudevillains to remain wwe tag team champions 

Despite being disappointingly short, I found a lot to enjoy in this WWE Tag Team Championship bout. Going just over six minutes, the match quickly became a spot-fest, skipping past a brief face-in-peril run from Xavier Woods. One of the best things about The New Day's babyface turn has to be Big E's hot tag, which is always a brilliant watch and Aiden English and Simon Gotch took those bumps like bosses. The finish was done very smoothly, with a number of moving parts, building towards Woods hitting a Shining Wizard for the win, after Big E had nailed his signature spear to the outside and Kofi Kingston taking advantage of a distracted referee with a well-timed Trouble in Paradise. The main talking point heading out of the match has to be having Woods kicks out of the Whirling Dervish, The Vaudevillains finishing move. It allowed for a great near fall, as I don't remember anyone kicking out of the move to this point, but having someone kick out of a teams finish just a few short months after their debut is a rather a strange decision. Perhaps, WWE has a new finish in mind, or perhaps they just wanted to put over the New Day, and especially Woods super strong? Either way, the kick-out added to the match, but could prove to be a mistake over the next few months.

miz defeats cesaro, owens and zayn to remain wwe intercontinental champion 

This was all shades of good. A big fat, bowl of tasty wrestling flakes, covered in sports-entertainment milk (other breakfasts are available). From the opening-bell, I knew that we were in for a treat with this one, as Sami Zayn nailed Kevin Owens with a Helluva Kick. It was a massive surprise, garnering a big pop from the Newark crowd, but made perfect sense. Zayn and Owens have been feuding for some while, and we've seen Zayn's frustrated at not being able to get his revenge for everything Owens has done to him, so why would he take his opportunity to hit him with his finisher from the very beginning! Lovely stuff. The fact that Cesaro then nailed Miz with a running uppercut in the opposite corner, allowing Zayn and Cesaro to go at it for a bit was the icing on the cake.

Fatal Four-Way's can often become fairly systematic, becoming basically a rotating singles match, and whilst there were plenty of opportunities for one on one action throughout the match (Cesaro and Zayn at the start, of course), the match felt like it was really making the most out of having four talents in the ring at the same time. A personal highlight was Owens putting a stop to attempted Tower of Doom spot by the other three men, which got some decent heel heat out of Newark, before Owens himself ended up at the top of a similar spot on the other side of the ring minutes later! A brilliant spot involving Miz going to hit an Exploder Suplex on Zayn, only for Cesaro to hit the WWE Intercontinental Champion with a German Suplex that sent both men flying, also deserves a mention. 

Where the match really took advantage of it's numbers was in it's near falls and false finishes. With a tonne of moments that had the crowd convinced it was over, it was difficult not to get swept up in the action, with Zayn's performance in particular standing out as he fought to get the victory. A wicked sequence of action involving Zayn hitting a Half and Half Suplex on Owens, Cesaro nailing Zayn with a Pop-Up Uppercut, before Miz hit the Skull-Crushing Finale on Cesaro, only for The Swiss Superman to kick out stands out as particularly thrilling string of action, and also gave Cesaro a cushion for when he'd take the pinfall later in the match. Following lots of pinfalls being broken up, the close of the match was again spot-on with Zayn losing his cool with Owens for stoping his pin on Cesaro and Miz taking advantage of Zayn's previous Helluva Kick to Cesaro to pick up the victory. A perfect end for the four characters involved, that gives Zayn and Owens feud some extra fuel (if it needed any) to drive towards the next PPV (and perhaps beyond), whilst strengthening Miz's reign as a heel champion. Also, note the symmetry of having the match begin and end with a Helluva Kick, very nice stuff. 

fast-forward...The Kick-Off Panel of Renee Young, Booker T, Jerry “The King” Lawler & Corey Graves talked about the show so far, including The Miz retaining the WWE Intercontinental Championship, Rusev winning the WWE United States Championship and more...

ambrose defeats jericho 

The debut of the Asylum match...a Steel Cage with various weapons and objects and stuff dangling above it...this match was going to be the shit, right? Right? RIGHT? Umm, well, no. And maybe also yes. I don't know. This match was confusing. I didn't know if I was enjoying it, I didn't know if anyone in the crowd was enjoying it and I don't check Social Media during PPV's so I had no idea if anyone viewing was enjoying it. It was a near half hour of weirdness, taking in a variety of different styles and trying to mash them into one coherent story. 

Let's start with the things I didn't like about this match. It was way, way, way, too long. Over 25 minutes. There was no need for the match to go this long that I can think of. It felt like for a long time that the match didn't progress, the two pulled down a number of weapons and went through the motions with them, but it didn't feel like there was anything that was driving the match. Take away ten minutes and the match actually becomes much more interesting. The pacing would have become tighter and the story would have progressed at a much more satisfying rate. You also wouldn't have had a bored crowd chanting for Seth Rollins! 

I talked about the match trying to mix in a couple of different style above, and the one that I found the most...interesting...was the matches use of comedy. Obviously, Jericho and Ambrose's feud has had a strong comedic streak over the last couple of months, involving talk shows and potted plants, but trying to work that into the match itself proved to be a little difficult and didn't sit well with a match of this length, in my opinion. From the surely unintentionally hilarious "creepy" music that accompanied the cage lowering from the roof, to Ambrose "looking to mop up Jericho here in this match" as Michael Cole described it, followed up by Jericho shouting "You hit me with a mop", "Y2J" pretending that a Kendo Stick was gun on top of the cage and then shouting "You're gonna get it" at the ref for not counting the pinfall and JBL shouting "For the sake of Fozzy, get out of there" when Ambrose introduced the bag of thumbtacks, I got a fair few chuckles out of the match, but those chuckles felt like they were detracting from the match itself and the hatred that was supposedly between the two men. 

Where the match really kicked into gear for me was Ambrose's elbow drop off the top of the cage on Jericho. Following the first big spot of the match things started to get a little more interesting. It wasn't long before the thumbtacks were out and the duo made the most of the fact that this weapon has been seen rarely in WWE over the last few years, by teasing numerous spots before shifting away to something else. After Jericho had patted Ambrose with a Barbed Wire wrapped 2x4, the spot where the thumbtacks got used was very satisfying indeed. Ambrose blocking the Codebreaker before dumping Jericho onto a big pile of tacks. A Dirty Deeds later and the debut of the Asylum match was over. Will we see the match again? Maybe, maybe not. But if it does come back, I hope that it takes the positives mentioned here and empathises them, and shaves at least ten minutes of the length! 

fast-forward...Upcoming WWE Network shows trailer...

charlotte defeats natalya to remain wwe women's champion 

Charlotte and Natalya put on another solid match here, as they have a number of times this year. The two are clearly very talented performers and managed to string together some quality sequences of action, almost on auto-pilot. I couldn't fault the pairs ability Despite that, I couldn't help but feel like the match was missing that special something that could have pushed it to the next level. Perhaps it was an over-reaching narrative or idea to drive the action, as despite there being a couple of story elements involved in the bout, nothing felt like it went anywhere. Charlotte injured her arm was played up for most of the bout, with the Champion selling her arm shoulder well through most of the match, only to forget about it later on and this stands out as a microcosm for the whole match. Lot's of ideas, with very few going anywhere satisfying. 

The Submission part of the match often felt like it was a bit of an after-thought, with the real stipulation of the bout being Ric Flair being unable to appear at ringside with his daughter. This was made completely obvious when Flair's music would hit with Natalya holding Charlotte in the Sharpshooter. Dana Brooke siding with Charlotte was an interesting twist, that I hadn't seen coming, which I suppose is a positive. Charlotte is a strong enough heel that she can use another cheap victory to her advantage but at the same time it means that her feud with Natalya seemingly comes to a rather unsatisfactory conclusion with no one really gaining anything from the two month outing. Side note - Charlotte forgetting to sell her injured arm at the end of the match bugged me a lot! 

reigns defeats styles to remain wwe world heavyweight champion, rollins returns

A world-class main event here, as Roman Reigns and AJ Styles worked hard for each other and the crowd to produce an exciting clash that sprawled around the arena. The first part of the match, with just Styles and Reigns going after each other was great to watch, with the duo heading out into the crowd and making the most of all the areas available to them, including scrapping out by the Kick-Off panels table (which I'm pretty sure has never been done before). A back-body drop from Reigns that sent Styles flying through an adjacent announce table was breath-taking as "The Phenomenal One" was almost sent into orbit by Reigns before crashing back down. Gaining a little of an extra thumbs up from me was Styles beginning to target Reigns' right leg, with the commentary team jumping straight on this by explaining all of Reigns' offense that this would effect, whilst "The Guy" sold the injury well throughout the rest of the match.

The next part of the bout was when Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson arrived to aid Styles, before The Usos were out to help their cousin Reigns. This would produce some brilliantly worked near falls, taking advantage of the number of bodies involved in a similar fashion to that off the Fatal Four-Way earlier in the bout. After both teams had dragged their man into a pinfall, we got my personal favourite moment of the match which was Styles' Styles Clash onto a steel chair, that managed to produce two false finishes that got huge reactions from the Newark crowd. Firstly, the initial cover was stopped when one of the Usos attempted to pull Styles off Reigns, before "The Phenomenal One" went for another cover after kicking Uso away, only for Reigns to kick out at two! 

The finish, for me, didn't quite live up to the rest of the match as after Styles had gone ape-shit with a Steel chair on The Bloodline, Reigns managed to catch Styles in the middle of the Phenomenal Forearm attempt with a Spear for the win. It looked good and would have been a cool way to finish a regular match, but with all the creativity that had gone before, the finish needed to at least match that with a spot that suited the Extreme Rules match-type. However with the pinfall not being the exclamation point on the PPV, maybe it was decided to keep the finish a little more low-key as a way of making the most of the surprise return at the end of the bout? That surprise return was that of Seth Rollins, who has been out injured since last November. The crowd went nuts for Rollins as he nailed Reigns with a pedigree and brought Extreme Rules 2016 to an exciting close. 

finally...

atpw scale rating - 6.42/10

The highest ATPW Scale Rating for a WWE PPV this year. Which is interesting because the overall card probably isn't as strong as the previous PPV, Payback, with a lot of the undercard matches and even the marquee Asylum Match being average (with perhaps the exception of the opening tag bout). The weirdness of the Asylum match definitely dragged the score down and had that match been shuffled around and the time shared between some of the shorter bouts (The tag title match standing out as the most likely candidate) then this show would almost certainly have got an even better rating. 

However, what this PPV had that Payback didn't, was two outstanding, world class matches. The Fatal Four-Way and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match were both superb encounters, that whilst sharing some similarities, were different enough that both provided excellent viewing throughout their screen time. Both matches are worth checking out this PPV for alone and therefore, Extreme Rules was the best PPV of 2016 so far. 

PPV Review: WWE Payback 2016 (Reigns vs. Styles)

On 1st May 2016, WWE aired Payback 2016 live from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, USA on PPV and on the WWE Network. 4 weeks removed from WrestleMania 32 and with 3 weeks until Extreme Rules 2016, Roman Reigns put the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line against AJ Styles, Chris Jericho went one on one with Dean Ambrose and Sami Zayn collided with Kevin Owens...but was it any good? Let's take a look.

payback 2016 match card

Match 1 – WWE Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders Tournament Final – Big Cass & Enzo Amore vs. The Vaudevillains: Aiden English & Simon Gotch

Match 2 – Singles – Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

Match 3 – WWE Intercontinental Championship – The Miz (C) with Maryse vs. Cesaro

Match 4 – Singles – Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose 

Match 5 – WWE Women's Championship – Charlotte © with Ric Flair vs. Natalya with Bret “Hitman” Hart

Match 6 – WWE World Heavyweight Championship No Countout No Disqualification – AJ Styles vs. Roman Reigns ©

Commentary - John “Bradshaw” Layfield, Michael Cole, Byron Saxton & Kevin Owens (Miz vs. Cesaro only)

Sponsors - Tapout (Sports Clothing and Accessories), JC Penney (Mid-Range Department Store), Hulu (Ad-Supported Streaming Service) and Cricket Wireless (pre-paid Wireless Service Provider)


Theme Song - We Don't Have To Dance by Andy Black (Glam Metal)

fast-forward...WWE Tag Team Champion The New Day kicked off the show, with a brief promo about Beyonce and DMs...The shows hype package aired with a focus on this being the first show of a "New Era"...

cass and amore vs. the vaudevillains ended in a no contest

Ah man, poor Enzo Amore. Arguably the biggest match in the career of all four of these guys and after a promising opening it get's cut short by a nasty looking injury. Having never wrestled, it's difficult to say what exactly went wrong when Simon Gotch of The Vaudevillains went to through Amore to the outside, but to me it seemed like a simple miscalculation by both men, that resulted in Amore hitting his head off both the second and third ropes and then the canvas before rolling to the outside. It would later be revealed that Amore had suffered a concussion, so hopefully he'll be back in the ring sooner rather than later and we'll get a satisfying conclusion to WWE's Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's tournament. 

owens defeats zayn

They've wrestled each other in WWE NXT, WWE house shows, PWG, ROH, CZW, IWS and more, they've took their rivalry across the USA, Canada, England, Italy, UAE and Belgium, but this was arguably the biggest chapter in the on-going saga that is Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn. And boy did these two bring it on the big stage. From the hype package onwards it was clear to anyone that this was two characters with major beef and with that package filling in a little of the extra details on the background, Owens and Zayn set about producing a satisfying collision. It can be very difficult to get across the hatred between two characters within the confines of a normal one on one contest and many matches have ended up falling flat because of this, but from the opening exchange it was clear that the pair would be just fine.

With a captive audience, Owens and Zayn went about creating a great match, that played to both the performers and characters strengths. The bigger Owens controlled the pace of the bout well, taking time to interact with the crowd and whip them into a frenzy, whilst The Underdog from the Underground's offence came in fits and bursts as he scraped and clawed to try beat his most-storied rival. There was a brilliant sequences in the second half of the bout that started with Owens hitting two cannonballs in the corner and concluded with The Prizefighter dodging a Helluva Kick by nailing a big lariat, with lots of twists and turns in between. The action was crisp and smooth throughout the whole bout, it was clear that these two have almost 13 years of in-ring history, with a lot of the match seemingly happening on instinct.

The clash was built nicely around Owens attempting to hit the Pop-Up Powerbomb with the former ROH World Champion almost executing the move on various occasions, meaning that when he finally did hit the move it was a satisfying conclusion to the contest. Having Owens win the bout completely clean was the most interesting development here, I've been saying for a while I've got a feeling that he'll be turning face sooner rather than later, but it has to be said that the finish kind of cut the legs from underneath the enjoyable feud with Zayn. A post-match interview with Byron Saxton seemingly shifted Owens onto a new-path almost instantly, as he declared his interest in earning back the WWE Intercontinental Championship and joined the commentary team for the next match.

fast-forward...Promo package for upcoming WWE Network shows, including Camp WWE, The Edge and Christian Show that Totally Reeks of Awesomeness, Swerved, Holy Foley, The Stone Cold Podcast, Extreme Rules 2016, Money in the Bank 2016...

miz defeats cesaro to retain wwe intercontinental championship

This cat and mouse bout kept the Rosemont crowd as energetic as ever, as Cesaro and The Miz fit a lot of narrative elements into just over ten minutes of action. The match featured Cesaro strongly, showcasing his explosive power with The Miz playing his chickenshit heel role very well as he was helped by his wife and manager Maryse at various points throughout the bout, whilst also focusing on The Swiss Superman's taped up shoulder. The clash flowed well, with a number of big moments being placed along the story, like Cesaro powering out of a headlock with a beautiful deadlift verticle suplex and a well-timed false finish that saw Cesaro run shoulder first into the ringpost and Miz hit a Skull-Crushing Finale only to get a two. 

The end of the fight was a little bit scrappy, with Sami Zayn returning to fight with guest commentator Kevin Owens, which would eventually cause the distraction that saw Miz steal a school-boy roll-up victory, moments after the referee had missed Miz tapping to a Crossface. Things felt a little directionless here, with that a little to do with Owens having already beaten Zayn clean twenty minutes earlier, with a feeling of WWE creative throwing as much shit at the wall as they could and hoping that something would stick. This was seen most clearly in the brawl between all four men, which would once again see Owens standing tall after taking out both Cesaro and Zayn. Whilst still very watchable, I felt like the closing stretch of the encounter could have been much more satisfying with the two performers still to fully explore Cesaro's injured shoulder. 

ambrose defeats jericho

This was the weakest of the three marquee matches on the show in my opinion. That isn't to say that Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose was a bad match, because it wasn't, but I felt that the elements of this bout that were done well, were done better by either Zayn vs. Owens earlier on or Styles vs. Reigns later on. The pair looked a little bit awkward with each other at times and that lead to clunky sequences, with Jericho's reversal of an Bret's Rope elbow drop from Ambrose into a Walls of Jericho standing out as a particular dodgy sequence. Ambrose blocking a Codebreaker and falling back to hit a Wacky Line with Y2J just standing about waiting to get hit also lacked the slickness that might have made it work. 

Although I've started off with a fairly negative paragraph, this certainly wasn't a bad match, far from it. The pair worked a number of big spots that suited their chat show based feud, like their battle on the announce table that mirrored their clash a few weeks earlier on Monday Night RAW and Ambrose's long spell in the Walls of Jericho that would eventually lead to a lovely false finish with a small package. I thought that Jericho's character work was the strongest element of the contest, as he's slotted into a grumpy veteran role, arguing with the referee to help take control and spending large amounts of the contest employing a more ground and pound type offence than he's used in the past. 

The finish was a little different from what we're used to in WWE, as Ambrose blocked a Lionsault with his knees before managing to roll through and, after a lengthy struggle, hit Dirty Deeds to pick up a pinfall win. I thought Jericho really fighting to try to escape the move was a nice twist, as it not only put over Jericho's fear of the move, but also the strength of Ambrose for managing to hold on and hit the move. This is arguably the biggest win of Ambrose's career so far and puts him in a strong position as we head towards the summer. Quick shout-out to Jericho hitting a Double Underhook Backbreaker in this match, which was formerly used by CM Punk, under the name Welcome to Chicago!

charlotte "defeats" natalya to retains wwe women's championship 

A hit and miss kind of effort here from Charlotte and Natalya, as elements of their encounter worked really well, but unfortunately there was a couple of moments of clunkiness that creep into the clash. The overall storyline of the bout was probably the strongest part of the whole affair as Natalya started off going for the Sharpshooter, before Charlotte would begin to dominate the match with a focus on her opponent's legs. The idea of the WWE Women's Champions frustration at not being able to put Natalya away would creep into the final third of the match, which Charlotte handled well. The bout was let down a little with a couple of spots that were good ideas, but failed to be fully realised in their execution, like the spot on the outside where Natalya would rana Charlotte into the steel steps for example.

I have to admit that the finish resulted in me letting out an audience "Uh". Almost twenty years after the Montreal Screwjob and we're still bringing it up in angle? I get that Bret "The Hitman" Hart was back in the company and he was always going to be involved in the finish of the match in one form of another, but this? Referee Charles Robinson calling for the bell with Charlotte holding Natalya in the sharpshooter was a fairly unimaginative finish that left a sour taste in the match. It was a shame that having attempted to shift the focus back onto Women, rather than Divas, that the defining moment here was focused on the involvement of the competitors older male relatives.

vince mcmahon puts shane mcmahon and stephanie mcmahon in control of monday night raw

This would have been a good segment on Monday Night RAW, it would have been a great segment had it been ten minutes or so shorter, but it really had no place on PPV. There were parts of the segment that were indeed pretty entertaining with all three McMahon's putting on good character based performances, that seemed to work particularly well for the live crowd inside the Allstate Arena. Vince allowed the crowd to get "CM Punk" chants out of their system, showing that he really wasn't that bothered by it all, before helping his daughter get even more heat than she was already getting from her stellar performance. Shane had a pretty easy job as the protagonist, coming in last after Vince and Stephanie had already set him up with open goal. Shane repeating his gladiator style pandering to the crowd, by getting them to cheer when he pointed at himself and boo when he pointed as Stephanie was fun the first time round, but already tired by this point.

I think the biggest problem with this segment was the outcome. Having Vince decide that both Shane and Stephanie should be in control of Monday Night RAW wasn't a big enough decision that it earned it's place on PPV and needed a near twenty minute preamble. It didn't get me excited about the upcoming months at all, with the idea that Shane and Stephanie's antics will probably dominate television looming large in my mind. I know many were expecting a brand split (which is weird because I remember a lot of people looking forward to end of the brand split), and I was kind of expecting to see a major swerve and have a completely new authority figure appointed, but unfortunately this moment just couldn't live up to the expectations that WWE had created by placing it on a major show. 

fast-forward...The Kick-Off Panel Renee Young, Booker T, Jerry “The King” Lawler and Corey Graves chat about what we've seen so far tonight...Highlights of Kalisto retaining the WWE United States Championship over Ryback from Payback Kick-Off 2016...Hype package for Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles later on...News on Enzo Amore's injury given by Cole...

styles defeats reigns by countout with reigns retaining wwe world heavyweight championship...shane re-starts the match with no countouts...styles defeats reigns by disqualification with reigns retaining wwe world heavyweight championship...stephanie restarts the match with no disqualification...reigns defeats styles to retain wwe world heayvweight championship

If you ever wondered whether AJ Styles could hang in a WWE main event, then this match surely answered that question as Styles put in a terrific performance opposite WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns. The two men slotted together extremely well to make the wrestling portion of the match a pleasure to watch, pulling together a number of component to create a rich encounter. Styles was presented as the "veteran" of the bout, with the commentary team emphasing this throughout much of the earlier part of the bout, with the exclamation point coming with Styles leading Reigns in a chase around the ring before rolling inside to take control. Reigns' power was also a focus, presenting an interesting audio-visual combination as the majority of the crowd was in opposition to the current champ. 

The sports-entertainment elements of the bout drove the narrative, as we saw Styles win the match twice. Firstly, Styles won via countout after hitting a Phenomenal Forearm that sent Reigns through the announce table, with Shane McMahon heading out to restart the match with No Coutouts, before The Phenomenal One picked up the win again, this time by disqualification after Reigns inadvertently hit his challenger low after Styles came off the top rope with Stephanie McMahon out to restart the match this time. It was a fairly obvious way to get across the relationship between Shane and Stephanie being in joint control, whilst also allowing Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows to get involved in the action without causing a DQ. Not the most original piece of booking, it did manage to do a number of jobs at the same time.

The final portion of the clash coming after Stephanie McMahon coming out, was definitely the best part of the match. There was a lot going on with Gallows and Anderson coming out to attack Reigns, The Usos coming out to help their cousin, lots of sweet near falls, brawling around the outside and into the crowd, which built nicely to an exciting conclusion to the action. The finish that saw Styles dodge a Superman Punch from Reigns, before Reigns ducked a Phenomenal Forearm attempt and nailed his challenger with a Spear to pick up the victory and finally retain his championship. Taking in a lot of different styles and having a strong variety of action, Reigns and Styles produced a brilliant WWE main event, that set WWE on right path heading out of WrestleMania 32.

fast-forward...The show closed with Mr. McMahon encouraging Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon to book a rematch between AJ Styles and Roman Reigns for Extreme Rules in three weeks time...

finally...

atpw scale rating - 6.42/10

For me, this was WWE's best PPV offering of the year, so far, just about edging out January's Royal Rumble event. The three marquee bouts all delivered to some degree and whilst Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose wasn't quite the match that it should have been, we still got a world class main event between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles with plenty of quality action and sports-entertainment tomfoolery, whilst Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn bought their war to it's highest point so far. Cesaro and The Miz's WWE Intercontinental Championship bout was the highlight of an undercard that was let down by a couple of bizarre booking decisions. Had it not been for the unfortunate injury to Enzo Amore cutting the opening match short, I'd expect that this show would have gotten a much stronger rating, as well!

WWE made a real statement with this PPV, in terms of it's post-WrestleMania 32 direction, we'll have to see if they can continue their strong form in three weeks' time in Newark, New Jersey for Extreme Rules 2016.