Seth Rollins opens the show and I REALLY thought we'd see Brock Lesnar return here. Rollins went on and on bragging about his win. He pulled out a list of people to thank and the only name on there was his so he thanked himself over & over. It was good stuff, I was just waiting for someone to come out. As said before, I firmly expected Brock, instead we got Dean Ambrose who is a suffice choice. I've not been all too hype on the Ambrose/Rollins feud recently, but this got me pumped as they brawled around the ring. Ambrose cuts an intense promo and begins a sit in as we head to commercial.
During the commercial, I discovered PWG making announcements for Threemendous IV and BOLA that blew my mind so my recap of the next few minutes may be a little blurred.
Sheamus comes out to confront Ambrose as we return from commercial and that sets up a match between the MITB winner and Dean Ambrose.
1) Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose
Sheamus has had bad luck the last few weeks by being placed in matches with Randy Orton that are pretty much destined to fail at this point. This week, he gets something to sink his teeth into and it was great. Ambrose was equally as intense as Sheamus here and the result was an awesome little smash mouth brawl. Sheamus targets the leg and works Dean over. This sets up the fiery babyface comeback and the crowd is hot! Just as things were picking up, Sheamus tries to leave and is confronted by Randy Orton. Ambrose takes advantage of this and attacks Sheamus then rolls him back in the ring. Ambrose gets the pin with a quick school boy. This was good while it lasted.
Match rating - **3/4
2) R-Truth vs. Bad News Barrett
Should I call him Wade, King, or Bad News? He's got a total of three first names, these days. Any way, this was annoying. Truth pins Barrett just like he did on the pre-show of the PPV the night before. Man, King of the Ring means so much these days. They should have just given it to Neville at this rate. At least he's delivering enjoyable matches and not losing to R-Truth night after night. I feel bad for Barrett.
2) Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler
Kev delivers another quality pre-match promo then puts out an open challenge and it's answered by The Show Off. Nice dodgy move by Kev by pointing out that he didn't say it was a title match despite Ziggler thinking it was. Thankfully the match still goes down. Ziggler charges Owens as the bell rings. I won't even go into play by play or details, I'll just say this was great as I'm sure you expected from these two. They hit some awesome counters including Kevin going for the cannonball only for Ziggler to superkick him and Owens going for the pop up powerbomb and DZ doing a leapfrog. You would've thought these two had faced each other before, everything just clicked so well here. I really want a program between these two after this because with no storyline or anything, they killed it. Imagine what they could do with some backstory behind all this action!
Match rating - ***3/4
3) Randy Orton vs. Kane
This match may be overdone however it's certainly better than Orton/Sheamus even though this was essentially just to "ignite" their feud. Orton & Kane don't go at it too long before Sheamus trots down to the ring for a little scuffle with Randy. I'll give him & Orton credit though, as much as I dislike their matches together, they delivered a good brawl here.
4) Paige vs. The Bellas
So they've been going with this story of Paige against The Bellas with no one helping her. As usual, it's been effortless booking with no pay off in the Divas divison for the past few months so I really could care less about this match. Regardless of that though, this was very well executed, in my opinion. No awkward sequences. It wasn't dull. All in all, it was solid. As weird as it sounds, I honestly think it was the best Divas match since Nikki/Paige from early in the year on Raw. That isn't really saying much, but on the Divas scale, a match that isn't a boring trainwreck deserves credit so thats what I'm giving it. Well executed, but not worth going out of your way to see by any means at all.
Match rating - **1/2
Roman Reigns questions Bray Wyatt
Sigh. Do I even need to go in depth on this? It's the same thing as every Bray Wyatt feud since last summer. Random attack with no reason or motive behind it. This was so effortlessly put together like usual and I feel bad for both men involved because they might as well be off TV for the next few weeks because I doubt this will produce anything memorable. Attack, series of matches, repeat. It's sadly become the Bray Wyatt cycle and is the reason I couldn't care less to even pay much attention to this segment which is such a shame when you consider how talented both men are.
5) Big Show vs. The Miz
THE BIG GUY IS ON COMMENTARY! That was the best thing about this match even though it wasn't all that bad. Show ends up throwing Miz into Ryback which sets up a badass staredown with Ryback talking trash to Show. Miz gets a fluke count out victory due to the distraction and Show is furious. Ryback rips his shirt off and storms into the ring. This was alot of fun if you enjoy Ryback and don't take things too seriously.
Kevin Owens attacks MGK after his concert
I'm honestly blown away at this. Prior to WWE signing Kevin, I said that I doubted they'd let him be himself, but if they did, their ideas combined with his talent would make him a star and they've done just that. These are the kinds of things they should be doing with him and they did it. It was unexpected, it was shocking, and it was epic. Owens powerbombs MGK off the stage and pleases many fans who dislike the guest hosts/performers. I'm not sure WWE intended to please anyone with it as much as they wanted it to get him heat however it did a bit of both so, hey, it ruled. Props to MGK being a great sport and agreeing to do this.
6) Prime Time Players & Neville vs. The New Day
I never thought I'd see Titus & Darren with the tag belts and considering I missed the PPV, I had to see it to believe it and it was an awesome sight. That victory at MITB was extremely well deserved. Now, they're teaming with Neville? Hell yeah! This was a very fun trios match despite them trying to pack a little too much into a short amount of time near the end. Neville was all over the place even more than usual. It made it hard to keep up with, but entertaining none the less. I really hope we get a rematch between these two and they get more time on the next go round. Neville gets the pin which was much needed since he hasn't gotten many victories since being on the main roster, good call.
Triple H reveals Brock Lesnar as Seth Rollins' opponent for Battleground
This was what it was and it was pretty cool. I saw it coming, as did most, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it because anything with Brock Lesnar is hype. Rollins looked like a scared little dog and Lesnar backed him out of the ring. I'm excited to see what they can do one on one based off the chemistry they had in the triple threat at the Royal Rumble.
Overall thoughts: This once again wasn't an easy show to sit through despite having it's high points. I'd say the first hour is worth watching because Rollins & Ambrose deliver good promos, there's a fun momentary battle with Sheamus & Ambrose, and even though Truth/Barrett sucked, it was short and Owens/Ziggler more than made up for it. After that, I'd skip to the third hour to catch Owens powerbombing MGK off the stage, the PTP & Neville six man tag, and the closing segment. I'd say this was a solid show despite Kevin Owens once again being the only real highlight aside from Brock Lesnar. The biggest difference is that everything else wasn't as horrible as previous weeks so take that for what you will.
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