Review for WWE Battleground 2013

Battleground is one of the most uneven PPVs I have seen in a long time. It seems like if you are a fan of the midcard then you had a great time, but if you were ready for the main event matches... boy were we in for some rough riding during this.

It's funny watching the opening vignette in seeing just how much Alberto Del Rio as World Heavyweight Champion means nothing to the company. Highlighted are the Bryan/Orton, Punk/Ryback and the Shield/Rhodes and Goldust match, but not what technically should be the second most important match of the night.

And how is that match treated? Let's just get it out of the way and put it on first. Now, I'd be lying if I didn't say I enjoyed watching Rob Van Dam, but against Del Rio this is a match that just screamed boredom. If there was ever a time when WWE should have had Del Rio lose, this is it. Sadly, that was not to be in an exciting match which was let down with the ending.

Santino and Great Khali against The Real Americans was just painful to watch and I'm not sure what the whole racist angle is supposed to achieve? A short match, not given enough time to make either team look good. This was followed by a technically sound Intercontinental match between Curtis Axel and R-Truth. That's really all there is to say about it.

Divas Championship between AJ Lee and Brie Bella is one of those matches that I need to address. Now both Divas are hot as anything (plus having Nikki Bella out there doesn't hurt) and the whole 'feud' regarding AJ not wanting to appear on the Total Divas show gave this a nice dynamic.

BUT... and this is a big BUT, this does not excuse what is really an awkward looking match between a wrestler who has been trained and a model who has been trained. When you consider that Brie is engaged to Daniel Bryan, you would have thought he would have given her some pointers. That being said it is a lot watching AJ do her thing and this makes the match at least watchable.

After this is, in my opinion, match of the night and possibly the best tag match I have seen in years. Goldust and Cody Rhodes against The Shield is quite possibly the match that should have headlined this PPV and I do wish that WWE had taken a chance and done just that. The build of the feud which was more to do with Triple H against Rhodes/Goldust and their father Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes was intense and with The Shield being so hot and this being a cobbled together tag team, it seemed unlikely that the Rhodes boys would win. Because of this, this was a match, given the right amount of time so that both teams got over and by the end, the pinfall was wonderful.

Apparently Bray Wyatt and Kofi Kingston had a match after this? I must have blinked and missed it. The match meant nothing and really the time should have just been given to one of the other matches to make it mean more.

I can't believe I am going to say this again, but CM Punk against Ryback was awful. Now for Ryback I should expect it, but I expected a bit more from Punk. Maybe the match needed a stipulation or something behind it, but instead it was just a match that existed, nothing more and that is not enough.

Finally, we had a pretty solid main event match between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton for the vacant WWE Championship. After all of the problems with the past couple of PPVs it seems like WWE still can't just give us what we wanted. It's true that I didn't like the flip-flopping of the title, but at least the match itself was given enough time to mean something, even if the ending and indeed the end of the PPV left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Unlike most DVDs, this disk actually features some extras which is nice. Interviews with Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and RVD are nice and I don't know why they don't do this for all PPVs. Also included is the preshow match between Dolph Ziggler and Damien Sandow which is a bit like the Wyatt/Kingston match ie It exists. Also included is an awesome six man tag match between The Shield and Daniel Bryan, Goldust and Cody Rhodes from Raw which is better than most of the stuff on the PPV.

Battleground is such a weird PPV and DVD. With eight matches, I feel like I could only truly recommend watching three of them (Divas match, WWE Championship and Rhodes/Shield tag match) and even then it's doubtful (tag match aside) that I'll watch anything from this PPV again.

The inclusion of extras is nice and makes the DVD have a bit more value and hopefully this is a trend that continues with the rest of the WWE PPVs. This is not an essential purchase, but if that tag match doesn't appear on the Best of 2013 compilation, pick it up to experience one of the best tag matches I've seen in many years.