WWE Champion Dean Ambrose keeps hold of his crown as John Cena sets up SummerSlam decider after thrilling pin
Battleground review: Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns produce a fight for the ages in main event at Verizon Center
DEAN AMBROSE has retained the WWE Championship in a sizzling triple threat main event at Battleground – defeating his former Shield teammates Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.
From the Verizon Center in Washington D.C., the match took place with both the Raw and SmackDown commissioners and general managers at ringside.
With the brand split starting properly this week, this not only determined who the WWE champ would be, but which brand carries the company’s top title.
It was a slow starter, which picked up when Reigns began to dominate both men. Returning after a 30-days drug suspension, Reigns was booed heavily – leading to a huge reaction when Ambrose and Rollins eventually teamed up for a Shield-style attack on Reigns.
After powerbombing Reigns through an announce table, Rollins hit the move of the night – a super-plex from the top rope on Ambrose, which he rolled through to lift Ambrose into an Broken Arrow suplex.
There were exciting near falls once Reigns came back into the match. Each Superstar hit their signature moves – Rollins threw Reigns into the corner with a Buckle Bomb, before Reigns exploded back out with a Superman Punch and spear.
Before Reigns could make the cover, Ambrose struck him with Dirty Deeds for the three-count. With Ambrose as champ, the title stays on SmackDown for now.
The main card opened with another exciting moment when Bayley was revealed as Sasha Banks’ mystery partner to face WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte and Dana Brooke.
Though Charlotte and Dana put the boots in early, former NXT champ Bayley showed plenty of fire in her main roster debut. Meanwhile, Sasha worked though her signature moves to a big response. There was a heart-stopping moment as Sasha mistimed a hurricanrana that saw Charlotte land awkwardly on her neck.
The finish came as Bayley dived through the ropes to take out Dana, clearing the way for Sasha to tap Charlotte with the Bank Statement. Sasha’s next stop is surely the WWE Women’s Championship at SummerSlam.
The New Day then faced the Wyatt Family in a six-man tag match. The Wyatts overpowered Kofi Kingston in the early going, before Big E tagged and took the advantage with some power moves of his own – including an impressive overhead belly-to-belly on the 6’8” Erick Rowan.
The real story however was the hypnotic power Bray Wyatt has over Xavier Woods.
Xavier tried to overcome his fear with a flurry of fists and top rope splash, but Bray caught him with Sister Abigail’s Kiss for the three count in an electric finishing sequence. Is Xavier now destined to join the Wyatt Family?
Rusev next defended his U.S. Championship against the long-suffering Zack Ryder.
Despite some spirited offence from Ryder – the highlight of which was a suplex reversed into a neck breaker – there was never any doubt that Ryder would tap to the Bulgarian Brute’s accolade.
Kevin Owens and Sam Zayn stole the show in what was billed as their last one-on-one match.
It started slowly with wear-down holds from Owens, but picked up when Zayn botched a springboard moonsault to the outside – he just caught Owens with the move and added some genuine drama to the match.
A jaw-dropping moment came when Zayn lifted Owens for a painful-looking suplex on the very edge of the ring. With 14-years experience on the indie circuit together, these two have some real tricks up their sleeves.
An exciting exchange next saw Zayn land two suplexes, followed by a pop-up powerbomb from Owens. Zayn barely escaped by getting his foot to the rope, then got the surprise win after two Helluva Kicks.
The crowd were on their feet for most of the match. These two Superstars should be leading the charge for WWE’s “New Era”.
Natalya and Becky Lynch continued their feud with a decent match-up. Natalya hammed it up as the heel and scored a decisive victory with the Sharpshooter. It’s good to see WWE is at least capable of multiple women’s division storylines at one.
Next up, Darren Young challenged The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship. Under the guidance of former WWE Champion Bob Backlund – who was present at ringside doing his usual crazy act – Darren Young started with amateur style mat wrestling. Credit to Young for adapting his move set to suit the storyline.
John Cena then teamed up with Enzo and Cass to battle The Club – AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Enzo fired up the crowd with a promo, which had the crowd chanting “How you doin’?” back at him.
One look at The Shield promo packages that were shown across the evening prove just how badly WWE has handled The Club faction – especially now they’re set to be separated across Raw and SmackDown.
The Club dominated Enzo to begin with, before Cena tagged in for some clumsy maneuvers. Karl Anderson then planted Cena on an announce table with a spinebuster, before Enzo surprised Anderson with a devastating flying DDT.
It’s obvious that WWE wants to push Cass as a future headliner, but Enzo looked like the real star here.
Cena pinned Styles with an Attitude Adjustment from the top rope. With two pinfalls apiece they’re sure to collide in a deciding singles bout at SummerSlam.
Randy Orton made his return on Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel talk show after nine months injured. The appearance – which ended with an inevitable “RKO outta nowhere” to Jericho – was intended to promote Orton’s upcoming match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.
WWE has continued to no-sell Lesnar’s drug test failures, so it will be interesting to see what happens with “The Beast” at SummerSlam. Will he have lost any of his Superstar aura? Or is Lesnar back on his way to becoming WWE Champion if he defeats Orton?
Watch Battleground on the WWE Network