WWE Battleground 2017 Review

WWE Battleground 2017
July 23, 2017
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

It's the return of the Punjabi Prison... WWE Champion Jinder Mahal puts everything on the line against Randy Orton as they clash in the first Punjabi Prison Match in a decade. Will The Viper be able to escape the Prison with another WWE Championship reign?

Match 1: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Usos (c) vs. The New Day
2017 was a solid year for the tag team division in the WWE and these two teams were front and center of that statement. The New Day come out in their best Uncle Sam outfits as they open up the night in search of their third reign as tag team champions against The Usos. As usual, fun action from the two teams here with Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston representing their team as Big E cheered on at ringside. Usos are able to gain control of much of the match and eliminating Kingston from the equation early on as The Usos turned much of their attention to Woods. However, a missed splash from Jimmy Uso allowed Kingston to hit a Trouble in Paradise as Woods followed it up with an elbow drop to seal the win. The New Day become the first team to hold both the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships. Solid opener.
Winners: The New Day
Rating: ***1/2

Match 2: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
Baron Corbin completely derailed any plans Shinsuke Nakamura had of winning the Money in the Bank Ladder Match a month prior after a sneak attack from behind. Nakamura gets hits chance to get some revenge here at Battleground. Loved watching the two strikers go to work here and just exchange some sweet kicks and punches throughout he match. At one point, Corbin hit Nakamura with one of the sickest clotheslines I have seen in the longest time. Fun match here with Corbin low blowing Nakamura which forced the referee to call for the bell and disqualify Corbin. Hate the finish all you want but it completely makes sense if you want to protect both guys from taking a real loss. Plus, Corbin gets some extra heat from the match as he was desperately trying to claw away from the nonstop striking of Nakamura. Afterwards, Corbin lays Nakamura out with his Money in the Bank briefcase before hitting an End of Days.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura (via disqualification)
Rating: ***

Match 3: Elimination Match - Becky Lynch vs. Tamina vs. Natalya vs. Lana vs. Charlotte Flair
Winner of this elimination match gets the opportunity to face Naomi at Summerslam for her SmackDown Women's Championship. Pretty sluggish match from the beginning with everyone trying to get their hands in the cookie jar. The five women in the match lasted pretty much throughout the entire contest before Becky Lynch eliminated both Lana and Tamina as Natalya quickly took out Lynch soon after. This narrowed things down to Natalya and Charlotte Flair, Charlotte missed a moonsault as Natalya took advantage of the situation by driving Charlotte into the turnbuckle to seal the win and a chance to beat Naomi at Summerslam. Certainly not the best match considering the talent in the ring here.
Winner: Natalya
Rating: *3/4

Match 4: WWE United States Championship - AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens
At this point, Kevin Owens is still rocking his odd "Face of America" gimmick and looks to regain his United States Championship after losing it to AJ Styles in Madison Square Garden. I'm not really sure what it was but this match left a lot left more to be desired when it was all said and done. Owens worked one of the shoulders of Styles and tried using that to his advantage throughout the match by possibly eliminating the Styles Clash from the equation. After an inadvertent referee bump that left the referee a bit dazed, Owens rolled up Styles as Styles had a crossface locked in to get the pinfall and victory. However, it looked as if both men had their shoulders on the mat but since the referee was dazed from the hit, he wasn't able to catch it. This definitely sets up another rematch but either way, definitely a disappointing affair from the two. Almost as if they couldn't get out of first gear from the start.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Rating: **3/4

Match 5: Flag Match - Rusev vs. John Cena
Interesting to note how these two feuded just two years prior to this before reliving their beef once again in the summer of 2017. But really, a Flag Match between the two made sense here since they restarted their beef on July 4th before finally clashing here at Battleground. Unfortunately, this was just a very long match that never got going from the start with Rusev beating down John Cena convincingly throughout the match. This Flag Match differed from others in the past as once a competitor retrieved their respective flag, they would have to take it to their respective pedestal on the stage. Solid adjustment as simply having the two fight to retrieve their flag from a corner just led to some awkward moments. The two had their flags ready to be placed on the pedestals on the stage as they stopped each other from doing so until Cena gave an Attitude Adjustment to Rusev through two tables. Long and fairly boring match with a stipulation that is just so hard to get over in this day and age. Nonetheless, they wanted to have a gimmick to go along with the match and if there was ever a time to bring back a Flag Match, I guess this was it.
Winner: John Cena
Rating: *3/4

Match 6: Mike Kanellis vs. Sami Zayn
I can't be the only one who enjoys watching Mike Kanellis get some TV/PPV time... right? Anyway, he gets another match against Sami Zayn here after beating him on an edition of SmackDown Live with the help of Maria Kanellis. Fairly quick match here with Kanellis getting in a decent amount of offense before falling to Zayn and his Helluva Kick. Zayn is able to avenge his loss and Kanellis basically goes back to a pit of nothing after all of this. 
Winner: Sami Zayn
Rating: *3/4

Match 7: WWE Championship - Punjabi Prison Match - Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Randy Orton
I have heard and read so much flack about this match (including from Randy Orton on his Twitter) and I was so excited to see how this turned out as I finally got the opportunity to watch it here in 2019. This is the first Punjabi Prison Match since 2007 when Batista defeated The Great Khali at No Mercy in Chicago. Apparently, Vince McMahon had spent so much money on this structure and was adamant in making use of it again because of that fact. Despite the match being kind of annoying to watch through two structures and an odd set of rules that would leave the not-so-intellectual fans a bit lost, the action in the first cage was pretty good. Jinder Mahal is such a fantastic heel and The Singh Brothers do a great job in giving him extra heat. Once Orton was able to escape the first cage to meet Mahal on the outer cage, the action definitely picked up. Of course, we have to have a spot where a Singh brother nearly dies via Randy Orton as Orton tossed Samir off the outer cage and through the announcers table for a pretty sweet scene. Orton then handled Sunil and Mahal with a steel chair before finally looking to make his way out... until The Great Khali comes out. Yes. The Great freaking Khali comes out and shakes the outer cage to force Orton to go flip upside down and get choked by Khali as Mahal escapes while boasting in the face of Orton on the way out. A million dollars to anyone who had Khali coming out to make the save for Mahal. That was just so damn random and I'm here for it. Hate me all you want. Perhaps it's because I came in to this match with such low expectations but I really enjoyed the match for what it was and while I understand some of the complaints people had, they didn't really bother me too much. The camera crew did a great job of letting the viewers AT HOME see the action while the commentators did a great job for the viewers AT HOME to really understand the rules. I can only imagine what it was like for those in attendance. Not even going to lie, I wouldn't mind seeing another go at this.
Winner: Jinder Mahal
Rating: ***1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Welp... this was something. The show opened up nicely with the tag match but completely unraveled throughout the night with bland matches with the exception of the main event. They relied heavily on the Flag Match along with the Punjabi Prison Match as the main attractions. Unfortunately, the Flag Match was pretty ridiculous and plenty had some negative reactions towards the main event. Can't recommend this show to anyone unless you want to watch the rare Punjabi Prison Match. 
Rating: 4.75/10