The Undertaker has nuked Suplex City.
Making his return at Battleground, The Phenom exacted revenge for his infamous WrestleMania loss by costing Brock Lesnar the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
Having throttled champion Seth Rollins for most of the match, Lesnar was on his way to becoming champion after delivering a devastating F5. As Lesnar prepared to pin Rollins, the Scottrade Center went dark. When the house lights came back on Rollins was nowhere to be found. In his place, standing tall in the ring, was The Undertaker.
As an enraged Deadman glared at The Beast, Lesnar stared back in utter shock. Grabbing Lesnar by the throat, The Undertaker prepared to chokeslam him. Lesnar broke free but crumpled to the mat after he received an unapologetic kick to the “lower abdomen”.
Undertaker chokeslammed Lesnar to the mat and then dropped him with his trademark Tombstone Piledriver. Undertaker stepped between the ropes as if to leave and then abruptly changed his mind. As a helpless Paul Heyman looked on, Taker chokeslammed and Tombstoned Lesnar a second time before posing over him as the bells of doom tolled.
As Battleground went off the air, no announcement was made as to the fate of the match or the WWE World Heavyweight Title. It is assumed the match ended in a disqualification due to Taker’s interference and therefore Rollins has retained, dodged a massive bullet and lived to fight another day. On the WWE’s site, the match result is listed as “no contest”.
Without his usual Authority backup, Rollins found himself bounced around the ring. In total, he took 13 German Suplexes from Lesnar. Rollins used his quickness and agility to his advantage to evade The Beast but couldn’t match him in power. At one point, Rollins threw his hands up in frustration, grabbed the WWE World Title and hopped over the barricade. Lesnar hurtled the barricade, seized Rollins by the throat and threw him back into the ring.
In Rollins’ only period of sustained offence, he targeted Lesnar’s knee with shot blocks and his head with kicks once he brought the big man down. Two suicide dives knocked Lesnar into the barricade but The Beast caught Rollins when he went to the well again and viciously suplexed him.
It is expected that The Undertaker will face Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam next month, a dissatisfied and disappointed Triple H could be squaring off against Rollins and Sting could be lending Roman Reigns a helping hand against Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper. In fact, the entire Battleground pay-per-view was positioned as a set-up for SummerSlam with most of the featured angles, storylines left unresolved.
The next WWE pay-per-view is SummerSlam on August 23rd.
WWE Battleground 2015 (Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri.) Results
Pre-Show Happenings
R-Truth Vs King Barrett – King’s Crown Match
- The match went back and forth with R-Truth really putting Barrett to the test. After two Bullhammers, Truth goes down for the count.
- Winner: …and still the King of the Ring… King Barrett at 9 minutes and 13 seconds.
- Match Rating: 6 / 10
Randy Orton Vs Sheamus
- Very, very hard hitting match with both men dishing out the pain and taking it too. Hometown boy, Orton, just won’t stay down but then again, neither will Sheamus who ends up on the wrong end of a Superplex from the top rope. Sheamus wraps Orton in the Cloverleaf but The Viper will not submit. As Sheamus prepares to scoop Orton off the canvass, he is sent to Dreamland by an RKO…from out of nowhere.
- Winner: Randy Orton at 16 minutes and 51 seconds.
- Match Rating: 7.5 / 10
- Backstage, Stephanie McMahon hypes the new Divas “revolution” and announces a triple threat match for later tonight. Each of the three factions who formed and appeared on Raw will pick a representative to participate in the bout.
New Day (challengers) Vs The Prime Time Players (champions) – WWE Tag Team Title Match
- Don’t know about you but I am glad to see Titus and Darren finally getting their day in the sun. As a solid team or singles competitors, both have been overlooked and underutilized for such a long time. Like Jimmy Hart without a megaphone, Xavier Woods provides his own running commentary. “Worst. Legdrop. Ever.”
- Constantly cornered and cut off by New Day, Young has had enough and finally boots Xavier and Kofi in the head then drops Xavier on the apron. Big E misses a spear and hits the steel post. Young puts out Kofi and Titus comes in to deliver Clash of the Titus for the win.
<br - Winners: …and still WWE World Tag Team Champions…The Prime Time Players at 8 minutes and 49 seconds.
- Match Rating: 7 / 10.
- Paige is with Charlotte and Becky Lynch as they talk about being “promoted” to the main roster. They not only promise to reshape the Divas division but they will rebuild it, brick by brick.
Roman Reigns Versus Bray Wyatt
- This droner of a match overstays its welcome. The longer it goes, the worse the bout gets even though at times it is physically brutal. Wyatt doesn’t get the chance to bash Reigns with two steel chairs and is pitched into the ringside barrier twice. Reigns decides to pull a Terry Funk and starts hurling chairs into the ring for some reason. A “mysterious stranger” in a hoodie (who we can plainly see is Luke Harper) attacks Reigns from behind. Back inside the ring with a stunned Reigns, Wyatt executes Sister Abigail for the three count. Harper enters and reveals himself, to nobody’s shock or surprise, as the announce team pushes home the “shocking” Wyatt Family reunion.
- As an aside, what still bothers me the most is this notion of Bray Wyatt “reshaping the world”. Besides challenging other wrestlers and messing with their heads, Wyatt, in his angles, hasn’t really done anything to shake up the status quo since the Family split. He is just another heel targeting one face after another with no real effect on the Federation as a whole. It is not like he is recruiting members, usurping the Authority or causing wide-spread chaos as per his character’s credo. Quit yapping about a “revolution” and do something already. Bray could learn some heel lessons from Kevin Owens.
- Winner: Bray Wyatt at 22 minutes and 08 seconds.
- Match Rating: 6 / 10.
Sasha Banks Vs Charlotte Vs Brie Bella
- Niki teases entering the match but bows out. “Not tonight,” she declares. Brie steps into the ring. Sasha, in particular, pushes this match well beyond your standard Raw Divas match. You know, the stellar kind of stuff the NXT Divas have been doing, like, forever. Sasha gets posted by Brie but Charlotte sneaks in and locks on the Figure Eight.
- Winner: Charlotte at 11 minutes and 39 seconds.
- Match Rating: 7 / 10.
John Cena (Champion) Versus Kevin Owens (Challenger) – Unites States Heavyweight Title Match
- Another amazing match by both superstars. Kevin Owens proves once again why he is the greatest heel to hit the squared circle in quite some time. Acting as a traditional heel should, his portrayal is always creative and clever.
- “That was pretty damn good. Is that your hero,” said Owens badgering the crowd. Later he would personally address Michael Cole saying: “Watch THIS,” before hitting Cena with not only the Attitude Adjustment but also locking him in the STF. “Tap, Cena, tap,” Owens snarled at Cena, who eventually did escape. Ironically, it was the STF which would be Owens’ demise as he tapped out in the middle of the ring. A Match of the Year candidate.
- Winner: …and still United States Heavyweight Champion…John Cena at 27 minutes and 08 seconds.
- Match Rating: 9 / 10.
Brock Lesnar (challenger) Versus Seth Rollins (champion) – WWE World Heavyweight Title Match
- Winner: Match unofficially called at 8 minutes and 19 seconds.
- Winner: …and strill WWE World Heavyweight Champion…Seth Rollins.
- Match Rating: 7 / 10.
- Total Event Time: 3 hours and 55 minutes.
- Overall Event Rating: 8 / 10
One of the founding managing editors of SLAM! Wrestling, John Powell is a veteran entertainment journalist currently covering Big Brother, Survivor, the video game industry for G4. Check out his comic book Cover 2 Cover blog. He can be reached at pow2112@hotmail.com or @POW2112 on Twitter.