Last night, Buffalo was turned into a Raw is Warzone, as the WWE presented BATTLEGROUND. This is the first incarnation for the event, and based on the tepid response both in the arena and the wrestling media, probably the last.
For those who missed the Night of Champions review, the criteria for these is simply: “Did I get my money’s worth?” in terms of the individual matches and the PPV as a whole, using the tried and true “what was this trying to do, and how well did it succeed” rubric.
Each match is rated plus or minus on a sliding scale between 1 and -1, with matches worth multiple rewatches worth 1, a just-quite-PPV quality match being 0, and things that make me reevaluate being a fan earning up to a -1 score. The higher the number, the better Bang For Your Buck on the PPV. We’ll (eventually) keep a running tally for each PPV, and a handy list of PPVs we review to give you (and us) a better idea of what we thought was worth the time to check out in terms of matches and PPVs. As for the scale, it’s not particularly complicated but here are the basic levels (on a per-match average):
Like always, we’re going to be using what I said during the What’s the Worst That Could Happen preview to see how close I was to “predicting” what unfolded, and how it stacked up to my best hopes and worst fears. Enjoy!
Alberto Del Rio defeats RVD to retain World Heavyweight Championship
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28m5nt
What Nick Wants to Happen: A crowd that actually gives a shit about ADR, RVD continues his hot streak of “looking like he gives a shit during matches”, Damien Sandow or Del Rio leaves arena with title.
Alberto Del Rio needs faces who are incredibly over to make the crowd in the arena care about him, which subsequently makes him look good on TV. Thankfully for everyone, RVD is exactly that type of face. Allowing both of them to “explore the studio space” with the No DQ stipulation actually added a layer of interest to this because of Del Rio’s “shark monster” thing. The crowd popped huge for Ricardo’s work (as they should have) and the hardcore spots — especially the ***** Frog Splash — really helped add intrigue and excitement to what’s been a way-better-than-expected feud. This isn’t exactly the type of match that is worth the price of the PPV (see: Rhodes vs. the Shield), but if you are a fan of Del Rio (me), RVD (most other people) or reasonably hardcore wrestling would have been more than satisfied with this match. Although your mileage may vary, as a huge ADR mark, this was well worth the PPV buy.
Match: .8 | PPV: .8
