WWE’s Battleground PPV for 2016 is shaping up to be a pretty entertaining card. It’s the first PPV WWE are doing under the new brand split banner and surely they don’t want to disappoint.
This isn’t to say that there hasn’t been many other great matches take place at Battleground PPV’s before. To date, WWE have presented three Battleground shows since 2013. There are a fair few hidden gems from previous Battlegrounds that if you haven’t checked out before, you should.
Here are 5 of the best Battleground matches that have happened to date.
#5 Rob Van Dam vs Alberto Del Rio
RVD had beaten Del Rio at Night Of Champions, the PPV before Battleground, but it was by disqualification so RVD couldn’t win the championship. At Battleground, he had Ricardo Rodriguez in his corner, who had since left Alberto's side, and would take on Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Both men made use of the hardcore ruling for the match, which did include the use of steel chairs and ladders. RVD looked good in this match and the fans were evidently behind him, and the match.
The match certainly didn't disappoint at Battleground with some greats spots throughout. Not everything was on point, but this match featured the kind of reckless excitement people have come to expect from RVD encounters, which is impressive given his age and longevity within the wrestling business.
#4 Bray Wyatt vs Roman Reigns
Some say that some of the best matches either of these two men had were played out in there feud in 2015. There Battleground match was no exception and was filled with great action from two of the top future performers in the business.
For 25 minutes, Bray and Reigns were given the time to beat down on one another and show the WWE why they are the future and they certainly did work wonders at Battleground.
We also got to see the reuniting of the Wyatt family which added to drama the match had brought.
#3 The Rhodes Brothers vs The Shield
This match pitted The Shield who were firmly united, and as the villains, going up against Cody Rhodes and Goldust, The Rhodes Brothers.
The story being told for this match was great and the action certainly didn’t disappoint either. There was a lot on the line heading into this match, including Dusty losing his job at NXT and both the Rhodes brothers being fired by The Authority had they lost.
The action was great and both teams involved played their parts perfectly and thankfully the Rhodes brothers came out on top and even went on to win tag team gold from the shield following the match.
#2 Cena vs Orton vs Kane vs Roman Reigns
At Battleground 2014 a fatal-4-way match took place for the WWE championship. The match was a bit easy to predict as many fans already had an idea that Brock Lesnar and Cena was on the cards for SummerSlam that year for the WWE championship.
Albeit easy to predict, it didn’t stop us from getting an exciting match. A nice moment in the match came when Cena collided with Reigns and this was treated as a big deal.
This Fatal-4-Way had a series of finishing moves and near falls,that you would come to expect in this type of match but it was an extremely exciting match all the same.
#1 John Cena vs Kevin Owens
At Elimination Chamber which was a WWE Network special, Kevin Owens had defeated Cena clean to the shock of almost everybody who watched the event. Cena had then got a win of his own at Money In The Bank a month later, meaning both guys had to settle their issues at Battleground in the rubber match.
Although some people were extremely disappointed that Cena had picked up the win in the rubber match, that didn’t stop people being in awe at what they saw. Both Cena and Kevin Owens for the third time straight had put on a wrestling clinic.
Cena vs. Owens to date, is without a doubt the best match that has been seen on a Battleground card and if you haven’t seen it you should really go back and watch it. Watch all three encounters preferably.
With this Years stacked card this could all change of course, but we will have to wait until Sunday to find out.
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