WWE News: Jim Ross discusses issues with Punjabi Prison and Flag Matches from Battleground

What’s the story?

Many fans have aired their grievances regarding most of the matches from Battleground and Jim Ross has decided to give his opinion on the matter.

On his latest JR Blog, Ross felt that the rules for the flag and Punjabi Prison matches were confusing.

In case you didn’t know...

The SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view, Battleground, took place this Sunday and saw John Cena and Rusev compete in a Flag Match while Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton competed in a Punjabi Prison Match for the WWE Championship.

The flag match between Rusev and Cena was different from most of the previous flag matches as both competitors had to take their flag down from a pole then post the flag on a pedestal.

The Punjabi Prison match was considered by many to be the worst match on the card and possibly a contender for worst match of the year.

The heart of the matter

Ross felt that it was an odd decision by the WWE to have two matches with stipulations that lack near falls or submissions victories.

“Any time two major, main event level matches have little to no ‘near falls’ included due to the structure of their match i.e. the Punjabi Prison bout and the Flag Match, it’s a risky premise.”

He also said that the vision problems and the convoluted rules prevented fans from getting invested in the match.

“I’m still not sure that I could pass a quiz on the rules of the Punjabi Prison match, which had challenging sight lines for TV through all the bamboo, etc. Those basic challenges can make it hard for the live audience to emotionally invest.”

What’s next?

Ross’s comments reflect many of the problems that fans and critics pontificated following the Battleground pay-per-view.

Many fans felt that Battleground was one of the worst pay-per-views of the year and JR’s comments on two of their biggest matches only seem to add to that fact.

Author’s take

This was the first Punjabi Prison match in ten years and the fans opinion of the previous match between Batista and The Great Khali wasn’t any better than this one.

With three Punjabi Prison matches being considered failures by the fans, the WWE would be wise to do away with this match stipulation altogether.