Best and Worst PPV Brand

[hallicks]

The first two Battlegrounds were dire. I think it was the first one (2013) that people were successfully getting refunds from their cable providers, where Bryan and Orton went to a no-contest in the title match. Big Show came and knocked them both out and then...that was it. I think that was around the "Big Show is in financial trouble and has to do Stephanie's bidding" wrestlecraptacular storyline. Shite.

I had to look up 2014's card, as my only memory of it was that it was also shite. Cena defends the title in a four way vs Orton, Reigns, and Kane. Guess who took the fall on that one! Oh, and "Ambrose vs Rollins", back when people still believed Ambrose could be somebody. Only the match doesn't take place because Triple H had ejected Ambrose for fighting with Rollins backstage. So Seth goes to the ring and declares himself the winner! Miz wins a battle royal for the IC title after hiding for the entire match. Anyone for another refund?

2015 had Cena vs Owens for the US Title in their "Lose 2-1 to John Cena" series of PPV matches, with Owens tapping out. Main event was Rollins vs Lesnar, which ended in a DQ when Undertaker attacked Brock. Last year had Rusev beating Ryder for the US title. Mojo comes out to confront Rusev, who nothings him quite spectacularly. Probably the highlight of the show. Zayn beat Owens in the best match of the night.

So yeah. Battleground will be forever tarnished as "a shit one"to me because of those first two. The two most recent were better, in fairness. This year's has got a Punjabi Prison match, so is bound to be a classic. Oh, and "Flag match".

[westlondonmist]

Surely Road Wild has to be up there. Only 3 of them and less than that number of matches worth watching. Maybe Hennig vs DDP and a Jericho cruiser match.

[sick love song]

Moving a little away from match quality, but I always hated the concept of bragging rights, which was a PPV extension of the idea of a false/unbelievable brand loyalty, which meant nothing and was made even worse seeing as at this point the original brand split had become so flakey and everyone had swapped brands seemingly a million times..

did anyone ever gain anything by winning a match for either brand? 

in fact I hate any "red shirt vs blue shirt" nonesense.

maybe I would have cared if it happened in 2002/3 when I only had sky one and Smackdown felt like "my" show

[air_raid]

It was waaaay too late for Bragging Rights, agreed. The only time they got it right in the first version of the roster split was when they went ages without a draft. Mania 21 felt pretty good in that respect with the Orton v Undertaker and Angle v Michaels matches as both guys had been on their respective shows for a couple of years uninterrupted, but by the time of Bragging Rights there had been so much flip flopping, often just when they felt like it rather than because there had been a draft, nothing felt special. OH MY GOD, these guys are on opposite shows!.... but I've already seen them wrestle half a dozen times.

[FLips]

Best for me are Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble. I'm giving Battleground a pass because I'm sure The Shield vs The Rhodes was on there one year and it's still one of the best matches of that whole Shield period. I can't pick an ECW one because I couldn't differentiate between them, they're all just ECW but I've seen far more good than bad.

Worst for me would be any WCW PPV after 1999 at a push. They're all awful with maybe a good match here or there, but mostly just shit. Worst WWE is Great American Bash and any PPV named after a gimmick match, so MITB, HIAC, TLC, Fatal 4 Way, Breaking Point I'm sure just had submission matches too.

[sick love song]

7 hours ago, air_raid said:

It was waaaay too late for Bragging Rights, agreed. The only time they got it right in the first version of the roster split was when they went ages without a draft. Mania 21 felt pretty good in that respect with the Orton v Undertaker and Angle v Michaels matches as both guys had been on their respective shows for a couple of years uninterrupted, but by the time of Bragging Rights there had been so much flip flopping, often just when they felt like it rather than because there had been a draft, nothing felt special. OH MY GOD, these guys are on opposite shows!.... but I've already seen them wrestle half a dozen times.

Agree. For brand draft 2 I was hoping they would leave guys to settle on their brands for a few years to really give the seperate brands an identity. Shake up ruined that. ( in the brand split 2 thread would probably have been more fitting for that)

its worryingly difficult to find a good ppv brand outside of the big ones, there's usually a stinker or 2 ruining it. I do remember enjoying quite a few (original after WM) backlash PPVs.

[air_raid]

On 14/07/2017 at 2:58 PM, FelatioLips said:

Worst WWE is Great American Bash and any PPV named after a gimmick match, so MITB, HIAC, TLC, Fatal 4 Way, Breaking Point I'm sure just had submission matches too.

Nah, the one and only Breaking Point should come nowhere near the conversation for "worst" for me. DX vs Legacy was a good piece of work and I thought the I Quit match with Cena against "IED" version Orton at his psychotic best was truly compelling, my favourite match between the two of them.