WWE Battleground 2015 Poised to Surpass Previous Editions of the PPV

Armed with Brock Lesnar and having only a paltry past to outdo, WWE Battleground 2015 will be the best event in the pay-per-view's history.

That not-yet-complete card already boasts three matches that have Match of the Year potential. For a pay-per-view that has so few standout contests on its time line, a trio of classics would be a major departure from the past. 

In Battleground's first two editions, WWE offered headaches and frustrations but not a long list of memorable bouts.

While Money in the Bank and Extreme Rules have developed reputations as being among the best more recent additions to the WWE calendar, Battleground has been a letdown each time out. There's a great chance that changes on July 19. Battleground 2015's lineup features the red-hot Kevin Owens, an improving Roman Reigns and, for the first time in the event's history, Lesnar.

A long window in which to build the show and some intriguing rivalries will help bolster Battleground 2015 as well.

It won't take much to be far better than the first and second editions of the event. So far, it's been a washout of a pay-per-view.

A Bad Beginning

Near the end of Battleground 2013, the power went out in the building. A video package ended abruptly. The audience had to be wondering if their cable was out.

That inauspicious moment was fitting. There had been little electricity in the ring all night.

The show featured one really good outing: The Shield vs. Goldust and Cody Rhodes. The tale of two brothers fighting to get their jobs back and make sure their father kept his was the lone true highlight of the show.

Elsewhere on the subpar card, The Great Khali and Santino Marella teamed up in an impromptu tag match. Bray Wyatt ran over Kofi Kingston in an unmemorable clash. Curtis Axel retained his Intercontinental Championship in a nondescript title bout with R-Truth.

Credit: WWE.com

It's the way the main event unfolded, though, that left the biggest impression. 

A month before the event, fans watched Daniel Bryan defeat Randy Orton for the WWE title only to have it stripped from him the next night. 

It felt like WWE had robbed the audience of the match's climax. At least it had a climax.

The rematch at Battleground ended in confusing fashion. Big Show stormed out and punched both Bryan and Orton. With the two foes on their backs, the giant walked away. What was eventually called a no-contest felt unfinished.

It ranks as one of the most disappointing endings to a pay-per-view ever.

PWInsider.com's Mike Johnson wrote of it, "It's almost as if WWE crafted the finish specifically as a middle finger to fans who called asking for a refund after Night of Champions."

A great second Battleground would have helped erase memories of that shaky start. Battleground 2014, however, wasn't much better.

More Disappointments

Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose, Battleground 2014's most intriguing contest of the night, never happened. Instead, Triple H kicked Ambrose out of the arena. The two enemies brawled in the parking lot, but a match that WWE advertised and hyped never arrived.

Credit: WWE.com

Like with Battleground 2013, only a single match stood out.

This time it was an excellent  2-out-of-3 Falls matchup between The Usos and The Wyatt Family that had fans buzzing. It was the ideal opener—fast-paced, hard-hitting, a triumph for the heroes. Unfortunately, the show didn't do much from there.

Rusev stood by Lana in the ring as the manager offered a veiled reference to the tragedy surrounding Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. 

There was little in terms of in-ring entertainment to offset that ill-advised segment. A lot of the action was not bad, including Rusev vs. Jack Swagger and the Battle Royal for the Intercontinental Championship. The same descriptor applies to the Fatal 4-Way main event.

It's funny that John Cena emerged from that match talking mostly about The Usos' success.

There were no spectacular offerings, though. Not having a real collision between Ambrose and Rollins hurt as well.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t ProFightDB.com), Dave Meltzer handed out very few stars for the first two Battleground shows. The inaugural edition earned only a 2.14 (out of 5) average star rating. Meltzer rated the next year's event even more harshly, giving it just a 1.69 average.

WWE itself didn't heap praise on either show. When WWE.com complied the list of the top 25 matches of 2013 and 2014, respectively, a total of two of them came from Battleground. SummerSlam, by comparison, offered six bouts on these rankings in those two years.

But no one is going to confuse Battleground with SummerSlam right now. It's a show with minimal history and minimal highlights. However, the latter deficiency is set to change.

Promise in 2015

The Beast Incarnate will step into the ring for his first Battleground match.

Lesnar was on the roster when the last two shows aired, but he was at home as they unfolded. This time around, WWE is treating Battleground like a bigger deal. That includes having Lesnar take on Rollins in a match that many expected to be saved for SummerSlam.

We saw great chemistry between these two at both this year's Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 31. That, combined with their increasingly antagonistic history, will make their first one-on-one meeting tremendous.

Rollins has been the snake that keeps snapping at the bear's feet. He's ducked away just in time to avoid the animal in the past but now has no means of escape. He'll have to come up with quite the master plan to avoid having Lesnar yank the WWE World Heavyweight Championship off his shoulder.

Wyatt vs. Reigns looks to be excellent as well.

WWE has created plenty of hype for this by exploring a dark narrative. Reigns is unraveling mentally as Wyatt teases violence against his daughter. Wyatt's scrawled messages and mind games will make any measure of revenge Reigns gets at Battleground extremely cathartic.

This is a classic tale of good versus evil unfolding in the ring. And with as good as both wrestlers have become in the ring, there's a good chance they steal the show despite being on the same card as Rollins vs. Lesnar and Kevin Owens vs. Cena.

Battleground 2015 marks the first match in the event's history for Owens. It's just Cena's second outing at the pay-per-view.

Expectations will be Titan Towers-high when these two meet again. Their first two battles were instant classics. They are the kind of rivals who bring out the best in each other, who are such good fits as opposing characters and warring wrestlers that masterpieces come easy for them together.

This rubber match has the bonus of all the added bad blood between them, not to mention the United States Championship being on the line.

That title wasn't showcased on either previous Battleground. Neither was Owens nor Lesnar.

Those men, the stories surrounding them and an already stacked card will have Battleground 2015 blow past what the event has done in the past two years.