WWE Battleground 2015 Results: Biggest Takeaways from Latest PPV Event

WWE Battleground 2015 centered on what's to come.

Fans going into the pay-per-view expecting definitive conclusions were forced to wait. Those will arrive later, at SummerSlam perhaps. On Sunday night, though, Battleground entertained by way of hard-hitting action, not via climaxes.

The biggest talking points and the biggest revelations from the event are all about the future.

We now know who Brock Lesnar's next opponent is. Bray Wyatt has a family reunion on the horizon. And with WWE at least attempting to earnestly remake the Divas division, there's reason to be excited about the future of women's wrestling after Battleground. 

Xavier Woods Needs to Be a Manager

As The New Day pushed the tag team champs and Big E and Kofi Kingston delivered and received the bumps and bruises of the match, Woods stood at ringside cheering his brethren on.

Woods mocked The Prime Time Players. He rallied behind his teammates, all the while playing the irritant of the group.

At times, Woods felt like a sharp pebble in one's shoes, scraping against one's foot.

In this role, he was masterful. In the tradition of pro wrestling's loudmouth managers, Woods barked insults that added a layer to his team's character.

From talking about Big E's "tricep meat" to critiquing Titus O'Neil's leg-drop technique (he called the move "the worst leg drop ever"), Woods showed that this is his calling, not in-ring action. He's a solid athlete with reasonable in-ring ring presence but nothing special as a wrestler.

Big E and Kingston put on one of The New Day's best performances to date. Just outside the ropes, Woods was doing the same in a verbal capacity.

The Divas Division's Moment is for Real (for Now)

Since fans have started to demand that WWE's women get more attention, more ring time and more of what their male counterparts get each night, the company has mostly responded with lip service.

Matches were a touch longer. Female wrestlers were getting slightly more developed stories. 

But it wasn't until Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte showed up on last week's Raw that it looked as if WWE was going to make any real progress with this division. At Battleground, that progress continued in a big way.

Each of the three rival trios of women chose one member to represent them in a Triple Threat match in St. Louis. The selection process itself pointed to a shift in the division.

It wasn't the more established Paige who got the call for her team, but Charlotte. Naomi and Tamina Snuka didn't climb inside the ropes; Banks did instead. Two-thirds of the competitors were the women spearheading NXT's thriving women's division.

And when the action got underway, it was obvious that change is underway.

For one, Brie Bella represented Team Bella and ended up being the least important fighter in this battle. The in-ring story kept finding excuses to push her aside and let Charlotte and Banks do the heavy lifting. As a result, this match was a showcase of what's new and promising about the women's division, not a retread of the Bella-heavy fare we've seen for years.

And for those keeping track of time, the women went on for 11 minutes and 29 seconds, according to ProFightDB.com.

That's longer than the main event went, longer than the tag team title bout, a much more NXT-style cut of the ring-time pie for the women. WWE may eventually tire of this direction, but for now it's journeying toward a real, substantial women's division.

The Wyatt Family Appears to Be Reforming

A hood covered the face of the immense man who clocked Roman Reigns, a cheap shot that helped Bray Wyatt to victory at Battleground. Thoughts of Wyatt having recruited a new family member or follower quickly dissipated when Luke Harper slid that hood off.

Credit: WWE.com

And just like that, it looks like WWE is backpedaling on its choice to split up The Wyatt Family. 

Harper had reunited with Erick Rowan weeks ago. The two bearded behemoths began teaming up again with no mention of their patriarch. 

Maybe it was Rowan's arm injury or a lack of ideas on how to proceed with him and Harper minus The Eater of Worlds, but how Reigns vs. Wyatt ended is a clear indication of a family's reformation.

Where Kevin Owens Sits on the WWE Hierarchy 

WWE believes in Owens, but not quite enough to have John Cena give him a full rub.

The way Owens vs. Cena III went down made it clear to the audience that Owens is special, formidable and someone with a bright future. Owens again pushed Cena to his limit. Owens again took Cena's best shots and kept on coming.

The challenger kicked out of three Attitude Adjustments, including one from the top rope. 

That's WWE's way of having Owens look mighty even in defeat. It's proof that he resides above the majority of Cena's opponents on the food chain. You simply don't see wrestlers leave Cena as flustered and unsure of himself as Owens did in St. Louis.

In the end, though, the hero rose once again. Cena won. Owens fell to 1-2 in his series with the powerhouse.

So for all the special treatment Owens received, he didn't have enough in the way of backstage support to get a win here. In that way, it's clear that he is not yet on WWE's top tier, where Cena has established permanent residence.

Battleground is Just a Feeder Show

The special event boasted a title match featuring the elusive Lesnar. It had a surefire classic on the card in the rubber match between Owens and Cena. The coming-out party for NXT's top women's wrestlers and a high-profile collision between two emerging stars in Wyatt and Reigns were also on tap.

There was a wealth of quality in-ring action, and Battleground 2015 was several times better than the 2013 and 2014 editions of the event.

Still, WWE made it clear that SummerSlam is the big show. Battleground is the warm-up.

Reigns and Wyatt ended with a bit of interference and a finger pointed toward the future. Harper's attack said "Watch what happens next." That's the theme that ran through much of Battleground.

The Divas Triple Threat match is clearly just a precursor for a full-on battle between factions. The United States Championship match proved that Owens' expected rise to championship status is on the horizon rather than right now. And the main event offered a big shock rather than a true conclusion.

Undertaker stormed into the bout before it was over. His attack on Lesnar led to a no-contest.

And so a much-hyped WWE title match lasted just over eight minutes. It didn't look a lot different from Lesnar's decimation of Kingston in Tokyo recently. Undertaker's driving Lesnar's head into the mat served as an advertisement for their rematch.

In that way, Battleground was WWE's sales pitch for SummerSlam.

St. Louis fans witnessed a cliffhanger, a setup for a bigger, more climactic story down the road. An event whose inaugural edition featured an ending where the audience was left to wonder what just happened has circled back to that history.