WWE Battleground 2017: Full Results and Star Ratings for Each Match

Sunday night, SmackDown Live presented a Battleground pay-per-view that answered criticism about its lethargic build with a mediocre event that never excelled beyond "average" status.

Handcuffed poor booking decisions and a mediocre in-ring product, the show failed to inspire a Philadelphia crowd typically excited and energetic for major WWE events.

Defined by plenty of good but nothing great, and some bad but nothing awful, the show was simply there at a time when the blue brand desperately needed to generate some energy if it was to keep up with Raw.

The show was an overarching disappointment, but how did the individual matches grade out?

Let's just say they reflected the tone of the evening.

But First...An Explanation of the Star Ratings

Credit: WWE.com

Star ratings are a hot-button issue in the wrestling world, with fans eager to find out what rating is assigned to the biggest matches on any given card.

With that said, an explanation of the star system used for the purposes of this recap reflect the following:

• Zero stars: A bad, irredeemable match.
• *: Just slightly above worthless.
• *½: Just OK
• **: A TV-worthy match
• **½: Average
• ***: Above average
• ***½: Very good
• ****: Great
• ****½: Match of the Year candidate
• *****: Classic

Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English

Sunday night's festivities kicked off with a solid, if unspectacular, battle between two Superstars WWE Creative has failed to utilize to their fullest potential in recent months.

Aiden English worked Tye Dillinger over with basic offense, The Perfect 10 fired off a textbook babyface comeback and was poised to pick up a win when English cut off his momentum and finished him off in a surprising upset.

The match never evolved past the basic televised match but did serve to energize a Philadelphia crowd that was not nearly as vocal as usual throughout the remainder of the night.

Rating

The New Day vs. The Usos

The SmackDown Tag Team Championship match between New Day and champions The Usos kicked off the main portion of Sunday's event and benefited from the loudest sustained reaction by the WWE Universe.

Rightfully so, since it was the best match of the night, and it was not even close.

An explosive match that saw Jimmy and Jey cut Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston off at every turn, it kept fans engaged from the moment Kingston delivered a dropkick at the opening bell.

High spots and dramatic near-falls were a trademark of the match, providing an energy other bouts throughout the night did not have.

The pop that greeted the coronation of the new champions was, without a doubt, the loudest of the night and brought a sense of gravity to a show that did not otherwise feel all that significant.

Rating

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin

Too many rest holds and not enough fire from either Superstar led to a majorly disappointing effort from Shinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin.

The match failed miserably to inspire a reaction from a crowd still buzzing after New Day's momentous victory. A lame disqualification finish that did more to suggest the rivalry will continue than bring any sense of finality to it did not help matters.

That the fire and intensity that accompanied the program was lacking only further plunged the match into monotony and mediocrity.

Rating

Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match

Positioned as one of the three main events in the event's opening video package, the Fatal 5-Way Elimination match featuring the female Superstars of SmackDown Live may not have lived up to lofty expectations set by the Money in the Bank Ladder match from a month ago but was better than some other reviews would suggest.

Some will complain it featured rapid eliminations that sped things up and did not allow fans to properly digest them. In reality, those rapid eliminations fit the context of a what was a story-driven match.

Lana refusing to save Tamina the same way the second-generation star helped her throughout the early portion of the bout furthered their story, creating discourse between supposed friends. Becky Lynch looked like a star as she tapped both of those women out but fell victim to a fluke roll-up by Natalya and saw her championship aspirations come crashing down.

Speaking of Natalya, she finally got a win over Charlotte and in the process, cashed her ticket to a much-deserved championship opportunity at SummerSlam.

Though a bit rushed, the match excelled in other areas and set up several stories for fans to keep an eye on going forward.

Rating

United States Championship Match: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens

The biggest disappointment of the night was the United States Championship match between AJ Styles and Kevin Owens.

What should have been a show-stealing performance was, instead, just another average match on a card full of them.

For whatever reason, the Superstars never felt like they got out of first gear. It was a slow match that lost the crowd early and was never able to live up to the buzz that accompanied it. Perhaps that has something to do with the screwy finish that ensures yet another showdown between the competitors. Maybe Styles and Owens never found their groove.

Whatever the case may be, the match failed to live up to lofty expectations, and the crowd's lack of reaction to even the hottest of spots is a reflection of that.

Rating

Flag Match: John Cena vs. Rusev

The Flag match between John Cena and Rusev was an overly long attempt at a patriotic epic that started far too slow and lethargically to generate the type of reaction the performers and management were aiming for from the start.

By the time the action spilled from the ring and to the arena floor, it was too late to elicit an excited reaction from an audience who just slogged through the first half of the match. The table spot late in the bout popped the crowd, but after the marathon the Philly fans had endured, any bit of high spot like that was appreciated.

Cena won, and all was right with the world.

Or something like that.

Rating

Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis

Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis had no right to be nearly as good as it turned out.

An ice-cold rivalry and a match thrown in the dreaded "cool-down" spot between main events, it was left for dead by WWE Creative.

It is a testament to the level of performer Zayn is, and Kanellis' ability to keep up with some of the best the industry has to offer, that the contest was able to perform up to the level of (and surpass) some of the other matches on the card given the creative effort that went into them.

Like Dillinger and English earlier in the night, they utilized a basic formula, but Zayn and Kanellis added a spark their predecessors did not, and the result was a better wrestling match as a result.

Zayn's victory was a welcome surprise, too, given how rarely he wins in pay-per-view settings.

Rating

Punjabi Prison Match for the WWE Championship: Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal

It would be understandable for fans to rip the Punjabi Prison match from Sunday's pay-per-view spectacular. The gimmick bout itself is painfully flawed, with convoluted stipulations and the ridiculous premise of steel-reinforced bamboo.

With that said, Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal had a significantly better match inside that structure than anyone probably should have.

The match started slow and saw Orton and Mahal going through the motions as they attempted to play up the ridiculous door-opening ordeal. Once the action spilled to the ringside area, it picked up significantly.

Some will bemoan the interference of The Singh Brothers, but they are sly, resourceful and cunning. They repeatedly pop up in service of The Maharaja and take incredible bumps in his name. That was the case Sunday night, risking their own wellbeing to preserve his reign.

Orton sold the hell out of his left arm, blood was drawn and welts dealt, and in the end, it was the shocking return of Great Khali that cost The Viper and allowed Mahal to retain his title.

The Punjabi Prison should go away and never, ever return, but given the restraints the match puts on its Superstars, Orton and Mahal did everything they could to deliver the epic encounter the company sought, and it resonated with this writer, especially late in the bout as chaos and carnage reigned.

Rating