By Dave Meltzer, WrestlingObserver.com

Welcome to our live coverage of WWE Battleground from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. We’re looking for your thoughts on this show, as well as tonight’s New Japan G-1 opening night and Dragon Gate Kobe World show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].

KING BARRETT VS. R-TRUTH 

Barrett won and maintained his “Kingdom” in a decent match with not a lot of heat. The finish saw R-Truth go for the Lie Detector, but Barrett held onto the ropes and then hit the Bull Hammer on R-Truth for the pin.

SHEAMUS VS. RANDY ORTON

Orton won using the RKO in a strong opener after getting to the ropes while in the Clover Leaf submission. Orton rolled away after a Brogue kick earlier in the match. Slow starting match but they built it well: a real professional slower style deliberate match with everyone doing all of their moves in a long match.

Stephanie McMahon did an interview, putting over St. Louis and Sam Muchnick’s Wrestling at the Chase.  She said all three Divas teams are picking a rep for a three way (Brie vs. Charlotte vs Sasha Banks most likely) and she wants them to tear the house down.

WWE Tag Team Champions PRIME TIME PLAYERS VS. NEW DAY (Kofi Kingston & Big E)

The Prime Time Players retained when Titus pinned Big E with the Clash of the Titus.  It was Big E & Kingston with Woods on the floor.  Match was pretty well paced with a few missed spots, most notable O’Neil having to actually change direction so he could be in position for Woods to intefere. They did heat spots on Young most of the way, O’Neil made a brief hot tag. After a few quick tags, Young escaped from an attempt at the Big Ending and ducked when Kingston tried Trouble in Paradise.

Becky Lynch, Paige, and Charlotte were talking about burning the house down tonight.  They are trying to really push the women tonight.

ROMAN REIGNS VS. BRAY WYATT

Wyatt won when Luke Harper interfered and threw Reigns into the post and into the ring, leading to Wyatt hitting Sister Abigal in just over 21:00.  Very good match with some cool spots including Reigns going for his dropkick on the floor and Wyatt clotheslining him.  They were blocking each others’ finishers. Wyatt also did a DDT on the apron and Wyatt kicked out of a Superman punch.

Interview with NaomiTamina and Sasha Banks. 

NXT Women’s Champion SASHA BANKS VS. CHARLOTTE VS. BRIE BELLA

Charlotte used the Figure Eight on Brie to win via submission after Brie broke up Banks’ with the Bank Statement on Charlotte and Brie went for the X Factor on Charlotte, but it was blocked.  They didn’t tear the house down by any means but this was a better match than the vast majority of women’s matches in WWE. However, it was not close to the level of the NXT women as Brie seemed to hurt the match. The announcers were trying to push this like it was a revolution.  It seemed like part of the crowd was more receptive than for a usual women’s match on WWE PPV, but a lot of the crowd didn’t see it as anything different.

U.S. Champion JOHN CENA VS. KEVIN OWENS

Excellent match that Cena won clean in the middle with the STF after Owens had kicked out of 2 Attitude Adjustments during the match as well as a third time off the middle rope. The match was mostly about them doing their moves and kicking out. Cena kicked out of the pop up power bomb. Owens used the AA as well as the STF on Cena. The crowd was totally pro-Owens.  I’d say this wasn’t as good as the first two matches but still the best thing on the show so far.

The Miz is coming out now, but I don’t know that we need this so late in the show. He talked about how the triple threat isn’t happening and his branding team had plans for him when he won the IC title. He already had talked show appearances but said Ryback got hurt and the match is postponed. He said he’s known Ryback since Tough Enough, saying the big guy is really the big pansy. “When the going gets tough, Ryback gets injured.” Miz said Ryback knows he’s the toughest man in WWE and he’s the toughest man in the building right now.

He said Big Show has been missing since the Attitude Era and should retire. He said they should declare him the champion the way a real city like Los Angeles is going to claim the Rams. Show is out, and Miz switched his tune. He asked Show to be a tag team.  Show just knocked him out and walked off.  That was the end of the segment.  Is Show a face or a heel?  Was that turn No. 41?

WWE Champion SETH ROLLINS VS. BROCK LESNAR

Well, this was a weird one.

Obviously it’s about drawing a rating Monday with Undertaker. Lesnar gave Rollins 13 suplexes in nine minutes and hit the F-5.  At that point, the Undertaker’s gong hit. The referee and Rollins both disappeared into thin air when the lights came back on. Undertaker was in and laid Lesnar to waste with a high choke slam and two tombstone piledrivers and the show went off the air.  The crowd loved the idea of Undertaker being there so it worked live, but as far as a main event went, it was pretty bad as far as going anywhere. The action was fine but it was way too short, there was no finish announced, and the show ended almost 15 minutes early.