WWE Battleground 2017 review: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin

What we learned: We learned here that WWE creative didn’t want either competitor to look bad so they just threw this onto the card and gave us a screwy finish.

It’s not as if this was a completely terrible match but it certainly could have been better. It’s obvious what they were doing here with Corbin looking like the ultimate jerk, yelling at the crowd and doing heel things like he’s supposed to do but this whole thing just felt a little flat to me. The pace was really slow throughout and I just couldn’t get into it. There were too many rest holds for a match like this and I was just bored pretty much the entire time.

The Philly folks tried their best to stay into this one as well but the finish left a lot to be desired and didn’t really do either man any favors. Okay, Nakamura doesn’t have to take a loss and in a sense, neither did Corbin. The record books will show that The Lone Wolf lost the match but he still got to be the ultimate heel with the low blow and the attack after the match was over. I get it. It just didn’t work for me.

What’s next: When a match ends like that, it usually means the program isn’t over. Nakamura will certainly be looking for a little bit of revenge but I really don’t want to see this match at another pay-per-view. Maybe they can just work it out on a Tuesday night and we can be done with this thing. If this does make it all the way to SummerSlam, I could see Nakamura winning that match and then Corbin cashing in later that night. I still think that Nakamura needs to be working with AJ Styles at SummerSlam but we’ll see how that plays out.