WWE Battleground live report
October 6, 2013 in Buffalo, NY
Report by Dot Net reader Thom.

This was my girlfriend's first WWE event ever (calling her a casual fan would be saying a lot) and my first since a house show back at the beginning of the "Attitude Era." We got to the arena just about 6:30 an hour before the time on the ticket. The doors were open but they were not letting anyone past the lobby. About 6:45 they began letting folks in and the several hundred folks broke out in a thundering "Yes" chant.

We made our way to the merch stand where I expected to see a lot more pink gear but the number of shirts and other items seemed limited, although there were two or three CM Punk shirts and two RKO shirts.

We got to our seats around 7:15 and what I saw of the stage from the corridor seemed impressive, but I was blown away by it when we got to our seats. We sat directly across from the hard camera about six rows up from "the ice" (it is a hockey arena ya know).

About half of the 300s were tarped off and some sections on the hard camera side were as well. I don't know what that means for Buffalo to get another PPV or TV soon, but hopefully the hot crowd made up for what I can only imagine was disappointing ticket sales.

Let me start by saying I was sitting in a very vocal section so what may have been audible on TV could be different from what I heard. Also, as I am writing this I can barely speak from the constant chanting all night long!

While waiting for the pre-show to start, some "Let's go Cena/Cena Sucks" chants broke out along with "CM Punk" and "YES!" chants. And of course the mandatory "Let's Go Buffalo!!!" Michael Cole got booed out of the building when entering while both "JBL" and "Jerry" chants broke out for them, and they both received standing ovations.

Ziggler was totally over with the Buffalo crowd and Sandow got a positive reaction as well.

The crowd hated Alberto Del Rio and, of course, loved RVD. ADR caught tons of heat for making Lilian announce him in Spanish. Ric Rod made me chuckle with the bucket. During the match there were several ECW and We Want Tables chants

Zeb Colter got a HUGE POP from the crowd for the maple syrup drinking Canadians line (as our arch rivals are the Maple Leafs and Canucks). The crowd despised Kali, and Santino is only over with about half the kidos. The Buffalo crowd was very into the "We the People" shtick and loved Cesaro. When Cesaro spun Kali at the end of the match the crowd was shouting "holy shit!"

Unexpectedly, the Intercontinental match turned into the bathroom break match of the night. The crowd is just not into Curtis Axel and R-Truth, though to my surprise it seemed Truth's entrance is still over with the live crowd. The crowd was a little restless during this match, and the Divas math that followed. Random chants for Freddy Jackson (the Bills RB who was sitting ring side), "boring," and the only one who was over in the match, "Paulras."

The crowd wanted to like Brie but there is just not enough to buy into. With all the confusion between AJ and Stephanie, AJ was more over with the crowd then the Bella's. I enjoyed this match better than the one it followed.

Awesomely the Shield came down right through my section and surprisingly, kids ran for the aisle to get a glimpse of them. The crowd was insane during this match and came unglued for The Dream and his boys! By far I think this was the best match of the night.

Again I was surprised by how the crowd, especially the kids, reacted to Kofi as he only seemed to be over with half the kids. However, the Wyatt family had many followers and look-a-likes in the crowd (On a side note, Buffalo had two Macho Mans in attendance and one scrawny looking CM Punk wanna be. Does this happen often?)

It may be time to go back to the drawing bored with Ryback as it seems he will never escape the Goldberg chants and he received plenty of go away heat. He even disappointed my girlfriend with his lack of marching. Is it redundant to say that CM Punk is over with the crowd? Although I was pleasantly surprised with a CM Punk win, I don't know where this feud is headed with what seemed like a decisive victory over Paul E's big beautiful man.

Last was the Bryan vs. Ort--Both the WWE (is it still called Triton TRON?) and the Arenas Jumbo-Trons went black and we all thought we were in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. Brad Maddox came out a few minutes later saying we would be back with the show in three minutes. Two guys the row in front of me had a sign saying "Did someone just say... 3 mins?" which cracked Justin Roberts up at ring side.

Randy Orton still needs to become a bad guy as he got plenty of cheers from the crowd, while Bryan blew the roof off the building for the second time of the night. When Big Show came down and knocked out Bryan, a loud "You Sold Out" chant started until he KO'd The Viper and turned face again. Show would make a great villain for Batman seeing as he's "Two Faced." After the refs cleaned up the KOed Bryan, he hit his running knee on Randle to send the crowd home happy.

Roberts thanked everyone for coming out and reminded us that there is a house show January 11 (I think) back in Buffalo.

I thought this was an above average PPV, especially for the horrible build it was given. Honestly, I wish I would have ordered it so I can go back and see the things I may have missed, but I had no intention on ordering it to begin with and thought it was a missable event because Hell in a Cell is later in the month. As I said before, this was my first PPV and my girlfriend's first WWE event ever. We both had a great time and hope WWE TV comes back soon!

Biggest Pops
1. Rhodes Family
2. Daniel Bryan
3. CM Punk

Biggest Heat
1. Big Show
2. Referee Scott Armstrong
3. Brad Maddox (during blackout)

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