NXT Battleground (2024)

Battleground was previously an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event established by WWE in 2013. The inaugural 2013 event was held in October, but then moved to July from 2014 to 2017.^[2][3] Battleground was then discontinued after the 2017 event as WWE ceased producing brand-exclusive PPVs for the main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown, resulting in less PPV events held per year.^[4] However, in May 2023, the company revived the event for its developmental brand, NXT, which aired via WWE's livestreaming platforms.^[5]

On January 26, 2024, WWE announced a second NXT Battleground, and seventh Battleground overall, thus establishing it as an annual livestreaming event for NXT. The event was originally scheduled for Memorial Day weekend on May 26 at the Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia.^[6] However, on April 22, 2024, the company announced that in partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), WWE's sister company under TKO Group Holdings, the event would instead be held at the UFC Apex in the Las Vegas suburb of Enterprise, Nevada on June 9, with the event also promoted as NXT Battleground: Las Vegas.^[7] Tickets went on sale on May 24.^[8]

The event included matches that result from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT, and the supplementary online streaming show, Level Up.^[9][10]

At Stand & Deliver on April 6, NXT General Manager Ava announced a new secondary women's championship for NXT called the NXT Women's North American Championship, marking it the first women's secondary championship in WWE.^[11] During Week 2 of NXT: Spring Breakin', Ava announced that the inaugural champion would be crowned at Battleground in a six-woman ladder match, with the participants determined through qualifying matches and the participants in those qualifiers would come from the results of a NXT Women's Combine.^[12] The combine evaluated the athletes' speed, power, strength, and conditioning with the top 12 moving on to the qualifiers. The top 12 from the combine in order were Sol Ruca, Chase University's Thea Hail, OTM's Jaida Parker, Brinley Reece, The O.C.'s Michin from SmackDown, Fallon Henley, The Meta-Four's Lash Legend, Diamond Mine's Ivy Nile from Raw, Izzi Dame, Kelani Jordan, Tatum Paxley, and Wren Sinclair.^[13] The first two qualifying matches took place on the May 14 episode of NXT, where Ruca and Legend defeated Dame and Nile, respectively.^[14] On the May 21 episode, Henley and Parker qualified by defeating Hail and Reece, respectively.^[15] The last two qualifying matches took place on the May 28 episode, where Michin and Jordan qualified by defeating Paxley and Sinclair, respectively.^[16]

At Stand & Deliver on April 6, Oba Femi retained the NXT North American Championship in a triple threat match involving Josh Briggs and Dijak.^[11] On the following episode of NXT, when Femi celebrated his successful title defense, he was interrupted by Raw's Ivar, who wanted a title match. Femi accepted, and the match took place on Night 2 of NXT: Spring Breakin', where Femi retained the title. After the match, Wes Lee, who had been sidelined with a back injury since December 2023, made his return and stared down Femi.^[12] On the May 14 episode, Lee, Ivar, and Briggs argued over who should get a title match. Femi decided to let the three fight amongst themselves, and a triple threat match between Lee, Ivar, and Briggs was scheduled for the following week, where the winner would face Femi for his title at NXT Battleground. Later that same night, Gallus (Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, and Wolfgang) made their return and attacked the three competitors.^[14] Ivar ended up getting injured and taken out of action for an indefinite period of time.^[17] Later, NXT General Manager Ava announced that Joe would replace Ivar in the triple threat match.^[18] The following week, both Lee and Joe pinned Briggs, and the two men were considered the winner. Later that night, NXT General Manager Ava set up a triple threat match between Femi, Lee, and Joe for the title at Battleground.^[15]

During week 1 of NXT: Spring Breakin', Raw's Shayna Baszler returned to NXT to accompany Lola Vice in her NXT Underground match against Natalya, also from Raw, who was accompanied by Karmen Petrovic.^[19] During Week 2 of Spring Breakin', Vice won the match.^[12] After that, the rivalry between the two teams continued, and on the May 14 episode of NXT, Natalya and Petrovic challenged Baszler and Vice to a tag team match on next week's episode, which was made official.^[14] There, Natalya and Petrovic won the match. After that, Vice turned on Baszler, and a brawl started between the two. NXT General Manager Ava then announced a match between the two at NXT Battleground, where Baszler proposed an NXT Underground match, which was made official.^[15]

On the May 21 episode of NXT, after talking to Raw General Manager Adam Pearce and SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, NXT General Manager Ava announced that Roxanne Perez would be defending the NXT Women's Championship at NXT Battleground against somebody from the main roster, and her opponent would be announced the following week.^[15] On the next episode, however, Ava revealed that reigning TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace from Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) would challenge Perez for the NXT Women's Championship at Battleground.^[16]

On the February 20 episode of NXT, SmackDown's The O.C. (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) made a surprise return to NXT and attacked Axiom and Nathan Frazer.^[20] The two teams later entered a tournament for an NXT Tag Team Championship match at Stand & Deliver, which Axiom and Frazer won.^[21] On the May 21 episode of NXT, Gallows and Anderson attacked Axiom and Frazer after their successful title defense.^[15] One week later, a title match between the two teams was scheduled for Battleground.^[16]

On the May 14 episode of NXT, Noam Dar was found attacked backstage by an unknown assailant. Dar's Meta Four stablemates, Oro Mensah and Jakara Jackson assumed NXT Champion Trick Williams attacked Dar, but fellow stablemate Lash Legend defended Williams.^[14] The following week, Meta Four interrupted Williams, with Mensah and Jackson still accusing Williams of attacking Dar, but Legend still defended him, saying that Williams knows all about getting jumped backstage due to his recent feud with Carmelo Hayes and that he wouldn't do the same to Dar.^[15] On the May 28 episode, Mensah was attacked by the same unknown assailant. Later that night, the unknown assailant was revealed to be the debuting Ethan Page, who attacked Williams and posed with the NXT Championship.^[16] The following week, Page (kayfabe) signed a contract with NXT, which granted him a match against Williams for the NXT Championship at Battleground.^[22]

• WWE NXT official website