Battleground (also known as Battlefield in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and WWE Network event produced by WWE. It took place on July 24, 2016 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. It was the fourth event under the Battleground chronology, and the final event before the newly reinstated WWE brand extension went into full effect.

Nine matches were contested at the event, with one match contested on the pre-show. In the main event, Dean Ambrose successfully retained the WWE Championship in a triple threat match against his former Shield teammates, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, thus keeping the championship at the SmackDown brand. The show is also notable for Randy Orton's first appearance after a nine-month injury and former NXT Women's Champion Bayley's main roster debut.

At Money in the Bank, Dean Ambrose won the Money in the Bank ladder match and subsequently the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by cashing in his contract on Seth Rollins, who had just won the title from Roman Reigns. After a #1 Contender's match between Reigns and Rollins ended in a double countout the following night on Raw, Ambrose requested to defended the title against both Reigns and Rollins. Accordingly, Shane McMahon scheduled a triple threat match between all three men for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Battleground. On June 21, two days after Money in the Bank, Reigns was suspended for 30 days for violating the WWE's Wellness Program, which uses drug testing to detect substance abuse.Pro Wrestling Torch reported that WWE knew of the violation before Money in the Bank, leading to Reigns losing his world title at the event. With Reigns's suspension ending before Battleground, WWE continued to advertise Reigns as part of the Battleground main event. On the June 27 episode of Raw, both Rollins and Ambrose acknowledged Reigns's suspension on television. However, Stephanie McMahon opted not to remove Reigns from the Battleground match, and instead gave AJ Styles and John Cena the opportunity to qualify for the match by matches against Ambrose and Rollins. Styles and Cena lost, when they each interfered in each other's matches. On June 27, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was renamed as the WWE Championship. On July 18, a match for the WWE Championship between Ambrose and Rollins ended in both men pinning each other simultaneously. While Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon declared Rollins the new champion, the referee ruled the match a draw, with Ambrose retaining the title. The next day on SmackDown, Ambrose defeated Rollins in a rematch to retain the title. On the same show, Ambrose was drafted to SmackDown, while Rollins and Reigns were drafted to Raw.

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