Battleground (2013)

The 2013 Battleground was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It was the inaugural Battleground and took place on Sunday, October 6, 2013, at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York. Battleground was originally announced to be the new annual October PPV for the promotion; however, it was moved up to July the following year. It replaced Over the Limit, which had been previously held in May but was planned to be held in October for 2013. Nine matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The main event, which was a match for the vacant WWE Championship between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton, ended in a no contest after Big Show interfered and attacked Bryan, Orton, and the referee. In other prominent matches, Alberto Del Rio defeated Rob Van Dam by submission in a Hardcore match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and Cody Rhodes and Goldust defeated The Shield (Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns). The event received 114,000 pay-per-view buys worldwide, making it the second lowest number (behind 2006's ECW December to Dismember) in the previous 17 years. This was the only Battleground to broadcast exclusively via traditional PPV outlets due to the launch of the WWE Network streaming service in February 2014. This was also the only to feature the previous version of the World Heavyweight Championship, which was unified with the WWE Championship in December.