Before WWE Champion Dean Ambrose’s main event match against Kevin Owens could begin, Seth Rollins, the Superstar who will challenge for The Lunatic Fringe’s WWE Championship on Raw this Monday, made an unscheduled appearance on SmackDown commentary to lend his thoughts on the upcoming showdown. However, before the one-on-one encounter between Ambrose and Owens was a minute long, Rollins blindsided Ambrose and opened the door for a two-on-one assault on the titleholder.

WWE Battleground preview: Triple Threat Match

Yet, their numbers advantage was short-lived as Sami Zayn soon came to The Lunatic Fringe’s aid. From there, the contest was restarted into a tag team contest, pitting Rollins and Owens against Ambrose and Zayn for the first time in history.

The action was intense as both pairs of future Battleground opponents gave it everything they had on the final Thursday edition of SmackDown. In the closing moments, “The Underdog from The Underground” made a critical mistake. With Ambrose down, Zayn missed a Helluva Kick on Rollins. This allowed Owens to trip up with his one-time friend and set up a Rollins Pedigree for the victory.

Following the match, Rollins and Owens tried to continue their assault on Zayn, but Ambrose put an immediate stop to it. The Architect and The Lunatic Fringe scrapped it out before Ambrose got the upperhand, sending both his opponents heading for the hills.

Don’t miss the WWE Draft when SmackDown Live premieres this Tuesday night at 8/7 C, with a SmackDown Live Pre-Show at 7/6 C across all digital platforms and the WWE Draft Center Live three-hour supplemental show at 8/7 C exclusively on the award-winning WWE Network.