Battleground was an annual July pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event established by WWE in 2013, although the original event was held in October. The 2016 event was the fourth event in the Battleground chronology and took place on July 24 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. This was the first Battleground to be held after WWE reintroduced the brand extension, where the promotion again split its main roster into two separate brands, Raw and SmackDown, where wrestlers exclusively performed. However, excluding the "Big Four" PPVs (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series), the 2016 Battleground was the final monthly PPV to feature the full main roster, as after SummerSlam the following month, monthly PPVs became brand-exclusive. The following year's Battleground was in turn SmackDown-exclusive. Brand-exclusive PPVs would last until WrestleMania 34 in 2018, after which, brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued.