Battleground Predictions

Hello! It's another post, and we're here for the Battleground Predictions. This PPV is a rare case in that there's no outcome that's blatantly obvious as there is on most PPVs nowadays. I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing in some cases- but it definitely makes the PPV tonight interesting. Going into the year I don't think anyone would have looked at Battleground and thought this PPV was going to be in any way interesting and/or compelling- but here we are, and with all of the Rumours flying around I'd argue that this is up there with the most hyped shows of the year.

First Prediction for this show, there'll be at least 2 matches that aren't on the Announced Card coming off the back of this weeks TV. If I had to guess there'll be another Stardust match so most likely against Neville to put him over heading into Summerslam season when he's feuding with the Amell guy. Then I'd be massively shocked if we didn't get a Cesaro match of some sort, which'll most likely be against Rusev or just throw in Ambrose for the sake of it and have a Triple Threat- however as I'll discuss a bit later on Ambrose may have a non-match role to play on the show. There could also be a Divas Match somewhere on the card although I'm hoping they hold off and have the first match of the "Divas Revolution" mean something.

Right then, there's a lot to talk about so let's get on with the slightly less aimless rambling.

Pre-Show: R-Truth v King Barrett
The first of the unclear matches of the night, and this isn't because we've had such a great build and as a result it could go either way. It's simply because they've booked Barrett so badly since he won the King of the Ring I have no faith in the WWE to actually have him win with the Crown on the line. On top of that I bet Vince is pissing himself every time R-Truth comes out and he thinks it's the best thing ever with the Burger King Crown and the Duvet. This combined with the fact the Babyface always wins on the Pre-Show, especially if we get something along the lines of a Stardust v Neville match to get some heat back on Stardust a Babyface Win will be needed on the Pre-Show. While I'm praying that it goes the other way, I think tonight will start the first official day of the reign of King What's Up?
Winner: R-Truth

New Day v Primetime Players- Tag Titles
I thought this was a straightforward match, now that it's been firmly established that Titus is a nice Dad and that's blown over I thought it was a given New Day would get the belts back on the PPV tonight, I then went on to PaddyPower to put my usual PPV accumulator on and it turns out the Primetime Players are the (marginal) favourites. Granted odds don't mean much until the "smart money" comes in- but it's still something. That said even with Titus being a nice Dad there's surely no way they see more long-term value in the Primetime Players than The New Day given you could seriously put up a solid case for New Day being the best act in the company at one point. That combined with the complete lack of Heel Tag-Teams surely means New Day will win- and if they don't it'll without a doubt be the thing that pisses me off most tonight bar none.
Winner: New Day

Sheamus v Randy Orton
This is another interesting one, that really should be clear-cut but given their booking history with Money in the Bank winners it could just as easily go the other way. Randy Orton is in arguably the weirdest position in the company at present because there's no chance he'll be in the Main Event again any time soon- but at the same time he's too big a star to go after the IC Title. You can make the argument that Cena dropped down- but that was only because the storyline made sense in terms of Cena being Mr. USA who wanted to vanquish the evil Rusev- the stuff with the US Title came later.

That said Sheamus really needs this win and if it were entirely up to me booking wise I'd have Sheamus destroy Orton to set-up a big blow-off match at Summerslam before moving onto what I'd label the "Sheamus Cash-In" era where he'll start a feud with whoever's got the Belt and tease cashing in before eventually doing so to peak interest (to an extent) during the usual Autumn lull before we get around to the Rumble and Wrestlemania season.
Winner: Sheamus

Bray Wyatt v Roman Reigns
This and the following two matches honestly are impossible to call, for so many different reasons. This match is also the match that'll pretty much tell us where they're going later on in the show and for Summerslam- if Roman wins clean then he's headed for the Summerslam Main Event most likely against Brock, if Bray wins then the feud will go on and there'll be an entirely different plan for the Main Event picture of Summerslam. You can call this a gut feeling or whatever- but I don't think they're willing to expose Roman like they did for Mania this quickly, and it's for that reason that I think he'll be kept in the Upper-Midcard for now.

The question then becomes how on earth is Bray going to over without making Roman look like a fool. Enter Dean Ambrose. I didn't articulate it in my RAW Review because there were bigger fish to fry that day with everything that went on during RAW. I've got a really weird feeling they're setting it up for Ambrose to turn on Roman, and with Reigns basically ignoring what Ambrose presumably wanted in a match with Bray it may well have gotten to breaking point in that relationship. Even if they don't go down the route of an Ambrose turn- I can still see Bray winning in some way with shenanigans to either further the feud between the two, or branch off to an Ambrose/Reigns one.
Winner: Bray Wyatt

John Cena v Kevin Owens- US Title
A lot of people seem to think it's a given that Kevin Owens wins tonight. As you may have guessed if you regularly read my Predictions and/or have worked out from the way I've laid out the matches in the Headers thus far I don't think that's the case- and I'm entirely fine with Cena winning. But first, let me explain why I don't think Owens will win- and it's not just for the "Cena Wins LOL" stuff. I also can't wait for the reaction if Cena does win saying that Owens was buried- in fact it's for that reason I want it to happen more. I think it's widely accepted that Owens is Main Roster now, and after the Summerslam NYC NXT thing he'll be exclusive to the Main Roster. With that in mind- and granted they've done a good job of raising awareness of the NXT Belt and the raising the prestige of the US Title when the Title's up for grabs the US Title outranks the NXT Title every time. That's a fact. So why the hell would the US Champion go after the NXT Title and lose. That'd effectively make Cena look worse than Owens because he lost, and then in turn Balor who hasn't even made his debut yet.

You can make the argument that I'm thinking too much about it- but I don't see why tonight has to be the end to the Cena/Owens feud, because it's one of those lightning in a bottle feuds- and one thing we know with WWE is they like to get every last drop out of feuds like this one. I don't see why they can't add Cesaro to the full dynamic of the feud for Summerslam and then have Owens pin Cesaro at Summerslam to protect Cena, still have Balor go over and get the Belt on Owens. It's with all of this in mind that I'm saying...
Winner: John Cena

Seth Rollins v Brock Lesnar- WWE WHC Match
The possibilities for this match are nearly endless. What with the Undertaker rumours, the Sting rumours and then all of the other stuff like the obvious Sheamus angle, a possible Kane involvement. The list truly goes on for ages. The thing is we won't even get an inkling as to what direction they're going for this match until the Bell Rings to end the Reigns v Wyatt match. I personally can't see why Rollins would drop the Title at this stage, especially to Brock unless the plan is for Brock to immediately drop the Title to Roman which is possible, but at the same time as I've already said I can't see happening.

The question then comes as to what'll happen in order to protect Brock while still keeping the Belt on Seth. I think it'd be hilarious if Kane crashed the Main Event to end the show like Big Show did during that Orton v Bryan match- but I don't think that'll happen.

The outside shout that could happen what with Rollins basically being left on his own with J&J out and Rollins seemingly putting paid to Kane is to have Heyman turn on Brock and align with Seth. This is something I've been thinking of for a while now, and I'd love it. Paul Heyman is great when he's doing his Babyface Promos like he has done recently, but as a Heel he is out of this world- and the heat on Heyman would be Nuclear if he turns on Brock. Brock, is well... Brock he doesn't need to talk to get over, he just has to come in and fuck shit up between now and Summerslam.

Like I said on Monday, I think the perhaps obvious angle coming off the back of Monday is Kane to return under the Mask with a vengeance. I personally would hold off on that angle until after Summerslam to actually make it mean something and sell Kane's ankle injury as something serious- but you can't rule Kane interference out in some way or another completely.

Sting is the wildcard, I personally can't see an obvious way he'd slot into the scene as Taker does with the seemingly unresolved Brock angle. You could make the argument that Seth represents the Authority in a way- but that angle for me was resolved with the handshake after the best and most fun completely overbooked, not making sense mess ever at Mania. I don't know how they'd work this- and it's for that reason I don't think it's likely, but I definitely won't complain if Sting does show up, because he's Sting.

Now we get onto what's seemingly become the main talking point heading into the PPV tonight. The Undertaker rumours as far as I can tell have come from one picture that showed Taker in great shape and the Observer got onto it and now it seems as though he's likely to be appearing. The question then becomes if Taker does show up, where do they go from there. There's people saying Sting and there's people saying Brock. The Sting one is interesting- but given they're trying to do 100k+ for Mania next year I think they're going to hold off on Taker/Sting and turn the attention to Taker/Lesnar. People may question the whole Babyface/Heel stuff with Taker and Brock, with Taker seemingly helping Seth win, but for me that's just a case of Seth being lucky, which entirely fits with the way they've booked Seth as Champion. The fact is Taker showing up will pop the crowd without a doubt, that doesn't mean that Brock is any less of a Babyface. I hate to even pigeon hole Brock as a Heel or a Babyface, he's just Brock Lesnar. In short, a Taker/Brock feud is likely.

So all of this is to say, Brock is about to win- *gong* Taker comes in and Tombstones Brock and does the One Knee Pose to end the show. I think that means Brock technically wins by DQ- which'd also help because it'll mean Brock still won't have been Pinned. They could of course do a Ref Bump or like Survivor Series last year just have the Refs be completely incompetent and not call for the Bell and Brock gets pinned. But for the sake of this it's a DQ.
Winner: Brock Lesnar (but Rollins still keeps the Belt)

That went a bit longer than expected, I think I've covered all the major angles for the Main Event- which guarantees what'll actually happen will be completely different and Sheamus will Cash-In to make it a Triple Threat and pin Brock for the sole purpose of making the Internet explode.

Thanks for reading as always, I think the fact I've written as much as I have for this event shows how much hype there is for it- and for once it's actually in part due to what's actually taken place on TV. The Rollins/Brock angle has been handles almost as well as it could have been and the angle on Monday was pretty much perfect. Then you've got the Cena/Owens stuff which promises to deliver and all of the other stuff- in short I've got pretty high expectations for tonight, I'd even go as far to say that this is the event with the most expectation going into it all year- because the build for Mania was horrid. Thanks again for reading, I hope you'll join me tonight on Twitter for some top banter- and then come back here tomorrow for the Review. Thanks again for reading, and let's all not lose sight of the big picture here. If New Day Loses We Riot.