WWE Battleground

[th]No.[/th][th]Matches[/th][th]Stipulations[/th][th]1^P[/th][th]2[/th][th]3[/th][th]4[/th][th]5[/th][th]6[/th][th]7[/th]

R-Truth vs. King Barrett	Singles match for Barrett's King of the Ring crown[16]
Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt	Singles match[17]
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman)	Singles match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship[18]
Ryback (c) vs. Big Show vs. The Miz	Triple threat match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship[19]
The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) (c) vs. The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and/orXavier Woods)	Tag team match for the WWE Tag Team Championship[20]
John Cena (c) vs. Kevin Owens	Singles match for the WWE United States Championship[21]
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus	Singles match[22]

What do we think of the card? What are we expecting?

Possible Spoiler:

Barrett
Reigns
Cant call it.
Ryback
New Day
Owens
Cant call it.

I think Reigns will win and Wyatt will get more personal. Ryback winning is the obvious choice. As much as I like the PTP's I think New Day shouldnt have lost the titles, so they win them back. Owens should win this. I would be happy with either choice because Cena has been so good recently and I dont really want the Open Challenge to end, but its time to push Owens to the moon.

I cant call Orton vs Sheamus because I dont actually care about it. If I was being forced to choose I would probably fall on the side of Sheamus - He's got the most to lose.

Cant call Rollins vs Lesnar. I dont think they'll send the title away for months again and Rollins simply cannot pin Lesnar. It could be a DQ win for Lesnar, but I know this one wont end clean.

As for the spoiler:

Id be very surprised if Rollins doesn't retain via some form of DQ. Snorefest of a title reign

My prediction is Seth wins by DQ & Brock batters him afterwards leading to The Authority bringing out Sheamus to cash in after his actions on Raw.

I'm expecting Sheamus to be used as the puppet of the Authority soon. Would make sense, especially with his chumminess with HHH outside of the ring.

Spoiler:

Well, we can scratch the IC match off as Ryback got injured on Raw. Severe staph infection in his knee which will take weeks to recover from.

Shame, I actually enjoyed that story.

That kind of sucks for Ryback. I don't think he's the worst guy on the roster, but is very easy to forget, even when he had the IC. That belt seems cursed right now.

Cant hell but think CM Punk is having a bit of a chuckle to himself.

Sucks for Ryback, he's been getting better since his return in November. Wonder what they'll do instead. Make Big Show vs Miz a No1. Contender match?

R-Truth vs. King Barrett - R-Truth Winner
Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt - Wyatt Winner with interference from Harper & Rowan
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Brock Lesnar - Rollins win- authority interfere
Ryback (c) vs. Big Show vs. The Miz - with Ryback injured possible miz win or whoever they slot in the match
The Prime Time Players vs. The New Day -PTP
John Cena (c) vs. Kevin Owens - owens
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus - sheamus

That really reads like a 1 match card to me right now. Owens vs Cena.

Barrett has been buried, whether he gets some "revenge" over R-Truth or R-Truth has a plunger for a sceptre, I think only Vince is getting a giggle from this.

I don't understand how Reigns went from being in the best matches in the PPVs at the start of the year to a feud with Wyatt. How long ago is it since it was the Shield against the Wyatt family and those were the best matches on the card? Since then Wyatt's streak of matches that win or lose it means nothing has made him and any feud he's in mostly irrelevant.

Rollins vs Lesnar should interest me. And I admit I'll watch it, but I was more hyped for Brock against The New Day in Japan.

I'm figuring that Rusev gets thrown into the Show / Miz travesty.

What happened to the good tag division?

Orton vs Sheamus, is there a Roman numeral big enough for this.

I'm guessing there's some form of a Diva's type match too. Woooooo

Christ, you need to freshen your outlook a bit Promotheus. Lesnar/Rollins has the potential to be a fantastic match. I dont even wanna hear any "weak reign" nonsense, cos this is just the match now. This is one of the best talents in wrestling vs one of the better wrestlers in the world.

Think Wyatt/Reigns has some real potential based on Roman's last few PPV matches.

And the tag team division comment confuses me. This is the champs vs the best team in the division. The very over PTPs vs the very entertaining New Day.

Then obviously the Owens Cena match.

I feel for all three of Miz, Show and Ryback. Ive honestly really enjoyed that feud, I think they've used all three really well.

I'm just not "feeling" the Rollins / Lesnar match.  I love the promos that Heyman is cutting, I don't know how you can't.  I also love the presence of Brock.  But I'm really cold on this match.  I don't think that they are going to allow Rollins to wrestle to his full capacity, like he did in the 3-way with Lesnar at the Rumble.  If you'd have put this match after that, or even after he won at Mania, I'd be hot for it.  But all he's done since then is lose or win in a losing fashion.  And that's not built him up to me as a champ that I want to see get his comeuppance, I'm just really not excited by this.  As I said, I'll watch it, I'd be a fool not to, but I'm going in with really low expectations.

I would pop if Reigns just destroyed Wyatt.  Wyatt is a complete busted flush right now.  It just doesn't matter if he wins or loses, he's back spouting the same stuff a week or two later.  Have Reigns just flatten him, because Wyatt in the ring is just so meh.  He's done one interesting thing this year in the squared circle.  Well technically out of it.  The senton onto Ryback, where I legit thought Ryback had bust a couple of ribs, but that was 90% Ryback selling it.  I'm not saying Reigns is a bad wrestler, but even Bryan couldn't get a good 1:1 singles match from Bray.

I think the PTP are the least interesting team in the tag division.  Darren Young is fine, but he's just fine.  Titus I like a lot.  I dunno, I don't see more than a 3* match here.

Owens Cena I'm calling the one match on the card I want to see.

What's in store for Cesaro and Neville?  They are probably going to put those two pre-show.

A lot of WWE cards IMO I've not been hot for and have found the PPV to be quite watchable.  So the fact that on paper this does nothing for me, I know doens't necessarily mean its not going to be a good PPV.  But take Brock and Owens out of that line up and you've B card PPV written all over it.

EDIT: I know this isn't really relevant, because this is a WWE thread. But in my mind is that a few hours after Battleground the New Japan G1 tournament starts. And that's a long tournament, but I got to expect they start with a bang. So, Shibata / AJ Styles and Ibushi / Tanahashi is something I'm just a lot more excited by than the WWE card right now.

I disagree with the Wyatt match quality statement admittedly I'm higher on him in ring than most (in that I think he's decent for an explosive big guy) but Bryan vs Wyatt at last years rumble was an early MOTY contender

Hmmm I see Meltzer gave it 4*. I'd not remembered it as anything more than 3. So that's maybe just my old age, but I tend to think of Bray as only having one good match (the first Cena one) as an individual.

I mean wrestling is a broad church, but I'm much more entertained watching a more technical wrestler than a big guy. So, I tend to be less excited by the likes of Sheamus and Bray than others are. And that's okay, its just a personal preference, but I just really zone out for Wyatt's promos and his work these days.

I thought Wyatts first and third matches with Cena were both excellent. As was his match with Bryan that Dolph mentioned. I would also champion his matches with Ambrose - particularly the TLC match even though it had a shoite ending. Sure, they werent five star classics but they were enjoyable as hell.

I can't remember which one of the Wyatt / Ambrose matches was the stretcher match (or ambulance match or whatever). But its a bad gimmick to start with and man I hated that match.

I mean I really don't want to sound all Crimey. There is no male wrestler in WWE who can't put on a 3* match and more. They don't have duds any more. That is massive credit to WWE.

So, my problem coming into a PPV is the way the characters are positioned. Because if you take any of those matched and show me that tape of it in 2 to 3 years time out of context, I'll probably happily say its a 3* plus match. So, I'm not saying the card is going to such.

But do I like Bray's work? No, he's not for me. And his character is a mess IMO right now. And you know we've gone back to Bryan and Ambrose last year, but what's he done this year to make me excited that Wyatt is facing Reigns?

Rumour is that Reigns/Wyatt is expected to be one of those feuds they call back to a lot, and is even expected to run through, whilst not a continuous feud, to WrestleMania.