WWE Battleground 2015: Final Picks, Predictions for All Bouts on the Card
Seth Rollins' judgment day is upon us.
At Battleground, the egotistical and braggadocious WWE World Heavyweight champion will face the man he robbed of the title back at WrestleMania 31, Brock Lesnar, in the biggest main event match since that fateful night in March.
Rollins has been able to dodge the attack of The Beast Incarnate to this point, but without the protection of J&J Security and backup of Director of Operations Kane, there will be nowhere to run or hide when he stands across the squared circle from the most dominant force in professional wrestling.
Speaking of dominant forces, Kevin Owens will attempt to replace the NXT Championship with the United States title when he battles John Cena in their third consecutive pay-per-view bout. The previous two have been Match of the Year candidates and with expectations high, there will be pressure on both to deliver.
With an undercard touting Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton vs. Sheamus, Battleground appears to be a show that could come from out of nowhere to be one of the better offerings by WWE all year.
Who will leave the night's matches victorious, riding a wave of momentum just in time for SummerSlam?
Find out now with these final picks and predictions for every match on the card.
R-Truth vs. King Barrett
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R-Truth has been a thorn in the side of Wade Barrett dating back to the buildup to WrestleMania 31, where he scored several victories over the then-intercontinental champion to earn his spot in the ladder match for that same title.
In the wake of the King of the Ring tournament, the issues between the Superstars have intensified. Truth scored a pre-show match victory over Barrett and immediately began referring to himself as "King What's Up."
Another win on the July 13 episode of Raw only strengthened his claim to the crown—at least in his own mind.
Now facing a very real threat to his title as the 2015 King of the Ring, Barrett must exorcise the skeleton that is Truth or lose everything he worked for.
Prediction: King Barrett
There is so much more potential in Barrett as the King of the Ring than Truth.
At his best, Barrett is a heat machine whose ability to talk down to the audience generates heat. He is unlikable and the type of villain who could make the king gimmick work for him in the same way Booker T did back in 2006. That is, if he is given the opportunity.
Should Truth win, it would render the entire King of the Ring tournament worthless. It would be yet another comedic element added to a performer who is, at best, an opening match act designed to pop the crowd and get them ready for the rest of the show.
Barrett should win this one, decisively, and move onto bigger or better things before any more irreparable damage is done to his credibility.
WWE Tag Team Title Match: Prime Time Players vs. the New Day
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The Elimination Chamber pay-per-view featured the first ever tag team championship match to be held in the show's namesake match. The Prime Time Players exploded into the match and came within seconds of capturing the titles but found themselves the victim of the numbers game played by New Day.
They righted that wrong at Money in the Bank, as Titus O'Neil and Darren Young won their first tag team championships.
In the weeks that have followed, they have won numerous six-man tag bouts, but it is New Day who enters with momentum on their side, with a big win over the Lucha Dragons on the July 16 episode of SmackDown getting them back to their winning ways.
Prediction: The New Day
It was nice to see the Prime Time Players finally get a tag title reign, but they are not nearly as over with the audience as management probably would have liked, and as a result, their brief run with the gold should come to an end Sunday night.
The New Day is a faction that has made the absolute most out of their heel run and, despite their recent string of losses, remains more over with fans than the majority of the heels elsewhere on the roster. Giving them back the titles and building them up for a bigger, more popular team to eventually knock off is exactly what the tag division needs at this point.
O'Neil and Young can continue to hang around the title picture, but this is the era of the New Day and they should champion tag team wrestling in WWE for the time being.
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus
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Leading into June's Money in the Bank pay-per-view, Randy Orton and Sheamus developed a rivalry that seemed to be pointing at a high-profile match between the two sometime in the near future. Instead, The Viper disappeared from television for a few weeks while the winner of the ladder match, the Celtic Warrior, underwhelmed in the immediate aftermath of his win.
When Orton did return, he delivered a huge RKO to his rival, reigniting their issues and setting them on course for war at Battleground.
With The Viper failing to make much of an impact here in 2015, and Sheamus in need of a big win coming off of his Money in the Bank victory, which Superstar will leave St. Louis in far better shape than he entered?
Prediction: Randy Orton
It would make more sense for WWE to use this match as a way to put Sheamus over strong, thus giving him some momentum heading into the late summer and early fall months as the holder of the coveted Money in the Bank briefcase.
Add to that the fact that Sunday's show takes place in Orton's hometown of St. Louis and WWE's love for having the hometown star lose, and you have further reason to believe the Celtic Warrior will somehow manage a victory.
But do not hold your breath.
Unless the rivalry is to continue into SummerSlam and Sheamus scores some sort of shady win, expect Orton to deliver an RKO that sends the fans home happy and secures him his first major pay-per-view win since WrestleMania 31.
United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Kevin Owens
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At Elimination Chamber, Kevin Owens stunned the wrestling world by defeating John Cena clean in the middle of the ring, a rarity for anyone, let alone a fresh call-up from developmental. That victory led to the NXT champion breaking out and becoming one of the most buzzed-about stars on the roster.
That the contest resulted in a Match of the Year candidate only helped fuel WWE Creative's desire to book it again some three weeks later at Money in the Bank.
At that show, Cena got his win back, becoming the first man to pin Owens' shoulders to the mat. Rather than killing his momentum, the loss added gasoline to the fire as the Canadian proved unsportsmanlike, refusing Cena's sign of respect and powerbombing him on the ring apron.
Owens has refused every opportunity to fight Cena since then, instead waiting until his next opportunity on pay-per-view to take the United States Championship from around the waist of his bitter rival.
Fueling his desire is the fact that he lost his NXT Championship to Finn Balor at Brock Lesnar: The Beast In The East on July 4.
Prediction: Kevin Owens
Owens must win this match, if only because failing to do so would result in a scenario eerily similar to those involving Bray Wyatt and Rusev, in which both were much worse off for having been beaten two out of three times by Cena, their sole victories erased by the finality of the last matches.
For Owens to sustain his momentum and for WWE Creative to continue building him into a heel that can rule over the company for the next handful of years, they have to do the right thing and put him over Cena for the U.S. title.
Sure, that would eliminate Cena's U.S. title open challenges from Raw, but it would also build a star for the future rather than worrying only about the present and selling neon-colored t-shirts.
Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt
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At Money in the Bank, Roman Reigns was inches away from seizing the Money in the Bank briefcase and earning a guaranteed shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship when Bray Wyatt appeared and shoved him off of the ladder.
"Anyone but you," became Wyatt's battle cry, denouncing the idea that Reigns is the face of the future. He played mind games with the juggernaut, targeting his family—his daughter, to be specific. It messed with Reigns, allowing fans to see a weaker side of him than they ever had before.
But on the July 13 episode of Raw, he fought back, displaying the frustration and fury so many were waiting for as he attacked Wyatt, leaving the New Face of Fear scurrying for safety. Days later, on SmackDown, he again got the best of the Reaper of Souls, standing tall to end the broadcast as his tormentor watched from the ramp.
Will Wyatt get the last laugh, proving that the mental game of chess that he has played over the last month has been effective, or will Reigns power through, displaying more mental toughness than his opponent anticipated?
Prediction: Roman Reigns
WWE does not seem all that concerned with wins and losses when it comes to the Wyatt character. He always manages to bounce back, paired with another main event talent in some overly complicated angle in order to regain his heat.
With Reigns still hanging around the top of the card, waiting for that moment to ascend to the top of the WWE mountain as its heavyweight champion and face of the future, he certainly needs the win here more than Wyatt.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins
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The issues between Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins date back to last September, when Rollins tried to cash in Money in the Bank on the Beast Incarnate. While he failed to do so at that time, thanks in large part to an interjection by John Cena, he succeeded just months later at the biggest stage known to sports entertainment.
At WrestleMania 31, Rollins scored the biggest win and moment of his career when he successfully cashed in and captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by pinning Roman Reigns. Brock Lesnar, the most dominant champion of the last decade, was robbed of his title without ever being beaten.
After a four-month suspension handed down by The Authority, he was brought back by that same prominent couple to challenge an ungrateful Rollins for the same championship The Architect manipulated his way to at the Showcase of the Immortals.
Rarely is a secondary pay-per-view event treated to such a high-profile main event as Battleground will be Sunday night when The Beast attempts to dismantle the man once referred to as the "chosen one" by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
Prediction: Brock Lesnar
Recent booking suggests that Rollins will find a way to cheat and retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Unfortunately for The Architect, ratings have sunk to recent lows with him as the centerpiece of the show, and it would not be out of the question for Vince McMahon and WWE Creative to panic and take the title off of him, opting instead to put it back on the biggest box office attraction in the industry.
Lesnar winning pays off the story and allows WWE to promote a bigger, higher profile match for SummerSlam next month.
Whether the finish involves further dissension between Rollins and The Authority, while perhaps setting up a match between him and Triple H at the summertime extravaganza, bears watching.
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