Early Match Announcements for WWE Battleground 2015 Allows for Better Buildup

The build for WWE Battleground 2015's matches will have a chance to kick into a high gear. 

Thank WWE abandoning its recent habit of waiting too long to announce these bouts. Thank a longer stretch of time to create hype, for stories to develop and for anticipation to rise.

Too often, matches feel thrown together on a pay-per-view card. They get slapped onto the lineup just days before the event, becoming last-minute additions that have no momentum. With Battleground, at least, that won't be an issue.

The company is telling fans what to expect early. As of this writing, WWE.com lists five matches for the Battleground card:

• Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt
• The Miz vs. Big Show vs. Ryback (Intercontinental Championship)
• The New Day vs. The Prime Time Players (Tag Team Championship)
• Kevin Owens vs. John Cena (United States Championship)
• Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins

That's sure to be over half of the lineup, and we are still four weeks away from the pay-per-view. That's a departure from WWE's normal M.O., as well as a different approach than what TNA has employed for Slammiversary. 

As the TNAslyum Twitter account points out, Battleground's total of five announced bouts is more than the TNA show set for this weekend can boast:

WWE's recent overflowing schedule has forced the company into having cards feel incomplete going into the last days before a pay-per-view arrives. The calendar just featured a wild stretch where major events popped up every two weeks. That threw off the normal process of letting stories unfold, announcing matches and then hyping them.

Even before that, though, WWE gave matches little time to build.

Leading up to Fastlane, for example, WWE told fans just days before the event that Stardust would face Goldust for the first time. As a result, the hype train didn't have time to get out of the station. That should have felt like a marquee match, not an inconsequential add-on.  

Credit: WWE.com

Survivor Series 2014 featured a Divas Traditional Survivor Series Elimination match. Fans had just a five-day heads-up about the contest. 

And the announcement came by way of WWE.com rather than on a WWE show, making the matchup feel even less significant.

For Battleground, though, WWE is having even lower-card clashes go up on the marquee early. Both the IC and tag title matches are the kind of bouts the company would typically tack onto the show just before the pay-per-view rolled around.

Going with earlier announcements is a refreshing shift in philosophy. 

WWE can now dig into the story of The New Day looking to shake off their losses and get back their mojo before their title match. With the title bout on the horizon, every match featuring the heel trio means more now. It's part of the buildup, not just a part of everyday programming.

As for Ryback and his two opponents, there is far more time to try to create excitement around the title contest.

Had WWE not told us who would be taking on The Big Guy, fans would be guessing whether it would be The Miz, Big Show, both of them or a surprise option who looked to dethrone him. Now WWE can move from the question of who will be fighting Ryback to why we should care.

That's been missing with the recent flurry of pay-per-views seemingly stacked onto each other. It had been missing before that thanks to the lineups for WWE events being constructed so late.

A longer buildup allows for personal issues to fester more and for fans' excitement about seeing the collision increase.

As noted by USA Today, officials announced Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao on Feb. 20. The superfight didn't occur until May 2. Anticipation swelled for the bout during that stretch. Previews, interviews and predictions popped up everywhere.

WWE, of course, isn't afforded the luxury of having that long in between matches. Still, it's a reminder in how building suspense can better an event, whether the action lives up to the hype or not.

With Battleground, WWE is getting a chance to be more like boxing in that regard. Rather than hurry the card-building process along, the company finally has room to let feuds boil over and more anticipation to not be a forgotten element.