Thursday, March 28, 2024
EditorialWWE Battleground 2017 Predictions: Top Stars of the PPV

WWE Battleground 2017 Predictions: Top Stars of the PPV

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Following up from the breakdown of the superstars missing from Battleground 2017, let’s turn things around to the optimistic side of things to talk about the lucky few who will not only perform, but likely steal the show in some capacity.

Whether it’s in a scripted or a non-kayfabe sense by factoring in everything from wins/losses, how much of an emphasis WWE puts on that superstar, their momentum heading into the next television episode, match performance and everything between, here’s the shortlist for who I think will be coveting the most of the spotlight:

Randy Orton

A few weeks back, I thought that Jinder Mahal had this in the bag to retain the WWE Championship. With reports that Randy Orton would be taking time off and that a John Cena vs. Jinder Mahal feud was on the horizon, everything pointed in that direction.

Now that Cena has been teasing a match with AJ Styles for the United States Championship, that feeling went straight out the window. Instead, I’m leaning much more heavily toward Orton regaining the title, only to see a Baron Corbin cash-in.

If I were booking things, this wouldn’t necessarily be the route I’d want WWE to go down, but I’m getting a sneaking suspicion we’ll see Shinsuke Nakamura defeat Corbin earlier in the night just to snatch the new title away from Orton. After all, the best way for a cash-in to make sense is for a heel to pick apart a babyface after they wrestle a grueling contest and the Punjabi Prison looks more than capable of fulfilling that end of the bargain.

While he won’t walk out as the champion at the end of the night, Orton will have at least dethroned Jinder Mahal and won the Punjabi Prison match, so he’ll have checked off two major accolades.

Baron Corbin

To piggyback off the previous entry and repeat myself a bit, I think Corbin will be losing against Nakamura, but this will be a two-fold approach as it keeps Nakamura without a pinfall loss and it sets up the crowd to think less of Corbin before he comes out to invoke his title opportunity.

It’s a huge possibility The Lone Wolf leaves Battleground with the WWE Championship around his waist—or, more likely, over his shoulder, as he seems like a belt-carrier and not a belt-wearer to me—and rest assured, if that happens, Corbin will undoubtedly be the top star of the evening.

This will carry him the next few weeks into SummerSlam, where he’ll be in one of the main events. I specify “one of” because there’s absolutely no way Baron Corbin vs. Randy Orton will be booked to go on after Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship defense.

Still, this will be the start of at least a few weeks of a title reign, if not a few months, for Corbin, so it will be the biggest night in his WWE career so far.

Tamina

All signs point to Tamina being the winner of the Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match to determine the No. 1 contender to Naomi’s SmackDown Women’s Championship.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a story for anybody at the moment other than Tamina and Lana, and since we’ve seen Lana already get her ass handed to her by the champion, Snuka is prime for a title opportunity.

The elimination pattern is anybody’s guess, as it really doesn’t matter who goes out first, second, third or even fourth—just who wins in the end. Just for shits and giggles, though, let’s toss out a prediction anyway: Lana goes first, then Natalya, then Becky, then Charlotte.

John Cena

The Franchise Player cut a promo this week saying that despite everything else on the card, the one thing people will remember from Battleground will be his Flag Match with Rusev.

While that sounds quite grandiose and implausible, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt in some regards—namely, WWE’s tendency to tell you that you loved something even if you didn’t.

Cena vs. Rusev could very well be the worst match of the night if it’s booked in a ridiculous way, and either man winning could result in a disappointed crowd. Whenever Cena wins, there’s a groan of “told you so” and with Rusev winning, some people will undoubtedly think “but it doesn’t mean anything because it’s just a Flag Match and he didn’t pin him or make him submit.” Then, there will be speculation about where WWE goes from here with both men and blah blah blah.

However, that shouldn’t stop WWE from telling us on Talking Smack after the pay-per-view, on Raw the night after and on the next episode of SmackDown how it was “one of the most grueling contests ever” and a battle for the ages and so forth. With Cena looking like the weaker of the two for the go-home show of SmackDown, that makes me place my bets that he’ll be swinging the American flag on Sunday night and then cutting a victory celebration promo on the SmackDown to follow, where he’ll start a new feud with Jinder Mahal going into SummerSlam as a triple threat scenario for AJ Styles’ United States Championship.

The Honorable Mentions

While there are other matches on the card and all of those segments will see a winner and a loser, I don’t think anything else will stand out in comparison to the names listed above. Is anybody going to care if Shinsuke Nakamura defeats Baron Corbin, or if Tye Dillinger beats Aiden English? It’s doubtful when in relation to a Money in the Bank cash-in, a new #1 contender and a temporary 14th title reign for The Viper.

I’m also very on the fence about the SmackDown Tag Team Championship match, as I just can’t decide which team will walk away with the titles, and I think it will be overshadowed even if The New Day become the new champions. Likewise, AJ Styles retaining the United States Championship against Kevin Owens isn’t going to make giant ripples in the WWE Universe, although they can very likely have the best match of the night.

Those are my picks, but who do you think will end up being the primary focal points? Drop your predictions in the comments below!

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