WWE Battleground: WWE Intercontinental Championship Battle Royal

[Jack-Hammer]

A few minutes ago on Raw, an update on Wade Barrett's condition was presented and Barrett's separated shoulder will require surgery that will have him out for a number of months. It sucks as Barrett was doing great, but the title has been vacated and the new IC champ will be determined via a battle royal at Battleground.

They didn't say how many men will be in the battle royal, but Kofi Kingston & Ceasro are two of them. So, as of right now, the field for the new IC title is wide open.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Dolph Ziggler NEEDS to win this match. Absolutely needs to. Last night he proved he is THE most over superstar in the company, getting a bigger reaction than all three former Shield members combined, and yet WWE books him as a complete joke. He's on the verge of becoming completely and permanently irrelevant. Dolph Ziggler NEEDS to be the next Intercontinental Champion, or he'll wind up released before the end of the year.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

A shame this had to happen to Barrett. After all the setbacks and misfires, you got the feeling Barrett was finally on the right track for the first time in years. Who knows, if he'll regain the same amount of momentum again after another return.

I'll pick Cesaro as the winner. It's getting to the point, where Cesaro needs another significant win now. Heyman can only cling to the Andre Battle Royal win for bragging rights in promos for so long, and Kofi Kingston doesn't need another run with the IC title.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

At least Barrett has a readymade feud when he comes back. I like this idea. WWE proved at Mania that they can do an entertaining battle royal. Cesaro is the favorite to win given he is the Andre the Giant performance. I'm guessing 15 guys or so with Cesaro winning and Heyman gloating about that.

 

[Pedigree1]

This sucks balls! Damnit,Barrett can't catch a break to save his life it seems.. Just when he gets some steam and his gimmick catches on,he gets injured.. He is a fine wrestler and a great competitor,I love the BNB Gimmick..

As to who wins the BR,it has to be Cesaro.. He is Heymans guy,and a strap would make Heyman gloat to the moon and back.. Cesaro is a machine in the ring,and while not ready for the WWE WHC,is definitely ready for the IC strap.. Heyman what a year he has had,His Client ending the Takers Undefeated streak at WM,Cesaro winning the Andre the Giant Battle Royal,Cesaro winning the IC battle Royal!!

 

[Notorious718]

I'm legitimately upset that Barrett was stripped of the title since I also thought he was riding a wave of momentum only to crash and burn. Really sucks and I wish for his speedy recovery. As for the next champion? I'd like to see Cesaro win it. Right now, it doesn't look like he has much going for him in terms of direction especially if Cena is gonna headline Summerslam against Brock Lesnar. Like what Rollins did at MITB, Cesaro really needs a signature victory outside of his Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal win to solidify himself as a star and validate his alliance with Paul Heyman.

 

[Mudlup50]

I love how Ziggler needs this match and so does Cesaro. Khali being introduced is stupid, Sandow probably has no chance of winning this. And that's everybody announced so far I believe so

 

[Viola Moonlight]

Simple and effective.

Battle Royale's are always fun for the fans and can provide for an excellent opener for Battleground. You can cram as many talents into the match as you like, even if half of them haven't been on television in a long time. You always need bodies to throw over-the-top to make the other top tier talent look better. It also makes the winner unpredictable and it will make the fans excited. Good choice.

As for the confirmed, Cesaro is the favourite to win thus far. Kofi Kingston will be in there for the awesome spot whilst Great Khali provides the proverbial "big man threat" that every Battle Royale needs. Damien Sandow is great for comedy relief. Nice little tease as to the type of talents that'll be involved in this match.

It sucks Barrett is out but hopefully he'll go down the route of what Daniel Bryan described by recovering, coming back and picking up where he left off. As for now, give someone else the time to shine.

------------------------------------------

Also, if there was ever a time to debut Sami Zayn, this Battle Royale would be the best time. His gimmick is that of an international superstar looking to hone his craft and become the best: it goes hand-in-hand with the Intercontinental Title and having him debut to chase after it (or if he is lucky, win it) would be awesome for him. Makes this Battle Royale even more exciting.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The field is pretty much wide open, so I don't see any overwhelming favorite among the participants who're already named.

However, I'd say the favorite going in is probably Cesaro. This will be the first ppv in which both Paul Heyman's "clients" will be on the same card and there's a very strong likelihood that Brock Lesnar leaves SummerSlam as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. He'll probably drop the strap back to Cena at Night of Champions so Cena can "officially" tie Ric Flair's record for having the most World Championship reigns in history. Of course, Seth Rollins could try cashing in his MITB briefcase and what better time to do so than when Cena is beaten to the point of exhaustion after a match against Lesnar?

As for Cesaro, given that both he & Lesnar will be on the card, I think WWE will go the route of giving Heyman a very, very good night with "Paul Heyman Guys" holding the top two titles for the first time simultaneously.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Cesaro is the favourite but with how he's been booked so far with all these losses, it wouldn't suprise me if he didn't win it. Of course this could just be WWE throwing us off though. It's not like Cesaro hasn't looked strong while taking the losses. Ziggler also needs it as others have said. I'd say it will come down to those two in the Battle Royal.

 

[thebarber]

Im hoping that Wyatt and Jericho are thrown into the battle royal also, prolonging theirt eventual 1-1 match until Summerslam.
Jericho is a 9 time IC Champ, have him win the battle royal and become the first ever 10 time IC Champion, have him last eliminate Wyatt. Cop a beatdown from the family afterwards and lead to Bray Wyatt vs Chirs Jericho for the IC Title at Summerslam. Gives the IC title the rub it needs and kick on from the great work Barrett has done. Jericho is only going to be elevating guys from here in, give him a win so he can be taken credibly after the Fandango debarcle last year.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I think being stripped of the title is the best thing for Barrett. That belt doesn't do a thing for anybody. When people hold it WWE think that's enough to get them over and they don't involve them in anything of importance. Have Barrett appear on TV whilst he's injured and he should be fine.

Cesaro wins this for me. But it is unimportant. I'm slowly (and sadly) starting to realise that Cesaro just doesn't have it. And a I.C. title reign and Paul Heyman aren't going to change that.

Put the belt on somebody completely random I say. Ryback, maybe. I love me some Ryback.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As of this morning, the wrestlers in this match are:

1. Sheamus
2. Cesaro
3. Alberto Del Rio
4. Dolph Ziggler
5. Rob Van Dam
6. Kofi Kingston
7. Big E
8. Bo Dallas
9. The Great Khali
10. Ryback
11. Curtis Axel
12. Damien Sandow
13. Fandango

I'm guessing that the final total will 20 as it generally seems to be the classic number for battle royals, aside from the Royal Rumble, that's used most often.

 

[HBsam31]

I was loving Wade Barrett, and it is a shame he got hurt again. He can't seem to catch a break. Surprised no one has mentioned Sheamus winning and Unifying the titles as I suppose that is a possibility, Cesaro has been losing week in and week out so I could definitely see him winning to get back on track. Ziggler is another one who is really gaining steam again and I could see him pulling it out. This match seems wide open, but have to agree with the rest that Cesaro will probably win it.

 

[WarroBODFan]

Adam Rose vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Big E vs. Bo Dallas vs. Cesaro vs. Curtis Axel vs. Damien Sandow vs. Diego vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Fandango vs. Heath Slater vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Rob Van Dam vs. R-Truth vs. Ryback vs. Sheamus vs. Sin Cara vs. The Great Khali vs. The Miz vs. Titus O'Neil vs. Xavier Woods vs. Zack Ryder

Who you got?

Part of me is leaning towards a freaky lucky win for Bo Dallas. If you're going to piss off half the roster, you may as well do it with the IC strap.

Cesaro is the easy pick IMO. I was thinking about whether they could go forward with Cesaro V Sheamus and a possible title unification, but I don't see that happening now, especially with the big gold possibly being retired. Ziggler will again be the most over guy in the match, but no way I'm getting my hopes up for him to win. Other than that, I'm not really sure who else could be in contention.

 

[kadroan]

The field is pretty much wide open, so I don't see any overwhelming favorite among the participants who're already named.

However, I'd say the favorite going in is probably Cesaro. This will be the first ppv in which both Paul Heyman's "clients" will be on the same card and there's a very strong likelihood that Brock Lesnar leaves SummerSlam as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. He'll probably drop the strap back to Cena at Night of Champions so Cena can "officially" tie Ric Flair's record for having the most World Championship reigns in history. Of course, Seth Rollins could try cashing in his MITB briefcase and what better time to do so than when Cena is beaten to the point of exhaustion after a match against Lesnar?

As for Cesaro, given that both he & Lesnar will be on the card, I think WWE will go the route of giving Heyman a very, very good night with "Paul Heyman Guys" holding the top two titles for the first time simultaneously.

I really hope they don't have Brock win the title at Summerslam, just to lose at NoC. It would be so predictable. I'd rather for him to win it at NoC, just to be unpredictable.

However, looking at the bigger picture, Cena is their guy right now until they ready for Reigns to take over. Cena tying Flair's record at NoC and Rollins cash in on him would be huge. Probably would be the best time for Rollins to be champ since I doubt they'd let him be champ during WrestleMania season.

I guess Brock could get another reign in time for WrestleMania season while Cena breaks the record when he wins the title back from Rollins (if he was to get the reign).

 

[future admin]

It is 100% time to unify these titles, take the easy route with Sheamus winning the Battle Royal, this way it's unneeded to have a feud over the titles. It can just be finished with. The Intercontinental title has become nothing but a detriment to the holder, the US title is as good as an accessory, unify the titles and have a legitimate feuds so that mid card titles can have some sort of prestige.

 

[JoeGuar]

It is 100% time to unify these titles, take the easy route with Sheamus winning the Battle Royal, this way it's unneeded to have a feud over the titles. It can just be finished with. The Intercontinental title has become nothing but a detriment to the holder, the US title is as good as an accessory, unify the titles and have a legitimate feuds so that mid card titles can have some sort of prestige.

As much as I'd hate to see Sheamus win this, it almost seems inevitable that this will happen. Not only do they have Michael Cole mentioning the possible unification almost every time Sheamus is in a match, but the race for both titles has been kind of uneventful as of late and I think WWE realizes this.

But this is actually a good thing, in my opinion. Look at the guys in the battle royale; while some of them are completely jokes, we're seeing a lot of great talent in Cesaro, Ziggler, Ryder, etc. If the titles were unified, we'd see a midcard worth watching, not to mention that with the supposed retiring of the big gold belt (and the resulting loss of a possible #2 title), this is a great opportunity for WWE to highlight so much of the great talent they have right now with a secondary belt.

A #2 title is almost imperative right now, so that the fragile main event group of Cena, Orton, Reigns, Rollins, Ambrose, etc. doesn't get stale too quickly. This is what I feel WWE is lacking compared to past eras. In the past, the race for the WWE Championship wasn't the only belt-centric storyline worth watching. There was heated competition for almost every belt, and this was also part of what made the Heavyweight/WWE belt split so useful. It gave wrestlers who weren't top stars the chance to prove themselves, and if a unification of the U.S./IC titles is what will bring this back, I'm all for it.

 

[MartialHorror]

I think it's obvious that the Great Khali will be the winner because he has the most technical skill in the ring.

 

[Dagger Dias]

This should be a fun match. I could see it going on as one of the first matches of the show, if the tag team match does not open the show then this one surely will. It would get the fans excited for the rest of the show. These match types are always fun to me and usually quite enjoyable to watch. It's tragic that Barrett had an injury, but at least WWE is making the best of the situation by putting this match on. When looking through the list of competitors there are a few who have absolutely no chance of winning this and are only in it to increase the number of participants. Ryder, Diego, Slater, Truth, and Titus all come to mind.

Ryback and Axel are not going to win. Why give either of them the win when neither of them have been doing so well in a tag team? Sin Cara will have some interesting spots, but likely will not win. I would make the same prediction for RVD and Ziggler. Xavier is too new to get a title run at this point. Hey, Sheamus is in this match! He would be a top pick of mine, if he weren't already US Champion. Not going to happen. Why make him hold both titles if you are not going to advertise a higher profile match for the champion VS champion encounter? Also, why put your US Champion in an Intercontinental Battle Royal in the first place? That had me scratching my head. I'm still a fan and will still root for him, but he won't win.

Khali will get eliminated by lots of other wrestlers teaming up to get him out. Sure he's popular in other countries, but he's not worth putting the belt on. Then we have the three who I hope do NOT win. Miz, Fandango, and Bo. Sadly, Fandango winning is not out of the question. It would further his storyline with Summer and Layla for him to hold the belt and try to win them back. That doesn't mean I want to see it happen though. Bo shouldn't win this unless he drops the idiotic Bo-lieve gimmick. It's horrible and I have no desire to ever watch that character in a championship push. Miz sucks at anything other than promos, they should keep him around for his MizTV segments and not make him Intercontinental Champion.

Big E's reign was just as boring as he is so he should not win again but if he does it would still be better than Miz, Fandango, or Bo winning. Kofi winning is not an impossibility, but he has had so many other Intercontinental Championship reigns. What could they do this time around that would be different? I'm a little skeptical of him winning for that reason even though I am a fan of his and wouldn't mind seeing it happen. Then there's Del Rio. This would be good for him. Putting the Intercontinental Championship on a former World Heavyweight Champion is a good idea for the belt as well as for Del Rio as he seems to have nothing better to do. Last but not least, we have my pick to win this thing.... Cesaro. Ever since Barrett got injured Cesaro immediately became who I predicted would win the belt next. If he will still have Heyman supporting him then it could accomplish what WWE hoped to with the Heyman and Axel alliance. In the end, it should end up being an entertaining match that goes on earlier in the show.

DAGGER'S PREDICTION
Cesaro will win the Intercontinental Championship.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Utterly useless and a waste...


Unless Bo Dallas wins it. Fits perfectly with his character, his trajectory, and will enhance how much it puts someone over when he drops it....Maybe to a freshly turned anti-hero Wade Barret in 3 or 4 months.

 

[Slash-LN]

Utterly useless and a waste...


Unless Bo Dallas wins it. Fits perfectly with his character, his trajectory, and will enhance how much it puts someone over when he drops it....Maybe to a freshly turned anti-hero Wade Barret in 3 or 4 months.

I'm rooting for Bo too.
It would probably gain him a little heat from the marks that can't stand him.
It would bring joy to me as a mark for him who thinks he's great in his role.

Realistically I see them having Miz win given that he just got back and they're trying to push him it seems.

The options are so shitty no matter who wins. God there's a lot of suckage in this line up. I'd only care to see a couple people win and even then I wouldn't care a great deal if one of them did.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

Alberto Del Rio wasn't ever eliminated. I just watched it again. He went under the bottom rope, and stood on the other side. He did the Cross Armbreaker on Dolph. Once he let go he stood on the outside, and then Dolph kicked him off. The announcers screamed that he was eliminated, but he never went over the top. It's this type of bullshit that makes me hate WWE sometimes. This is especially worse when the winner of the match was someone who went under the bottom rope a few times to escape being eliminated.

 

[Mudlup50]

Alberto Del Rio wasn't ever eliminated. I just watched it again. He went under the bottom rope, and stood on the other side. He did the Cross Armbreaker on Dolph. Once he let go he stood on the outside, and then Dolph kicked him off. The announcers screamed that he was eliminated, but he never went over the top. It's this type of bullshit that makes me hate WWE sometimes. This is especially worse when the winner of the match was someone who went under the bottom rope a few times to escape being eliminated.

I didn't watch but maybe they're going to use it as a storyline? Del Rio never got eliminated, he was cheated over like he is pretty much every...single...week, well PPV Miz can be a heel and Del Rio can threaten to ruin his face! Make it work, I'd be interested in this feud plus it would push back the unification and maybe Sheamus would defend his title at a PPV..of course not at SummerSlam, too many good matches in that card why hurt it with a Sheamus squash?

 

[Slash-LN]

Alberto Del Rio wasn't ever eliminated. I just watched it again. He went under the bottom rope, and stood on the other side. He did the Cross Armbreaker on Dolph. Once he let go he stood on the outside, and then Dolph kicked him off. The announcers screamed that he was eliminated, but he never went over the top. It's this type of bullshit that makes me hate WWE sometimes. This is especially worse when the winner of the match was someone who went under the bottom rope a few times to escape being eliminated.

Yep. I double checked to be sure.

Maybe they'll do what that Mudlup50 poster said and use it as a storyline.

Although I have a feeling they'll pretend it never happened.