8 Huge WWE Battleground 2017 Predictions You Need To Know

American Dreams and Punjabi Nightmares.

By Michael Hamflett /

The last pay-per-view before SummerSlam took a while to come together following the monumental happenings of June's Money In The Bank supercard, but the July 4th return of John Cena kicked the blue brand back into life as the deck was reshuffled one last time before the biggest show of the summer.

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After the multi-person ladder matches required the male and female rosters to bundle together in June, pairings have emerged since then that should provide more satisfying payoffs for the typically forgotten July show.

Matches pitting AJ Styles against Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura against Baron Corbin and Jinder Mahal against Randy Orton should all mark the end of the respective conflicts, promising at least something resembling a conclusive finish even if WWE rarely commits to such a thing in the modern era.

The WWE Title clash has an additional layer of intrigue, not just because of the terrifying surroundings 'The Maharaja' and 'The Viper' find themselves in, but also for how the booking committee intend to work around Orton's salient point that Mahal has been largely useless in big matches without the help of the Singh Brothers. A much greater intervention might be required if he wishes to escape his personally selected battleground with the brand's top prize still in his possession.

8. Perfect Ten...Again

Tye Dillinger's entire main event run is starting to look as though it was manufactured strictly as a shortsighted favour to the long-suffering developmental star.

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Experiencing a soft-launch at January's Royal Rumble in a rare example of WWE caving to the enthusiasm of the live crowd, his placement at #10 in the battle royal looked assured following an outstanding NXT TakeOver: Toronto clash with Bobby Roode that briefly propelled his catchphrase into the wrestling zeitgeist.

There was similar inevitability about his post-WrestleMania call-up too. Though he'd never managed to have an angle more significant than the aforementioned Roode feud, his tenures with the company, in-ring proficiency and overwhelming backstage popularity backstage made him a safe bet for introducing to the fold on Tuesday Nights.

Though he was successful in debut squashes (over, of all people, Aiden English), he first lost his finisher, and then lost his TV time. It was as if the company had forgotten that he'd had his promotion, and after weeks of total absence, he was fed to Jinder Mahal in a soul-crushingly formulaic squash.

It's those types of demeaning defeats that have defined English's own run following the exit of his Vaudevillains partner Simon Gotch. The result is sure to be the same here, though it's hard to see how yet another meaningless victory can propel the 'Perfect 10' past his status as a solid 7.

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