At WWE Battleground 2017, fan favorites John Cena and Randy Orton will both be in action, but will both be on the winning side? The latest WWE rumors give a picture as to who will win the Punjabi Prison match featuring Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal for the WWE World Championship, as well as the Flag Match between John Cena and Rusev. Three of the four SmackDown Live stars were featured prominently on the latest episode, with one notably missing. Here are the latest details on who will win the two matches as well as where “The Viper” was during SmackDown .
According to WWE Leaks , the match betting odds for Battleground have been shifting, but only slightly. John Cena was a -300 favorite and moved to -280, seeing his odds to defeat Rusev dip a bit. Rusev went from +220 to +200 for his odds to win the Flag Match which carries a stipulation that the winner’s flag is displayed prominently after a win. As far as the Punjabi Prison match for the WWE World Championship, the reigning champion, the “Modern Day Maharaja” looks like he’ll retain. He’s currently a three to 10 favorite at the Paddy Power sports novelty odds while Randy Orton is an 11 to five underdog to win.
John Cena and Rusev were involved on opposite sides of a tag team match on Tuesday’s SmackDown Live . Cena initially tried to challenge new United States Champion AJ Styles at the start of the show, leading to an attack by Kevin Owens and Rusev on the duo. So Styles and Cena teamed up for the main event and emerged with a win after a Phenomenal Forearm and an Attitude Adjustment. The finale of their match featured a show of mutual respect between Cena and Styles but a tease for a future championship match between them.
Meanwhile, Jinder Mahal had a non-title match against “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger, which he won cleanly and without outside help from The Singh Brothers. The match lasted nearly eight minutes according to ProWrestling.net in their SmackDown results . While Dillinger built up some late momentum in the match with a flying forearm and punches in the corner, Jinder cut things short with a running knee lift. Soon after, he hit the Cobra Clutch Slam to get the pinfall win, and then cut his promo on the mic regarding the lack of respect he gets. Jinder also said that fans will see the Punjabi Prison on next week’s SmackDown and he’ll “bring hell directly” to Randy Orton with it.
Noticeably absent from SmackDown Live was “The Viper” Randy Orton. As Wrestling Inc reported, Orton was in Thailand filming for the movie Changeland which also stars Seth Green and Breckin Meyer. Orton is set to make a return to next week’s SmackDown just before the Battleground pay-per-view scheduled for Sunday, July 23 in Philadelphia.
WWE fans, do you expect John Cena and Jinder Mahal will win their matches at Battleground pay-per-view, or will their opponents get surprise wins?
[Featured Image by WWE]
