WWE Battleground 2015 match card preview: Sheamus vs. Randy Orton

Viper vs. Warrior

It's the RKO versus the Brogue Kick! Two of WWE's upper card mainstays will go to war at Battleground as the Apex Predator and the Celtic Warrior try to settle their differences once and for all.

The Road to Battleground

Randy Orton and Sheamus viciously beat the hell out of each other multiple times heading in to last month's Money In The Bank event. Sheamus got the last laugh by winning the briefcase on that night. The next night on Raw, Randy Orton distracted Sheamus and caused him to lose a match to Dean Ambrose. Later that night Sheamus returned the favor and aided Kane to a victory over Orton.

Randy Orton then got bored of Sheamus and took a vacation for a few weeks before The Viper returned on a recent episode of Raw and planted Sheamus with an RKO that Michael Cole claimed was out of nowhere. Then the match for Battleground was announced on Twitter, because of course that's how this match was made official.

That's the entire story of this match. The only other wrinkle worth considering is that Orton will be the hometown favorite at Battleground. Considering that Randy Orton has not won a PPV match since WrestleMania 31 and that WWE probably wants to get a cheap hometown pop to start the show, Randy Orton's chances of a victory at Battleground are looking pretty good.

What's at Stake?

The attention span of the audience is on the line when Orton and Sheamus engage in combat at Battleground. How long will it take before the audience inevitably snaps and the battlefield is suddenly littered in miscellaneous chants for CM Punk, JBL, Michael Cole, and so forth?

Honestly there's nothing at stake in this match. It's just going to be the typical Raw match between these two guys.

Check out their 13-minute match from the June 1st episode of Raw:

or their other 13-minute match from the June 8th episode of Raw:

That's almost exactly what this match will be, but with a slightly different finishing sequence. And that's why the audience might just treat this one like a 13-minute cool down match if it doesn't open the card.

At least with a match like R-Truth versus King Barrett the inconsequential nonsense is over in 5 minutes. But with Orton and Sheamus it will be more like 13 minutes of adequate action that has no stakes or meaning to it, and so it's pretty easy to throw out random chants or simply look ahead to the next match of the night.

Does it even matter who wins when the Apex Predator goes to war with the Celtic Warrior?

Tune in to Battleground and keep it here on Cageside Seats to find out which superstar walks out victorious!