Predictions for the Next Year (Oct 17 - Oct 18)

[Spens1]

Saw this around and thought why not? What will happen in the world of wrestling over the next year:

WWE:
- Roman beats Lesnar at Wrestlemania for the Universal Title in the main event. Lesnar raises his hand and it gets booed out of the building. People will walk out on this main event
- The Shield has reunited, with Dean and Seth as the tag team and Roman going after singles gold. The faction is now face but is failing to get over. Roman's heat is rubbing off onto Dean and Seth.
- Raw continues to be a solid show overall.
- Crusierweights are a division that has actually been building. Itami is the monster heel champion and is destroying the division.
- AJ/Nakamura Main Event the smackdown side of things and have the first 5 star match for wwe in 6 years. Zayn wins the US title off of AJ and faces Kevin Owens at Mania and Zayn retains.
- Jinder Mahal loses the title before survivor series, moves down to the mid-card (briefly feuding with Sami Zayn over the US title).
- Despite this, smackdown continues to be a poorly booked mess. Questions are raised over Road Dogg's position as booker.
- Ratings will continue to decline, however it isn't as drastic as most other years (raw remains stable). Looks like the deal in 2019 will be less than the current one, but still substantial enough to not run at a loss.
- Dolph Ziggler leaves WWE to pursue independent deals and a more flexible schedule which allows him to do comedy
- Daniel Bryan leaves WWE, despite being offered a significant contract to stay, however that contract is a non-wrestling deal.
- Luke Harper and WWE agree to a mutual release.
- Ricochet signs with WWE. Immediately placed in 205 as the main face.
- AOP, Ciampa, Gargano, Iconic Duo, McIntyre, Itami, Ohno called up to the main roster (Ciampa, Gargano, Ohno to Smackdown; McIntyre, AOP, Iconic Duo to RAW, Itami to CW).
- Brand Split: Balor & The Good brothers reunite, they're not heel (they're more tweener) and go to smackdown, New Day return to Raw with the Usos. Shesaro go to Smackdown and are still a tag team, however Ohno joins with former tag team partner Cesaro also.

NXT:
- NXT has its strongest year since 2013/14.
- Adam Cole wins the NXT Title at the January Takeover event and is still champion
- ReDragon are Tag Team Champions, TM-61 will be the main challengers
- Sane wins the NXT Womens title, drops to a now heel Ember Moon who is champion. Bianca Blair will be in the title picture i'd imagine.
- The UK title becomes the main mid-card title on NXT as the UK Show still isn't starting. Current Champ is Aleistar Black (as they abandon the title being exclusively UK talent).
- A lot of lower end developmental talents are cut to save the WWE a lot of money (in a cost cutting measure).

New Japan:
- Dolph Ziggler moves to New Japan and is immediately pushed. Shows off his in ring capabilities and gets over rather quickly. Currently in the upper-mid card and almost a main eventer.
- Bullet Club kicks out all the members of the Elite, who go to form their own faction (which is tweenerish, leaning face), i'm guessing it happens after New Japan cup or Sakura Genesis.
- They bolster their Jr heavyweight division after losing Ricochet and looking likely to lose Ospreay, by signing Eita and Sami Callihan (who is the Switchblade and Bullet Club's new junior).
- Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle are brought in as a tag team and make a run at world tag league (G.O.D win world tag league). Getting a full time contract.
- The Jr heavyweight tag team division is supported by the young bucks, Roppongi 3.0 and Tempura Boyz almost solely.
- Omega loses the US title to Elgin at Power Struggle.
- Naito wins the World title at WK12
- Ibushi vs Omega semi-mains WK12 for the IC title and Omega wins
- Ishii wins the NJ Cup, challenges Omega to the IC title and wins it.
- Danielson wins US Title, New Japan has it main event the US show against Rhodes (or even Punk), sells out a 15k+ arena.
- Omega wins the title at Dominion (continuing Naito's woes in Osaka) after signing a 2-3 year, multi-million dollar contract.
- Okada wins G1 (and goes 8-0 in the group) over Ibushi and beats Omega at WK13 (cause redemption arcs).

ROH:
- Bryan Danielson returns to the company sometime in the new year on a part-time deal (he will also work for CMLL). Immediately catapulted up the ladder to main event status.
- Cody Rhodes gets his name back.
- Brodie Lee (fka Luke Harper) signs with ROH and New Japan.
- Dalton Castle beats Cody Rhodes at Final Battle this year and becomes world champion. Has a great run with title that gets attention
- Silas Young wins ROH title off of him and probably hold it for the remainder of the year
- Manage to build up their undercard slightly, however remain reliant on New Japan talent.

Lucha Underground:
- Season 4 is finally announced, but won't be aired before 2019
- No new debuting characters as such outside maybe one or two.
- King Cueno will win the LU Title
- Ivelisse will win the G.O.T.G Title but fail in her cash in.
- Pentagon Jr vs Mantanza will main event a Ultima Lucha

UK:
- Companies such as Progress and ICW are brought more into the WWE circle. One, if not both will have major shows on the network.
- ICW fail to sell out the hydro, but do better than last year (8-9k)
- Progress do basically sell out Wembley however.
- WCPW folds due to high costs and lack of profit.
- No one has a clue what 5 star are up to still.

Other:
- CM Punk's return is being discussed and has potential of happening with Danielson in ROH. Rumours of Punk to Japan and/or a return to ROH is strong (if he hasn't returned to wrestling with the US title match against Danielson).
- Impact Wrestling is still around and in Canada but has had to significantly downsize due to not having an infinite amount of money, leading to some top stars leaving, however, EC3, Drake, Moose and a lot of their core stars stay. They sign some key canadian talent (such as Mike Bailly, Ethan Page, 3.0 etc). They do have many LOLTNA moments however, such as signing that madman Teddy Hart.
- EVOLVE either folds or is brought under the WWE umbrella as an OVW type territory. Sapolsky is a full time booker for WWE.

[iMoreland]

• Brock/Roman at WM34 will be WWE's first 5 Star match (by Meltzer) since Cena/Punk.

• The KO/Shane story will end at WM34 in a control for SmackDown match with KO fighting for Steph/HHH, Sami fighting for DB/Shane (KO wins + Shane turns heel).

• Cena vs Undertaker happens at WM34.

• Ronda Rousey wins a women's title.

[Dominator83]

Saw this around and thought why not? What will happen in the world of wrestling over the next year:

WWE:
- Roman beats Lesnar at Wrestlemania for the Universal Title in the main event. Lesnar raises his hand and it gets booed out of the building. People will walk out on this main event
- The Shield has reunited, with Dean and Seth as the tag team and Roman going after singles gold. The faction is now face but is failing to get over. Roman's heat is rubbing off onto Dean and Seth.
- Raw continues to be a solid show overall.
- Crusierweights are a division that has actually been building. Itami is the monster heel champion and is destroying the division.
- AJ/Nakamura Main Event the smackdown side of things and have the first 5 star match for wwe in 6 years. Zayn wins the US title off of AJ and faces Kevin Owens at Mania and Zayn retains.
- Jinder Mahal loses the title before survivor series, moves down to the mid-card (briefly feuding with Sami Zayn over the US title).
- Despite this, smackdown continues to be a poorly booked mess. Questions are raised over Road Dogg's position as booker.
- Ratings will continue to decline, however it isn't as drastic as most other years (raw remains stable). Looks like the deal in 2019 will be less than the current one, but still substantial enough to not run at a loss.
- Dolph Ziggler leaves WWE to pursue independent deals and a more flexible schedule which allows him to do comedy
- Daniel Bryan leaves WWE, despite being offered a significant contract to stay, however that contract is a non-wrestling deal.
- Luke Harper and WWE agree to a mutual release.
- Ricochet signs with WWE. Immediately placed in 205 as the main face.
- AOP, Ciampa, Gargano, Iconic Duo, McIntyre, Itami, Ohno called up to the main roster (Ciampa, Gargano, Ohno to Smackdown; McIntyre, AOP, Iconic Duo to RAW, Itami to CW).
- Brand Split: Balor & The Good brothers reunite, they're not heel (they're more tweener) and go to smackdown, New Day return to Raw with the Usos. Shesaro go to Smackdown and are still a tag team, however Ohno joins with former tag team partner Cesaro also.

NXT:
- NXT has its strongest year since 2013/14.
- Adam Cole wins the NXT Title at the January Takeover event and is still champion
- ReDragon are Tag Team Champions, TM-61 will be the main challengers
- Sane wins the NXT Womens title, drops to a now heel Ember Moon who is champion. Bianca Blair will be in the title picture i'd imagine.
- The UK title becomes the main mid-card title on NXT as the UK Show still isn't starting. Current Champ is Aleistar Black (as they abandon the title being exclusively UK talent).
- A lot of lower end developmental talents are cut to save the WWE a lot of money (in a cost cutting measure).

New Japan:
- Dolph Ziggler moves to New Japan and is immediately pushed. Shows off his in ring capabilities and gets over rather quickly. Currently in the upper-mid card and almost a main eventer.
- Bullet Club kicks out all the members of the Elite, who go to form their own faction (which is tweenerish, leaning face), i'm guessing it happens after New Japan cup or Sakura Genesis.
- They bolster their Jr heavyweight division after losing Ricochet and looking likely to lose Ospreay, by signing Eita and Sami Callihan (who is the Switchblade and Bullet Club's new junior).
- Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle are brought in as a tag team and make a run at world tag league (G.O.D win world tag league). Getting a full time contract.
- The Jr heavyweight tag team division is supported by the young bucks, Roppongi 3.0 and Tempura Boyz almost solely.
- Omega loses the US title to Elgin at Power Struggle.
- Naito wins the World title at WK12
- Ibushi vs Omega semi-mains WK12 for the IC title and Omega wins
- Ishii wins the NJ Cup, challenges Omega to the IC title and wins it.
- Danielson wins US Title, New Japan has it main event the US show against Rhodes (or even Punk), sells out a 15k+ arena.
- Omega wins the title at Dominion (continuing Naito's woes in Osaka) after signing a 2-3 year, multi-million dollar contract.
- Okada wins G1 (and goes 8-0 in the group) over Ibushi and beats Omega at WK13 (cause redemption arcs).

ROH:
- Bryan Danielson returns to the company sometime in the new year on a part-time deal (he will also work for CMLL). Immediately catapulted up the ladder to main event status.
- Cody Rhodes gets his name back.
- Brodie Lee (fka Luke Harper) signs with ROH and New Japan.
- Dalton Castle beats Cody Rhodes at Final Battle this year and becomes world champion. Has a great run with title that gets attention
- Silas Young wins ROH title off of him and probably hold it for the remainder of the year
- Manage to build up their undercard slightly, however remain reliant on New Japan talent.

Lucha Underground:
- Season 4 is finally announced, but won't be aired before 2019
- No new debuting characters as such outside maybe one or two.
- King Cueno will win the LU Title
- Ivelisse will win the G.O.T.G Title but fail in her cash in.
- Pentagon Jr vs Mantanza will main event a Ultima Lucha

UK:
- Companies such as Progress and ICW are brought more into the WWE circle. One, if not both will have major shows on the network.
- ICW fail to sell out the hydro, but do better than last year (8-9k)
- Progress do basically sell out Wembley however.
- WCPW folds due to high costs and lack of profit.
- No one has a clue what 5 star are up to still.

Other:
- CM Punk's return is being discussed and has potential of happening with Danielson in ROH. Rumours of Punk to Japan and/or a return to ROH is strong (if he hasn't returned to wrestling with the US title match against Danielson).
- Impact Wrestling is still around and in Canada but has had to significantly downsize due to not having an infinite amount of money, leading to some top stars leaving, however, EC3, Drake, Moose and a lot of their core stars stay. They sign some key canadian talent (such as Mike Bailly, Ethan Page, 3.0 etc). They do have many LOLTNA moments however, such as signing that madman Teddy Hart.
- EVOLVE either folds or is brought under the WWE umbrella as an OVW type territory. Sapolsky is a full time booker for WWE.

Quality effing post

[improper]

Questions are raised over Road Dogg's position as booker.

Not sure this qualifies as a prediction since it's already been happening for months.

[Spens1]

Questions are raised over Road Dogg's position as booker.

Not sure this qualifies as a prediction since it's already been happening for months.

i mean even insiders and people within WWE actually start questioning it. Really speaking its only been the fans so far. Basically his position will be in danger due to smackdown ratings falling.

[Spens1]

I'll add some predictions:

- Neville leaves WWE for New Japan. New Japan bring him in as a heavyweight and will be pushed reasonably well and get over.
- Tension rises between Vince and HHH due to some of his NXT guys leaving the company. Whilst their will be no leadership changes at the top, its now clear that their is some kind of backstage motions in order to move Vince out of the main position.
- At least one big name out of the guys who have already left WWE (so Swagger and Ryback basically) or will leave WWE in the next 6 months to a year will sign with All-Japan Pro Wrestling.
- Sami Zayn is the one to betray Kevin Owens and therefore, Owens for the first time in his WWE career, is a face and does a really good job at it.
- Rumors of other disgruntled crusierweights continue as the concept looks to be failing after Kalisto is unable to fill in the void and Ricochet goes to NXT first.
- Shane McMahon does turn heel