I did one last year and forgot about it, anyway those who posted can look back and see how well (or how badly in my case) you did.
Predictions:
WWE:
- Smackdown gets several big name stars (Ronda Rousey, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose) in the brand shakeup as well as some underpushed ones (Revival, AOP. Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn) as they go more the sports route in their programming. It starts becoming very different from raw. They retain key stars in Becky Lynch, Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles as well as other secondary stars like Samoa Joe and Asuka, New Day, Charlotte, The Usos, Naomi, Carmella, Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, The Miz and Randy Orton
- RAW becomes very heavily the sports entertainment brand (if that makes sense), shorter matches, more segments (as we're seeing here), more dusty finishes, more heel stuff and generally not a great time in truth.
- RAW, after losing some of their key stars aren't looking too crash hot themselves. It continues to be a mess in terms of storylines as only the main stars get pushed.
- Brock Lesnar vs Drew McIntyre main events Wrestlemania
- AJ Styles vs Daniel Bryan is the main event for the smackdown side
- Charlotte vs Ronda is for the Raw woman's title and Charlotte wins (sending Ronda on her merry way to Smackdown).
- Becky vs Asuka is for the smackdown womans title and Becky wins
- Shinsuke Nakamura leaves the WWE after his contract runs out early next year as WWE doesn't want to extend it at the current rate (which is very high)
- The same deal occurs for Gallows & Anderson, though they get offered a backstage role of some kind but they decline it (instead they sign with Impact or ROH).
- Talent do start leaving the WWE, either through WWE not renewing or talent seeking alternatives and hoping they can come back.
- Smackdown ratings on FOX aren't exactly that great (not bad but not great) despite being the best main roster product since 2016, they end up on Fox Sports (just because the expectations are pretty unrealistic from FOX) as the reality dawns that their really isn't that many people who will tune into wrestling in 2019.
- Raw ratings however go down worse. Their will be episodes of raw next year that will average less than 2 million overall in the downtime. Vince's time as head booker may be looking tenuous by the end of the year as a result as shareholders and NBC aren't happy with the ratings.
NXT:
- NXT remains very strong and continues to be the best show under the WWE umbrella
- NXT goes from 60 to 90 minutes to accommodate more non title angles and talent. The quality as a result actually gets better.
- Gargano does turn face again and beats Ciampa for the NXT title
- Ciampa gets called up to the main roster after losing the title and goes to RAW but flops because main roster
- Alestair Black and Shayna Baszler both get call ups after Wrestlemania and both go to RAW (Baszler does well in the sense she somewhat replaces Rousey, Black flops).
- Velveteen Dream wins the North American title and becomes a main eventer in NXT full time. Looking likely to be either the next champ by the end of the year.
- Adam Cole will be NXT Champ (and will be the one to take it off of Gargano).
New Japan:
- Tanahashi wins the world title at WK
- Ibushi turns heel at New Years Dash, destroying Tanahashi and becomes #1 contender
- Ibushi beats Tanahashi at New Beginning, cementing Ibushi as a monster heel of sorts, where he's basically permanently stuck at sadistic basically. (An eccentric, sadistic, wrestler)
- Ibushi vs Omega main events the MSG show (which sells out), Omega finally beats Ibushi 1 on 1 and Ibushi turns normal
- Omega gets a very short 2nd reign however as he drops to Okada at Dominion (completing the redemption arc).
- CHAOS folds, most of the faction joins Okada in a faction with Tanahashi (namely Ishii, RP3k and Baretta)
- The mole is not Chuck Taylor, but Best Friends stop teaming up (at least in new japan), Baretta becomes more of a singles wrestler that is in and around the US and Never openweight scene (moving into the Okada-Tanahashi faction).
- Naito wins the IC title, proceeds to thrash it (to the horror of Harold Meij watching at the sidelines, who may or may not get the title thrown at him). Complains in the post match about winning the title and says he wants the world title.
- Jay White becomes a full fledged main eventer and whilst he won't win the title, he will win the IC title off of Naito after winning the NJ Cup.
- As above: Jay White wins New Japan Cup
- Bullet Club after Wrestle Kingdom make it their mission to screw with the Elite at every opportunity, with those two factions at all out war, a war which Bullet Club eventually win with G.O.D beating The Young Bucks (and in a way, signifying the factions final appearance as full time wrestlers in the company, though they will freelance for New Japan still).
- Naito wins G1, beating Omega in the finals and Tanahashi in the block final
- Sabre overthrows Suzuki as the head of Suzuki-Gun as Suzuki goes more freelance. Iizuka also gets quietly pushed into the background.
- ACH signs a full time deal with New Japan and joins Tanahashi and Okada as the main singles Jr as Ospreay becomes the factions mid carder (alongside Baretta). Ishii is the gatekeeper to the top 2.
- Shinsuke Nakamura returns to New Japan, begins feud with Okada because of what happened to CHAOS (i'm going out on a limb and saying he calls Okada a failure of a leader and a selfish leader at that). He begins another faction with Yoshi-Hashi joining along with some other former CHAOS members (the only ones i'm sure wouldn't jump are Toru Yano). He will win the US title in New Japan this year as well.
ROH:
- Actually starts somewhat improving, Delirious continues to be a horrible booker but the talent are able to do their thing
- Jeff Cobb is world champion before the end of the year but its looking likely that he leaves to New Japan permanently (as he becomes a singles wrestler for them).
- Brody King and PCO both get pushes from the outset, one, if not both win the TV title before the end of the year.
- Jay Lethal loses the title pretty early next year and is in limbo mostly.
- The Briscoes continue to float around the Tag team division with neither getting singles pushes (sadly, Mark is long overdue for a singles push and Jay should always be a threat).
- Dalton Castle leaves the company for NXT but with more money being spent, they find a replacement for him.
- With the Elite not appearing for weekly TV interest in the company does take a dive to an extent but overall the product is better because they're forced to focus on actual angles.
Impact:
- Shane Strickland signs a deal with Impact, rejecting NXT and ROH. He becomes a main eventer, effectively replacing Austin Aries in that scene and wins the world title before the end of the year.
- They also make plays in terms of other MLW talent, as they go out and bring in guys like MJF.
- The company signs a deal with New Japan, CMLL and ROH to collaborate, obviously dropping AAA from that alliance deal.
- The NWA titles get defended more on Impact TV in a way, with someone from Impact who isn't quiet in the main event winning it (Eli Drake).
- Impact signs a tv deal with TruTV and gets a good timeslot as well (wednesday, thursday or saturday night), by the end of the year they're averaging between 700-800k per episode and whilst no where near wwe, still are a solid alternative, becoming the clear #2 again.
- Tony Khan (as i'll talk about with AEW) buys a large stake in Impact Wrestling and begins funding them after the tv deal is in place.
- The Elite appear much more on Impact TV (due to Callis connections) as well as Jericho beginning to appear for the company semi-regularly. Omega will have a run as World Champion, Bucks with the tag team titles.
Mexico (CMLL/AAA)
- Pentagon and Fenix both win major titles in CMLL and AAA. Pentagon Jr holds the AAA Mega championship and World Light Heavyweight Titles at the same time. Fenix wins the CMLL Welterweight title from Mephisto as the two dominate lucha wrestling.
- Matt Taven wins a major title in CMLL (World Heavyweight Championship perhaps if the belt gets defended this year).
Other:
- The Elite won't be going to WWE, but won't sign a New Japan contract either. The faction will freelance between New Japan, Impact, ROH and do their AEW shows as well
- The Elite do technically do a 1 off appearance at an NXT show (similar to Jushin Thunder Liger), with Omega vs Cole being one of their main matches.
- AEW will be a thing, but maybe not as extensive as we think (maybe its more like Joey Janela's supercards or All In style shows).
- Tony Khan will finance these shows which is his involvements and they will be on a major tv channel.
- PAC does a lot of tour dates, still repping Dragon Gate though.
