2016 Pro Wrestling Thread

Kicking off the new year like ...



Predictions for 2016 ... some pretty basic, others out on a limb.

- Bayley debuts on Raw the night after Wrestlemania, one night after Sasha captures the Divas title and rebrands it the Women's Championship.
- Baron Corbin wins the NXT title.
- Jason Jordan and Chad Gable win the NXT tag titles.
- Kevin Owens wins the WWE title.
- Kurt Angle and Jeff Hardy both reappear in WWE.
- DDP, Undertaker, and Freebirds go into the Hall of Fame, perhaps Dean Malenko or Ultimo Dragon too.
- Undertaker, Kane, and Mark Henry wrestle their last matches. Big Show does not.
- John Cena does not turn heel. Roman Reigns finally does ... on a returning face, Seth Rollins.
- Cesaro finally cracks the WWE title picture.
- POP cancels TNA programming.
- Shane McMahon returns.

 

My 2016 predictions:

-- Finn, Sami and Bayley debut the Monday after Mania. Finn and Bayley will drop their NXT titles at the Mania special in Dallas, if not sooner. Finn loses to Apollo Crews, Bayley to Nia Jax.
-- The Indy darlings, Kevin Owens, Cesaro and Dean Ambrose, both win the WWE title at some point. Owens and Cesaro have the Feud of the Year.
-- John Cena does not win the WWE title in 2016. I think he realizes his career is in its twilight, and will eventually start getting more movie roles ... just like Rocky did.
-- TNA gets cancelled again. Out of business by November.
-- Kurt Angle returns at some point, wrestles one more match and then retires.
-- WWE's rating continue to dip after Mania (not a very bold prediction, I admit ...)

 

- Bayley makes Raw debut night after WM against Charlotte. Gets jobbed out the rest of the year so that nobody cares.
- Charlotte holds title until Summerslam, when she drops it to Nikki Bella.
- Sasha spends most of the year jobbing out, because the E just has to cool off everyone to the point where nobody cares.
- Angle will be a surprise entrant at the Rumble, to a huge pop. Lesnar ends up winning. Bryan's music plays to a monster pop, until Curtis Axel comes out imitating him.
- Reigns beats Lesnar at WM when Heyman turns on Brock, because he sees Reigns as the future.
- Undertaker makes the Hall, and beats Cena in his final match. Cena does some more movies and has another brief US title reign where he keeps the Open Challenge.
- Ambrose and Cesaro spends most of the year challenging heel Reigns for the belt, without winning. A returning face Rollins loses by DQ to Reigns at Summerslam.
- Eva Marie wins the NXT title, and fans throw garbage in the ring.
- By the end of the year, The Authority will still be in power, but Bray Wyatt will turn face against them, and the rest of his family, setting him up to face Reigns at the 2017 WM.
- Balor makes his debut, and spends most of his time working with Owens.

 

Everything Baron said, lol.

I just hope they don't mash Finn and Sami too close together on the main roster, if they both debut after Mania, and Bayley does.....it's just too much and all three lose luster.

I think Hardy will return and it'll be great. I think Owens will win MITB and end up champion by years end. I think HHH will be champion for 24 hours either after Fast lane or after the post Mania PPV, dropping it back to Reigns the next night on Raw.

 

OOh. Prediction time. This should be fun.
I'll start with Rumble and go from there.
* Reigns beats HHH to retain the title. Lesnar wins the Rumble to set the two of them up for the Mania rematch. I like the idea above about Heyman turning on Lesnar but could just as easily see this built as Lesnar the beast is finally overcome by the amazing face of the company. Reigns finally gets his true Mania coronation.
* At the Rumble, Daniel Bryan is a surprise entrant and lasts a while before being thrown out by whomever he's feuding with at Mania. (I'm thinking Owens because Bryan is clearly the most over face and Owens the most over heel). Bryan wins at Mania, goes on to languish in the midcard almost all year long. Maybe gets a US title or IC title run but nothing more as the company doesn't trust him enough to back him for another title run this year.
* Cena-Taker definitely happens at Mania and is set up by way of Taker making a surprise appearance on RAW and talking about how he's done after this Mania. He issues an open challenge at Mania and in a funny twist, Cena responds. Or, more likely, he outright challenges Cena as the last person he has to beat.
* Charlotte-Sasha finally happens at Mania but is only given 10-15 minutes and is good but not great. Sasha wins the title, feuds with Charlotte for the first few months post-Mania, feuds with Naomi afterward as Team Bad breaks up and, getting beat up constantly by Naomi and Tamina, enlists a debuting Bayley as her tag team partner.
* The rest of the Mania card: Rock vs. HHH (Hey, I can dream right?) is the big part-timer match, the Wyatts vs. Big Show and Kane (Because every Mania needs a shit match), A big IC title scramble type match with a bunch of midcarders, Ambrose vs. Ziggler, New Day vs. the Usos vs. the Lucha Dragons vs. Enzo and Cass for the tag titles.I'm tempted to say there's an NXT match of some sort on the preshow but I don't know since there's an NXT special that weekend.
* In all, Mania is good but not great and remembered more for the size of the crowd than the card itself.
* Rollins comes back in time for a Summerslam feud with Reigns. He is built as the face of the company while Reigns begins a slow turn to heel.
* The Hardys are back in the WWE fold by the fall but given Dudley-like treatment and relegated to nostalgia matches only.
* By the end of 2016, Owens has a main title run but it doesn't last long.
* NXT stars debuting on WWE this year: Enzo and Cass, Balor, Corbin, Bayley, Apollo Crews, Asuka and possible Emma.

 

Can we count Emma as a debut? Or has she been in NXT long enough to warrant that treatment?

 

She basically restarted when she went back to NXT. Completely new character, new personality, etc. To me, she'd be a true debut at this point. How long has she been off the main roster now? A year? Two?

 

Who would you like to see as the breakout superstars in NXT during 2016? Who do you think will excel as expected, and who do you think may be a surprise star?

Also, who do you hope that NXT signs from outside of the WWE this year?

I'm personally hoping that Hideo Itami comes back healthy and gets the treatment as top face similar to Finn Balor once Finn has been called up.

If I had to pick one signing for WWE this year, I'd say pull the trigger on AJ Styles. Otherwise I'd love to see Adam Cole and Jay Lethal in WWE, as well as the Young Bucks which is sounding like it may never happen.

 

I'd love to see ReDragon make it to NXT but I don't know how well they'd (eventually) translate on the main roster. Also, I've been saying for a few years now but Adam Cole is a blue chip.
I think this is going to be the year of Asuka and Dana Brooke though. Asuka is so good already and different than anyone in the diva's division. She's got the rare style that I think could match up well with Rousey if they ever bring her in to the WWE and need her to feud with someone legit. And Dana is growing by leaps and bounds. Their match together a few months ago was fantastic.
Tag team wise, I LOVE Jason Jordan and Chad Gable. Those guys are so good and so over. If they're not on the main roster this year (I'd say it's a long shot), I worry about how long they can stay as over as they are right now.
I think Apollo Crews gets pushed big this year but I still don't know how his mic skills are going to work in the long run.

 

Styles should never go to WWE. They'll erase his entire legacy.

They'd probably pair Lethal with Sandow and have them do imitations every night.

As for this year, I'd love to see Samoa Joe come up and feud with Owens and Lesnar for the title.

 

Samoa Joe does less than nothing for me. I don't get why people like him so much. He's bored me to death in his NXT matches.

 

Have you ever seen his matches with CM Punk or Kenta Kobashi? Or Homicide? Or AJ Styles, or Christopher Daniels?

He probably doesn't work a very WWE-friendly style, but he's fantastic.