Wrestling prediction thread.

OK, so as the New Year starts, lets have some predictions for 2012. Can be about WWE, TNA, wrestling in general, wrestlers crossing over into mainstream, whatever you like.

Here goes.

Chris Jericho will return tomorrow night.

Undertaker will return at the Rumble

Batista will return at some point this year - maybe also at the Rumble

Brock Lesnar will make an appearance for the WWE, and may in fact sign a contract with them over the Summer

Wrestlemania will look superb on paper, but many of the matches will disappoint

We will see a British WWE or World Heavyweight champion before the end of 2012

We will see further British talent in WWE and TNA

Dolph Ziggler will get a decent run with either of the top two belts

Before the end of 2012, the top two belts will be unified

WWE will drop the tag team titles after a brief resurgence of interest mid-year, instead of hiring or putting together some decent teams.

With Randy Orton out for six months, the WWE won't turn Cena heel

Jeff Hardy will screw up once more, and TNA will still forgive him

Edge and Savage will go into the Hall of Fame

There will be at least one major rumour of Sting or Goldberg signing with WWE, but it won't happen.

Austin WILL announce he's returning for Mania 29

Punk will become a heel again

TNA will make at least three announcements of something that WILL CHANGE WRESTLING FOREVER. None of them will.

You will see Hulk Hogan in a WWE ring again.

It'd be a shame if they got rid of the tag team titles. There's some good teams in WWE right now. Air Boom, The Uso's, and Epico and Primo to name a few. WWE should try and make more matches between tag teams, and make the tag team division interesting again.

I completely agree. When it's done right, tag team wrestling is a real art and brilliant to watch. It can have real drama and intensity. There are a few good teams in WWE and plenty more they could hire. However, they just seem to have no faith in the division, or in tag teams being anything other than a prop for midcarders, or something to contribute to a bigger angle. And I can see them just not bothering at all by year end.

It will be a real shame,but I can see it happening.

Meanwhile, I'll keep watching tag teams steal the show at IPW shows.

My biggest problem with it is the amount of times they stick two people together just for a night or something like that. I like proper tag teams, that's that have been put together with some thought. Wear the outfits reflecting that they are a tag team. It can be done well. The Rock and Sock Connection, for example made you think tag team even when it was two big stars. Rated RKO did the same. My preference would be more teams like Air Boom, ones that hark back to the Rockers, The Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, the APA, the Hardys, etc.

Another big problem I think WWE has run into with Tag Teams is that A. They don't feel as if they have enough singles talent to warrant extra tag teams, and that it's probably extraneous...

and B. That I think most wrestlers in the back, want, more than anything to prove themselves as singles wrestlers. Any new talent they have, is bound to be hungry, wanting to be seen as the next Randy Orton, or the next John Cena. Hence, all the guys that could be in a tag team, probably all feel they deserve big things for themselves, and may view being in a Tag Team as a "demotion" of sorts.


Honestly, I'm of the same opinion of a tag team division as I am with both a Women's division and a Cruiserweight division, or an ANYTHING division.

If you can't do it to the fullest extent and really get behind it, then just don't do it at all. Either shit or get off the pot. So, while it would be disappointing to see Tag Teams finally dropped completely out of the WWE soon, I would at least understand why.

I agree that if they are not going to do it properly then they should drop it but I think that would be a real shame. The people in the back need to wise up to the fact that not everybody becomes Cena or Orton overnight. Look at HBK. He was a star with the Rockers before he became champ. Take Hart who, although he was wrestling singles early on, regualrly team with Neidhart to help build the tag division.

As true as that is, I've been thinking about something Steve Austin has been saying recently.

A lot of the new wrestlers of today aren't properly being raised in the business with the awareness and sense of humbleness and "work for it from the bottom" attitude that the older territory days forced into wrestlers back then.

Today, (and the WWE's attitude today is to blame for a lot of it), the way that's being taught now is to get ahead by taking any opportunity, or by any means, any way you can get it and make a lot of noise rather than toil for years and learn every aspect of the craft, including the things that can't be taught conventionally, that hard way.

Certainly, attitudes have changed, in the way that most promos are all pre-written now, everything is pre-packaged, and wrestlers are arrogant about themselves after learning the fundamentals and being thrown into the spot without building that experience first and told to go out there and do what's on the paper they're given.

I think a lot of that is to blame for a lot of wrestlers these days instantly being thrust into the limelight and brought up to believe that certain things, like "we're putting you in a tag team for the next 4 months with guy B so you can learn this and that for a while, instead of having your 1-on-1 solo matches" are somehow beneath them.

I completely agree that the death of the territorial system in the USA has actually been incredibly damaging to the business as a whole. Those proving grounds allowed wrestlers to move around, get experience of working with a crowd, experiement with different things, and find characters that worked for them. By the time they were hired by the big companies, they were pretty well seasoned and ready to go.

In contrast, WWE is now full of guys who are really still as green as grass. They are given a pre-packaged off the shelf persona, and are made to try to fit it. If they don't, the company loses faith. Its not their fault really - they just haven't had the experience.

Yes companies like ROH, PWG, etc etc exist, but TBH they aren't on the same level as the likes of the AWA, Jim Crocket Promotions, Smokey Mountain, and the other US territories are. They don't have those weekly TV shows where wrestlers learn to work TV matches and cut promos.

The best thing WWE could do is invest in another couple of farm leagues, and get them local TV deals. Pump people through them as a breeding ground.

As for the tag titles, I think mike is right that at the moment the talent doesn't see value in them. But that's down to the writing. It wouldn't take much to elevate them. All you'd need is one wrestler (say Hart, Animal, Anderson) who was famous for tag wrestling to debut a new team (better if it was a team known on the indys) and cut a scathing promo on how he wants to bring pride back to the tag belts. You then book some decent tag matches to show what tag teams can do, and you are off and running. You could even bring in more than one legend or former wrestler (I'd love to see Regal managing a British tag team)

If a company like IPW can do it, there's no reason the WWE can't. And I think the talent would rather be doing that than pointless throw-away matches on Superstars or NXT.