10 Bold Predictions For WWE In 2018

'Never say never' was a deceased cliche in professional wrestling as early as 2001 following Vince McMahon's March purchase of WCW. The Monday Night Raw/Nitro simulcast was a dream sequence brought to life and held together by Kevin Dunn's slick editing and millions of wrestling fans manipulating themselves to issue. And despite the disastrous Invasion storyline that followed, p*ss-poor creative didn't over-starve the audience's susceptibility to shock.

WWE needn't have commissioned Jim Johnston to compose a knock-off AC/DC theme for Eric Bischoff's debut - thousands of jaws simultaneously hitting the deck during a July edition of WWE's flagship vehicle was soundtrack enough.

With every new arrival that made it through the doors over the next decade and a half, the magic diminished despite the giddy thrill of seeing an old favourite chance their arm in the big leagues. Unusually circumventing NXT as he did following his signing from New Japan Pro Wrestling, AJ Styles' 2016 Royal Rumble debut was met with joy rarely still prevalent for new stars - it's been stories rather than appearances that have given fans the widest eyes.

Brock Lesnar defeating The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30 was inarguably the best example of this, but Jinder Mahal's WWE Title victory had the less discerning half of the Backlash 2017 crowd in a state of disbelief only subversively matched by the giddy response to Styles' dethroning of him in Manchester six months later. What else does the company have up its sleeve in 2018 to generate similar stupefaction?

Never too afraid to make clear what's already implicit, the WWE machine transparently attempted to do a permanent number on a locker-room irritant this year. The results were mixed, but not perhaps in the manner they expected.

Though far from a polished in-ring performer, Enzo Amore remains theoretically useful in Vince McMahon's travelling circus. Gifted and quick-witted with a microphone in hand, he appeared one of the few trusted to go off-piste during his time alongside partner Big Cass, but when their split came hand-in-hand with rumours of Amore's status as a backstage pariah, the company attempted to make him turn his biggest weapon on himself.

Going heel post-SummerSlam after an unfortunate injury to Big Cass gave the 'Smacktalker Skywalker' a bizarre victory in the feud, Enzo's 'demotion' to 205 Live was predictably a leopard-print lifejacket for the entire division. Effectively proving himself immune from the punishments inflicted for breaking unwritten WWE bro-codes, Enzo's since gone on to shine again in segments if the matches leave a little to be desired.

Enzo and Big Cass' exit from the tag ranks coincidentally coincided with the league becoming the best thing about WWE's entire output. Re-emergence on the same page as big city douchebags may not only salvage Cass' heel momentum upon his return, but would also again keep Amore pigeonholed 'lest he accidentally get more over than the alleged main eventers he shares the stage with.