10 Shocking (But Believable) Theories About WWE In 2017

What will we see next year?

Kurt Angle Rusev
WWE.com

There's still almost a month left to go, but it's pretty clear that 2016 will end up as one of the most shocking years in WWE history. It's not that 2015 was uneventful - or that 2016 was strong in terms of the quality of the product - it's just that so much happened that completely shook up the company as a whole, and nobody could have seen those things coming.

Don't believe me? Just think about what your reaction would have been on January 1 if someone told you that AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura would both jump to WWE and hold major titles by the end of the year. How about hearing that Goldberg would come back and squash Brock Lesnar in less than a minute and a half? Plus, don't forget that WWE continued to actively recruit top independent talent that would typically fall outside the company's purview, from Austin Aries to Roderick Strong to Tommy End.

With all that in mind, it's just about impossible to guess what's going to happen in WWE in 2017. Nevertheless, we can still make predictions, some of which are even founded in some grain of fact or evidence. They may be shocking, but we've certainly seen shocking before, and there's no doubt we'll see it again.

10. Hideo Itami Leaves WWE For New Japan

Kurt Angle Rusev
WWE.com

When Hideo Itami was first signed to WWE over the summer of 2014, it was believed that he would be a major player for the company. He quickly debuted in NXT and was given a superstar's welcome, but very shortly after that, Finn Balor arrived. The two became a team, but Balor was clearly the favorite of management and Itami was overlooked.

Itami won a tournament to get a slot in the WrestleMania 31 battle royal, but he was eliminated unceremoniously. Soon afterwards, he suffered a shoulder injury, and it turned out to be worse than expected. He missed more than a year of action before returning this past summer, but a neck injury suffered a couple months later put him back on the shelf.

If Itami was signed to a standard three-year deal, his contract will be up in six months. Needless to say, things haven't gone the way he or WWE would have liked. He could jump to New Japan and immediately become a major player - he might even be able to participate in next year's G1 Climax tournament. That seems like a smart choice at this point.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013