10 Bold Predictions For Wrestling In 2021
Predicting a year of seismic change in WWE management - and the relationship between AEW and NJPW...
Nobody could have predicted a friggin' pandemic, apart from climate change scientists who also get ignored, but as is tradition, let's check in on your writer's predictions for 2020.
Goldberg did not wrestle Matt Riddle in NXT (10). It seems Vince McMahon gave up on winning the war outright, and instead settled on capping Dynamite's viewership at <1M. Shane McMahon did return! (9). And it was sick. Nausea-inducing. He said so himself. SmackDown did indeed fall below 2M viewers (8). Paul Heyman was scapegoated (7), because of course he was. You see, it's never Vince's fault. It is the fault of the decisions he makes.
Keith Lee didn't win the Men's Royal Rumble match (6). He was instead told to learn how to work for f*ck's sake lol. Triple H didn't work WrestleMania at all, much less against Kevin Owens (5). He looked at those empty seats, and surmised that it's only fun when there are fans in attendance to make no noise. The Revival did leave (4). WWE gave up on retaining their services. WWE didn't create a midcard Women's Title (3), nor any new titles, not even one to provide RAW Underground with a sense of purpose. Vince McMahon and Triple H didn't fall out (2). But read on: it's coming. Ronda Rousey did not return to headline WrestleMania (1). She didn't return at all.
3/10. Pathetic. That looks like the average critic's rating of RAW in 2020.
On the subject of which...
10. AEW (Regularly) Dynamite Beats WWE RAW In 18-49
It happened - "it" being the unthinkable.
Insane as it may read now, the first Wednesday Night War battle was too close to call. AEW had generated huge buzz, in wrestling circles, but NXT drew an impressive 1M+ out of the gate and benefitted massively from being promoted on the wrestling flagship ahead of launch.
You might not like Dave Meltzer. You might cry snot all over your pillow at night because waah waah he didn't wate the Undertaker Vs. Shawn Michaels *****!
But the man is eerily prescient when it comes to business, and even he didn't call the first ratings win until the day after the show. Since then, AEW has massacred NXT. The war is all but over. WWE is telling you that the next generation(s) of talent are unpopular and irrelevant, all to ensure that RAW and SmackDown are preserved as the real Demogods of professional wrestling.
But that is not quite working out.
Dynamite with competition has on occasion beaten the unopposed RAW and SmackDown in certain key demos. It was coming. The December 16 Dynamite toppled the following record-lows of RAW in the all-important, advertiser-coveted 18-49. It will come again. The paradigm has shifted.
WWE will likely apply some cosmetic fix, like they always do - "You liked the quarterly brand-to-brand invitational so much, so how about a weekly brand-to-brand invitational?!" - but Sting is going to enter that ring very soon, and Tony Khan is sure to capitalise on the extra eyes by ramping up the many, long-simmering developments presently unfolding on Dynamite. These losses will lead to much soul-searching and a root-and-branch overhaul of WWE programming.
Just kidding; it will lead to the shock return of...