10 BOLD Predictions For WWE In 2020
Fall-outs, fall guys and falling ratings.
Last year's prediction piece was fairly prescient, to give it the ol' Barry Horowitz.
The Elite did not go to WWE (10). They didn't stay in NJPW - they infuriated NJPW - but they did change and make the game exponentially better by forming AEW. Daniel Bryan didn't win the Royal Rumble (9). He turned heel because WWE can't book babyfaces. Women did headline WrestleMania (8), and the piece, written in October, predated the butterfly effect of November. WWE did ruin Aleister Black (7).
Really think about this.
Aleister Black sets up residence in a different room in a different arena every week. Can the WWE Superstars even find him? What does he do all day? Imagine watching him on a surveillance cam. Does he just sit there? Does he watch RAW? If he did, he'd know he could pick-uh a fight-uh with the WWE Champion after losing the US Title, and get a 'Championship Opportunity'.
Aleister Black = idiot.
Matt Riddle wasn't promoted to Vince McMahon's auspices (6). The jury is out. Ronda Rousey did turn heel (5). Goldberg did return (4), but so did Hulk Hogan (3). You know something, Mean Gene? It's a shame you died, but it did allow me to creep back into the fold, brother!
Finn Bálor did and didn't leave WWE (2). He was unhappy, and so he secured himself the moneyed Orlando life by landing in NXT. Does wrestling ring > stage count as a "drastic" Hall of Fame "transformation" (1)?
And what about 2020...?
10. Goldberg Will Wrestle Matt Riddle IN NXT
Vince McMahon is desperate to defeat AEW.
Some people don't get this, or don't want to get this, even though NXT UK is a thing, but Vince McMahon is desperate to defeat AEW and, for that matter, anything that remotely resembles competition. He once offered to reimburse Tommy Dreamer for shutting down his House of Hardcore promotion, which is the fourth ECW revival league or movement of even the vaguest renown. It cannot grow, much less compete. Vince counter-programmed AEW with NXT. He defensively referred to it as "blood and guts". He doesn't like to lose.
And so, with both USA and FOX adamant, for now, that the rosters must remain fixed as a USP, a Wild Card Rule of sorts - "Jaxson Ryker is on RAW, but wouldn't you know it, Roman Reigns is back in Full Sail, again!" - isn't yet viable.
A convergence of two wrestling laws have made this wild match graphic a distinct possibility.
1) Vince will not lose.
2) If two wrestlers despise one another in real life, they will make money together eventually.
And if Goldberg is reluctant, simply endanger his life again in Saudi Arabia so that he feels compelled to atone!