10 Early Wrestling Predictions For 2019
7. WWE Will Ruin...
*Fumbles around a big bag of NXT names, literally, it could be anyone...*
Aleister Black!
So much, too much, in WWE is played for laughs.
The most personal, hate-fuelled rivalry of the decade, between The Miz and Daniel Bryan, is only personal and hate-fuelled in our idealised version of it. In reality, seven-second dance breaks and Total Bellas crossover events compromise the tone and, evidently, the heat. When the tension between Sasha Banks and Bayley reached boiling point earlier this year, Bayley didn't break Sasha's hand in poetic retribution. The hysterically emotional women were told to undergo counselling as a platform for Dr. Shelby punchlines.
The way in which the Velveteen Dream revered Black as an inroad to infamy isn't, categorically, the character-driven approach employed by the main roster. It is grimly plausible that, to advance his SmackDown arc, The Miz would tell Black that WWE Superstars must smile for the cameras and the kiddies. On RAW - it's all the same - Dolph Ziggler would puncture Black's ice-cold facade with his terrible stand-up stylings.
WWE is hardly going to present Black as a stoic, gothic force some 28 years after the Undertaker's debut; it's a different, more careless time - and they've still got the Undertaker for that!