12 WWE Nightmares That Could Come True In 2026

If someone was writing about 2025's worst nightmares at the tail end of 2024, then they'd have perhaps opined that WWE fudging John Cena's retirement tour would've been right up there as a 'please don't' possibility. Cena's entire tour has been a mish mash of nostalgic fun and downright awful. Matches against CM Punk, Randy Orton and AJ Styles have been welcomed by fans, but his heel turn shook out as a complete disaster and should be considered a stain on his legacy once he hangs up the jorts for good.

WWE Unreal wanted fans to believe that every single beat of the story was meticulously planned out in advance, but that isn't true. The actual turn itself was, but then creative, Triple H and John himself didn't really know where to go with things. It didn't help that The Rock was only there for the opening chapter then vanished into thin air like he'd thumbed his nose and said: 'See you later, losers!'.

Does 2026 have anything as unfortunate as Cena's wonky heel run in mind? Only time will tell.

There's certainly a lot to fret about. We're not too far away from entering the most thrilling time to be a fan. WrestleMania season is nigh, but all of those fireworks, nostalgic tears and the lure of mega-matches won't be the only things keeping hardcore WWE fans awake at night. What if the bloom is just coming off the rose in the Triple H era, and what if WrestleMania's iconic status is about to be scuffed due to sheer corporate greed?!

Here are your worst fears manifested for the year ahead. Fingers crossed none of this happens, but...

Cards on the table. This writer has always loved the idea of a WWE Draft. Seeing wrestlers locked to each major show and unable to flit between them sounds like a challenge the creative team should relish. After all, they're the ones penning this stuff to begin with, so plenty of pre-planning would ensure that Raw and SmackDown's top champions are furnished with loads of juicy challengers for at least the next 12 months.

Sadly, WWE's frankly dull and counterproductive approach has ruined the whole experience. The 2024 Draft proved to be another complete waste of time. The same could be said for 2025’s Transfer Window shenanigans that acted as this gen's 'Superstar Shakeup'. For reasons best know to themselves, the company hasn’t honoured anything it ‘set in stone’ by posting various wrestlers to each show.

Workers continue to show up as and when they like on so-called rival brands, and that'll probably continue to be the case even mid-hype for a 2026 Draft. It'd be nice to imagine that next year's version (assuming it's coming, because 2025's seems to have been scrapped) would act as a hard reset for the concept, but no - it's foolish to think that way given the last couple of examples.

Triple H will talk about "ironclad" rosters, various legends will show up to make token picks, then wrestlers will show up whenever it suits or when WWE feels it needs to front load an episode of TV. Various excuses will be made for this, GMs will get involved in that process, then everyone will forget they even need to justify cross-brand stuff at all. 

Rinse and repeat. Will that stop this fan from getting excited by the potential? No, but it's difficult to see WWE sticking to their own rules.