2012 Predictions

[A Screen Up]

Okay, pretty much what it says on the tin really. What do you see happening in the upcoming year? Will we see the next Steve Austin or John Cena break through? Will TNA go through any major changes? It doesn't have to be restricted solely to the big players - take your shots in the dark regarding the independent scene or maybe you think Whitey McMatchstick will get the break he deserves and WWE will save him from your village hall. It doesn't necessarily have to be anything too far-fetched either, it's pretty much any estimation you have of taking place in 2012.

 

Here are a few of mine:

 

- The crowd reaction for the stare-down between The Rock and John Cena when they step into the ring together at Wrestlemania will be hottest of the past decade.

 

- Dolph Ziggler will break through as a bona fide main eventer; becoming third in line only to John Cena and Randy Orton as the biggest stars in the company (not counting part timers such as Triple H/Undertaker et al).

 

- Undertaker and Chris Jericho will have one of the matches of the year at Wrestlemania, though it won't compare to any of Taker's past three 'Mania outings. Undertaker will (rightfully so) go over.

 

- I can't see too much happening in TNA business-wise and as I don't really follow the product, I will refrain from taking any hip shots.

 

- Ianhitmanhart will return in the UKFF chat room mid-way through the Royal Rumble with a reaction only paling in comparison to my Number #1.

 

Over to you, and all the best wishes for the new year to you all.

[jackhennessey]

I really hope your 2nd point is going to happen, proper love me a bit of Dolph (I did once think the name was pure shite but could you imagine any thing else now?)

 

Also what happened with Ian - didn't he get banned for a bit then come back then disappear into the sunset, he's the UKFF's taker, the last outlaw.

Some one on here wanted to get everyone trending #BigBossMan I think this should happen during the rumble, I will even get a twitter account for this purpose and I fucking hated the notion of twitter originally.

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

LESNNNAAAARRR!

 

If this is true and h'es retired, I don't watch UFC and this what I've been hearing on the grapevine.

 

[close spoiler]

");document.close();

[A Screen Up]

^ Yeah, and he would fully deserve his position too. People have been calling him the next Flair or Shawn Michaels for quite a while now but I think that being the next Edge-level star is as good and realistic as we can expect for him, not that there would be anything wrong with this.

 

In-ring, he is as refined as pretty much anybody on the roster and he has had an exceptional year. He does remind me a lot of a younger Edge and if WWE can come up with a well-rounded gimmick for him then I think we are all onto a winner.

 

In regards to Ian - I asked in the Off-topic Questions thread about him and apparently he's just been busy with it being this time of year. I hope that's simply the case as he comes across as a top bloke and is consistently one of the best posters on the forum.

[air_raid]

I'm tempted to give this one a miss as the only ones I made last year that came true were the obvious ones. Of the 15 predictions I made across several promotions.

 

Punk returns to the main event bracket and wins one of the world titles.

Del Rio will win of the world titles.

Nexus will disband shortly after WrestleMania and Slater and Otunga will be endeavoured.

Davey Richards will finally win the ROH title and possibly the IWGP junior title. (Nearly, but not.)

Akiyama may get one final run with the GHC title. (Not quite, but he did win the Triple Crown.)

 

Bollocks, here goes nothing.

 

* Jericho will return tomorrow night.

* Ziggler will win one of the World titles and have a proper reign with it this time, lasting oooh, at least a month. Probably via Money In The Bank.

* Swagger will turn babyface and leave Ziggler/Vickie, although no one will care.

* No one will bite on Truth as a babyface again, and they'll either turn him back or release him.

* Miz will have another title run.

* Sheamus will have a medium-term babyface title run. And a violent feud with Wade Barrett.

* Edge will go into the Hall of Fame.

* Either the Usos or Colons will win the tag team titles but ultimately surrender them to the latest "two bored midcarders with nothing better to do."

* Cody will get a couple of shots at one of the World titles on PPV to see how he gets on, but he won't win yet.

* WWE will do a love story between Mark Henry and Kharma.

* Batista will show up at some point.

* After putting Cena over at 'Mania, The Rock will not have another match in WWE for the rest of the year.

* Steve Austin will tease an in-ring comeback again with angles on TV with a full-timer, and interviews where he will hint at who he would come back to wrestle, but nothing will come of it.

 

* TNA will finally make the call to Chris Masters.

* Despite their recent violent feud on TV, at some point in 2012 Styles and Daniels will be portrayed as lifelong BFFs again.

* Someone will win the World title that right now seems ridiculous to suggest, like Crimson, Eric Young or my own favourite, Gunner.

* Bully Ray will win the World title.

* Mr Anderson will turn at least three times.

* Jeff Hardy will fuck up again. TNA will forgive him again.

* Kurt Angle will, to the surprise of no-one, contest at least three matches considered MOTYC.

 

* KENTA will finally win the GHC title. I have to get this right one year, right?

* MVP will head back to the States to work for either WWE or TNA.

* Nagata will get one last run at the IWGP title. He will lose it to Goto or Naito.

* TenKoji will reform and win one of the Japanese tag team titles, before putting over Bad Intentions.

* Bad Intentions will split up and Bernard will pursue the IWGP title, although not win it yet

 

* I will continue to not really care about ROH any more.

[Rosler28]

2012 will be the year of Dolph Ziggler. He will be the next big name.

 

John Cen will beat the Rock at Wrestlemania.

 

Undertaker vs Kane in a loser has to retire casket match some point during the year.

 

The return of Y2J

 

Smackdown to be the better wrestling show on tv.

 

Wade Barrett will become the first English wrestler to win either the WWE or World title

[Trevor]

Here's my predictions for 2012:

 

Chris Jericho will return Monday night.

 

Kane's momentum will falter at some point in the next 12 months, returning to stagnating in the mid card.

 

John Cena will turn heel and will excel in his new found role.

 

Alberto Del Rio will become a big star, with his more brutal, nastier personality getting more over.

 

Sadly, I don't see Dolph Ziggler becoming anywhere as big a star as everyone here seems to think. Becoming the "3rd biggest star in the company" is an outlandish claim from someone who MUST be living in cloud cuckoo land.

 

Mark Henry will sadly no longer be the force he was in 2011.

 

CM Punk will rightfully switch back to heel, since his face turn is fast becoming a disaster.

[Dingo Warrior]

Wrestling for the year 2012

 

The WWE will continue to force through all this PG related family entertainment rubbish.

 

Thankfully promotions such as NJPW, AJPW, CMLL, AAA, PWG, ROH, other independent

[A Screen Up]

Rosler, your point regarding Wade Barrett raises a point I usually forget, in that there has never been an English Champion. Wade is our best hope today and it would be brilliant if they could get it right, give him a nice run as a face and win the title on the UK Raw. He could then spin it around on the next Raw in the States and go back heel, the role he is more naturally suited to play.

[UK Kat Von D]

Am I the only one who doesn't want Ziggler to win a world title next year? As good as he is I want to see climb slowly, rather than this idea WWE seem to have of putting the title on someone expecting them to grow into it. When he does win the title I want it to seem like a smooth transition, rather than him having to step up.

 

As for predictions, I am going to go out on a limb and say that at some point the WWE title and World Heavyweight titles will be unified leading to an end of the brand split

[A Screen Up]

I don't think that you're far out with your comment about the titles, Maxwell. Unfortunately it is now probably the right thing to do. I think the major downside WWE would face is what they would do about the house shows as Vince has reportedly always maintained that they were to feature their World champion on almost every one.

[jackhennessey]

In regards to Ian - I asked in the Off-topic Questions thread about him and apparently he's just been busy with it being this time of year. I hope that's simply the case as he comes across as a top bloke and is consistently one of the best posters on the forum.

 

I want him to finish that bloody UKFF Greatest wrestlers ever dealie... its a cracking read, been learning a lot of cool stuff via that.

[Forrest]

I'll have a bash at this:

 

1. By the end of next year, we will see Crimson vs. Gunner for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

 

2. The Undertaker will retire after Wrestlemania, streak in tact.

 

3. John Cena vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania will not be for the WWE Championship.

 

4. Kings of Wrestling will fued with Air Boom for the Tag titles.

 

5. Sheamus will win the Royal Rumble.

 

6. Edge and Randy Savage will go into the HOF.

 

7. Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler will all become main eventers.

 

8. Chris Jericho won't return on Monday.

 

9. John Morrison will break up with Melina and choose to go round the Indies instead of the Impact Zone, so that he can keep up his chances of rejoining WWE later.

 

10. John Cena will suffer a serious injury at some point and be forced to take time off.

[Slapnut]

There will be another big summer storyline which everyone will rave about but will eventually bomb.

 

Cena won't turn heel.

 

WWE ratings and buyrates will continue to drop, while TNA's ratings will pretty much stay the same.

 

Sad state of affairs eh? On the other hand, Wrestlemania will be very good, there'll be a fair number of breakout stars (Dolph, Sheamus, Wade etc.) and there'll be another stand-out PPV ala this year's Money In The Bank.

[air_raid]

Am I the only one who doesn't want Ziggler to win a world title next year? As good as he is I want to see climb slowly, rather than this idea WWE seem to have of putting the title on someone expecting them to grow into it. When he does win the title I want it to seem like a smooth transition, rather than him having to step up.

 

How slowly do you want it??

 

He spent 2009 and a great deal of 2010 chasing the Intercontinental title feuding with Rey and Morrison, capped with finally winning said title and a seemingly-neverending feud with Kofi Kingston, before moving on to an excellent series with Daniel Bryan. After a brief elevation and fun program with Edge (and dumping the midcard belt) he then pottered around in the midcard doing nothing interesting of note until landing ANOTHER run with Kingston over the sodding United States title. This year he's had his midcard fun with said title, even tarted around in tag teams with Swagger, before elevating Ryder and relieving himself of the midcard belt burden.

 

He's been in televised midcard feuds for the titles underneath for the last three years, and in the last six months has had plenty of practice/water-testing matches with Cena, Punk and Orton. What on earth is there left for him to before he can start contesting main events? What "climbing" do you want Ziggler to do that he hasn't already done?

[tom]

Mark Henry will slowly but surely slip back down the card and be reduced to the big heel threat who people beat to show how determined, angry or star-bound they are

 

Evan Bourne will turn heel on Kofi only to disappoint with his awful promo voice and eventually form a team who no one cares about with Tyson Kidd

 

Jericho will return on RAW

 

Dolph Ziggler will win the WWE title thanks to Jericho on RAW

 

Punk will become heel after WrestleMania, blaming the fans for encouraging Jericho to return

 

After a few months with the US Title and perhaps a big defence at 'Mania, Ryder will enter a feud with the newly debuted Deam Ambrose and lose the title