predictions

Hello You!

I recently wrote an article over at Gaming Respawn where I had a bash at predicting some of the matches for WrestleMania 35

I thought we could use this thread to post predictions of who we think will and we can look at it again next week and see how we all did? There’s no prize, other than the warm glow of knowing you were able to predict some of the results correctly, but isn’t that reward enough?

This was written on Monday prior to Raw, so it was before all the tag title matches were officially added to the card. With that in mind, I’ll go with Ryder and Hawkins over The Revival, whilst Black and Rick O’Shea pick up the Smackdown tag titles. Neither match will probably get much time, and to be honest this Mania probably already has at least 8 matches too many

I’m actually at a wedding on Sunday (I know, how dare they arrange to hold their wedding on WrestleMania Sunday!!!) so I probably won’t be watching Mania until Monday morning, so I’ll see you all on the other side

Enjoy all 7-8 hours of Mania if you’re planning to watch it all live in one go

TakeOver last night was pretty gosh darn good as well, and you can read the thoughts of Scott Keith and Thomas Hall on the show. What with that and New Japan tonight, this weekend is probably already guaranteed to be a thumbs up, let’s just hope Mania delivers a few classic bouts as well, preferably before the crowd is completely burnt out so that they actually get a good reaction!

http://www.sportingnews.com/sport/story/2015-07-15/wwe-battleground-2015-preview-and-predictions-brock-lesnar-seth-rollins-kevin-owens-john-cena

Why yes, there IS a PPV this Sunday.

Click on the link below to view the article but my question to everyone here is how would you feel if everything here actually happened on the show?

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/wrestlemania-32-predictions-27285085

Sports Review Wrestling Predictions into 1998…What They Were And Why They Weren’t As Ridiculous As You Might Think. Took some inspiration from the ongoing WWF Magazine recaps on the BOD, and remembered that I had this in my possession (not for long…as of this writing you can purchase it from my eBay store at jmfabianorpl, with other wrestling goods and more!  Jeter421 on Half.com has even more great items.  Anyway…) Back when I started being a wrestling fan, I had to have EVERYTHING related to the sport.  The action figures, the books, videos, I had to be around when anything even resembling wrestling was on television and I watched it ALL.  And of course, there were the magazines.  Like others, I started with the WWF Magazine, but then as I discovered other companies on TV, I took notice of other titles on the newsstand…especially those coming from Bill Apter and “TV Sports.”  Yes, the trinity of The Wrestler, Inside Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Illustrated especially…though I liked many of Apter’s side publications such as Wrestling ‘8x/’9x, Wrestling Superstars, and why I am here today, Sports Review Wrestling.   SRW really didn’t have anything that jumped out at you like the other Apter mags did…for example, Inside’s strengths included One on One (a phone conversation between rivals); Top 15 rankings, instead of the usual 10, for the major companies and a roll call of champions; and a “Where are they now?” page.  PWI had arena reports, “breaking” news, and full-color centerfolds.  SRW seemed to mostly be straight news most of the time.  Wrestling Superstars, while one of the B-listers, still had monthly dream matches, complete with storylines (such as a masked Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake assaulting Sting and Davey Boy Smith; El Gigante taking Andre the Giant’s mainstream popularity, causing the latter to get in bodybuilder’s shape for one big blowout; and the Road Warriors having a singles match competition for a car, ending inevitably in them facing each other).  However, more often than not, the other magazines would get something interesting, and the September 1988 SRW was no exception, as you can tell from the cover.  For this issue, the writers would attempt to guess what way the wrestling world would go in the next 10 years.  I am a sucker for this kind of thing, and love revisiting the fans’ predictions in the year-end PWIs.  So I had to have a look at this article and some of the things it foresaw.  I expected far-fetched weirdness and got some, but I must tell you…some of SRW’s predictions actually weren’t as far off from the truth as you may think… So, we start out with the bold prediction that a major corporation would take over the NWA by 1993, helping it compete with the WWF and even surpass it.  Coca-Cola (which would have lost Columbia Pictures years ago) and MCA (which would lose Universal in a couple of years) are named…BUT…we know how things really went down.  As the NWA would be purchased by Ted Turner, rebrand itself WCW, and would of course become a part of Time Warner eventually.  Now the article is 5 years off with the year of the purchase, which would actually be coming within months.   However, think about this: 1993 was when Eric Bischoff came to power, and though it took some more time, he would be the one in power when WCW did overtake the WWF.  And hey, the article is off by just one year as far as when that really happened.  You could even stretch things and say 1995 was the debut of Nitro, which was a catalyst in WCW becoming number one.   Next prediction involves “Sean” McMahon, Vince’s son (typo?  Misinformation?  DIDN’T KNOW BUT CAME REALLY, CLAIRVOYANTLY CLOSE?!!?), taking over the WWF by 1997.  Either that or you can say another Sean (or Shawn) was practically family with Vince by then, of course, being favored in the Montreal Screwjob and pretty much being allowed to get away with anything and, well, practically running the joint.  Name play aside, the dates again are still not that far off, and competition with WCW would indeed push the WWF harder, all the way into the Attitude Era, as the prediction states.  As for the prime-time comedy-drama, isn’t that one of the things they insist/insisted Raw and Smackdown are?  Then again, the XFL was pretty unintentionally comedic…but that was years off anyway.  This column also predicts that “Sean” will make WrestleMania 14 the first to be held in outer space…yeah, let’s pretend that SRW was actually seeing Steve Austin beginning the company’s rise into the stratosphere for the next 3 years.   OK bear with the blurriness here.  We have Michael Jackson signing a 10-year contract with the WWF in 1992 after doing an album of standards with Frank Sinatra.  MJ would be getting $50 million and by 1994 would primarily serve as a manager who loads his sequined glove to pass to his wrestlers.   I could simply say “no, but both would be dealing with PR scandals at the time.”   The Road Warriors were predicted to break up in 1990 and become singles wrestlers, only to feud when both Animal and Hawk wanted Paul Ellering for a manager.  They would have a one-on-one match at Great American Bash ’91 or Starrcade ’91 and cripple each other, ending both their careers, so the article said.  Now, any LOD partings in the ‘90s happened with whimpers (their split in 1992 when Hawk left the WWF; the teased feud in 1998 that was abandoned for the formation of LOD 2000…sup, Russo?).  Interestingly enough, Bash ’91 did feature a grudge match between the former members of a long-standing NWA/WCW tag team in the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express.  And Starrcade of that year ended with a confrontation with ex-friends Sting and Lex Luger, in the Battlebowl finals.   Steve DiSalvo will be NWA world champion in 1993, managed by Harley Race, and he’ll run rampant until losing the title to Owen Hart in ’94.  The closest level of infamy DiSalvo achieved was becoming the first, or one of the first, IWC internet memes in 1991.  But a dominant world champion in NWA/WCW, managed by Race and dominating throughout 1992-94, sound familiar?   Also, Owen DID use the Sharpshooter/Scorpion Death Lock as a finisher, like someone’s arch rival during his tenure in WCW.   When making a predictions article, Apter always loved to throw in a tease that Hulk Hogan would be turning rulebreaker.  This was no exception, as the writers saw Hogan beating Brutus Beefcake for the Intercontinental Title in ’93, then going to the NWA…to join the Four Horsemen.  Again, SRW was a few years ahead, but we all know that this basically happened with Hogan returning to his heel roots with a new elite group in the company.  And hey, Hogan did leave the WWF in 1993, although it took time for him to first show up in WCW.   Other predictions made in the column included: Larry Zbyszko getting his own talk show on WWF TV and beating the Ultimate Warrior for the I-C title; Elizabeth beating Wendi Richter in a 26-minute classic in ’94 to become WWF Women’s Champion; and Nick Bockwinkel coming out of retirement and regaining the AWA title in the mid ‘90s.  (Well, the latter can be likened to a certain legend winning the #3 company’s world title, on their first pay per view…) So Sports Review Wrestling…second coming of Nostradamus, or not worth the $1.75 it cost?  You decide…

Scott,

All right boys we’re less than 24 hours away from Rumble time. What are your predictions:

Who will be this year’s “Ironman”

Who will be Number 1? (Remember Dolph can pick 1 or 2)

Who will be Number 2?

Who will be Number 30?

Who will be the first participant eliminated?

Who will be the final participant eliminated?

Who will have the most eliminations?

Who will be in the final four?

Who will give us the best elimination defense (i.e. Kofi’s handstand)?

And finally who will the damn thing and the right to point at the Wrestlemania XXIX (oops) sign?

As per request. Think we can beat the four comments for the Smackdown live thread last night? I bet we can.

Anyhow, the iPPV starts at 7 EST, so head on over to ROHwrestling.com and float them a few bucks. Cmon, you can spare $9.99 for some wrestling, ya cheap bastards. Here’s some predictions:

 
 Kevin Steen vs. Davey Richards: I’m actually kind of torn on this one. They introduced the “This is Steen’s only chance” element, and I’m thinking they don’t want to make it look like Steen’s a choker ala Lex Luger. On the other hand, I assume they want this storyline to stretch out at least as far as Final Battle in December. Unless of course they learned their lesson from last years never-ending, never-changing Richards/Edwards feud, and they don’t want to slow their storyline plans down too much. In that case, Steen wins and begins his hostile takeover of ROH.

Fit Finlay vs. Roderick Strong: Strong’s the TV champ so unless he’s dropping the title to Finlay in his first ROH match, I’m thinking Finlay gives Roddy the rub and Roddy goes over here. I also think this is going to be a style clash.

Briscoes vs. Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team: Unless this feud is blown off completely I’d say WGTT takes the belts back. In fact, even if they do blow it off here, I’d still say WGTT should take it and move on to All Night Express for a feud, while the Briscoes can take on the Young Bucks or the House of Truth, or maybe even Steen & Jacobs for a while.

Lance Storm vs. Mike Bennett: Bennett gets the win again, still doesn’t give Storm respect, and then makes out with Maria for a really long time.

Eddie Edwards vs. Rhino: From the looks of things, Rhino’s going to be appearing more regularly in ROH so I think he might actually get the win here to put him in title contention. Since Steen is likely to be the biggest babyface in the company coming out of this show, I could see him taking on Rhino just as well as Edwards.

Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole: Coming off his 5-star match with Davey, Elgin wins quickly.

Jay Lethal vs. Tommaso Ciampa: This one’s gonna keep going and Roderick is going to end up involved and I am positive we’ll see a 3 way in the future, so Ciampa wins.

Well, enjoy folks. Sneak out from under the ring and use multiple low blows.

Not really much to work for PPV predictions tonight, given that there’s only FOUR matches announced.  Maybe they’ll all be really long. RAW Chamber match:  CM Punk v. Chris Jericho v. Kofi Kingston v. The Miz v. R-Truth v. Dolph Ziggler This one seems pretty clear:  Either Punk retains and defends against Jericho at WM, or Jericho wins and defends against Punk.  No other result makes any sense, so we’ll go with Jericho finally getting a meaningful win and yet another World title.  I’m sure Dolph and Kofi will bump all over and make it a good match. Smackdown Chamber match:  Daniel Bryan v. Big Show v. Wade Barrett v. Great Khali v. Santino v. Cody Rhodes I totally forgot that Rhodes was even in this thing.  Are these seriously the top six people they could find for a World title match?  Show is already set for WM so he’s out and Khali/Santino/Rhodes are deadwood in this match, so unless they go with the stupid swerve and have Barrett win, or have Christian take out Santino ala Edge and win, it’s D-Bry all the way. John Cena v. Kane, Ambulance Match.  Cena wins and then accidentally runs over Zack Ryder with the ambulance.  Expect lots of SPORTS ENTERTAINING no matter what happens.  Probably involving Eve and Ryder and at least one heel turn. Beth Phoenix v. Tamina Really?  We’ll say that Nattie farts and costs Beth the title, just because.  Bonus match guesses:  Sheamus v. Jinder Mahal, Colons v. Usos.  Still, I’ve got the day off and will probably order this one, so hopefully everyone’s on their game tonight.