That Was Then 12.31.05: Stu's Predictions For 2006
Posted by Sam Caplan on 12.31.2005
Let's see how dumb I'm going to look one year from today.
Hello all, and hope you're having a good holiday weekend. Last week, I went on for a few years with all the predictions I made throughout 2005 that were completely wrong. As promised, I return this week with my predictions for 2006, and we'll check back in twelve months or so and see how I did this year. But first, here's some of your off-base predictions from 2005.
From Sirkman2000:
I was under the impression that the Money in the Bank match at Wrestlemania would guarantee a championship match for only the World Heavyweight Championship and not the WWE Championship. I would have figured that Edge by default would have to join Smackdown after the draft to get his title shot, or at least be given an interpromotional title match. It would have been a good reason to let Smackdown gain another great talent for free or at least build a good pay-per-view with an interpromotional championship match to freshen things up.
I think this is a question that has come up in the minds of a lot of people since the World Title moved over to Smackdown. I personally think it was a great idea, because it leaves some grey area depending on who they want Edge to take the title from (and make no mistake, when he gets the shot he will win the title). I don't think, unfortunately, that they're very interested in building up the roster on Smackdown these days, but if they were Edge would be a great addition, as well as giving us a chance to see a continuation of the Matt Hardy squa…I mean, feud.
From Vincent Chiucchi:
At the beginning of the year, I was sure Shelton Benjamin would go on to be a main eventer and earn a title shot, or at least close to one. Then he jobbed to Kerwin White, and it was all downhill from there.
After the mega-push he got in 2004, a lot of people probably expected Shelton to continue moving up the card. It could be that it's just not his time yet though, and as you said, he's had a rough year since the draft. Luckily, unlike his former partner, he still has a job, so there's always hope.
From Don Del Grande:
I thought for sure that Candice Michelle would win the WWE women's title by the end of the year so they could have her wearing the belt when she did her Playboy-cover tour. Considering that she won't be on the cover for a few months, I still see it happening...
An interesting idea, although for some reason I think it more likely that Candace will be wearing as little as possible when she does Playboy.
Robert Kirk writes with some of his own predictions for 2006:
Some good points made about 05 but one thing i would like to know care to make any predictions on whos going to break out in 06, i think 06 is going to go like this
WWE
Undertaker to retire after getting pinned cleanly by either John Cena or a returning Chris Jericho,
Chris Jericho returning and taking the title off either Batista or Dork Boy
Shawn Micheals To retire putting over whoever in the process most likley Adam "dont leave for girl unattended" Copland
Shelton Benjiman-To be released he may be popular but he does not have the build or mic skills vince is looking for to be the next Rock
Matt and Jeff-To reunite and be WWE tag champs by March the sales of t shirts alone make this a gold mine for Vince
RVD-Hard to tell he will be back in jan if they give him the mic and he carries on the way he did with the shoot promo of ECW O.N.S he will get give a shot a Vinces Golden Boy H,H,H or he will get released as soon as he is back and wind up in TNA
TNA
Jarret to move into an exec role within the company proberly in about july this would give the whole company a breath of fresh air and who knows maybe the title will change hands more than once in a year to somebody other than AJ.
TNA Belts- They have dumped the deal with NWA so next year I expect there to be a TNA Heavyweight Champion, US/TV Champion and of course Tag Team Champ along with the X division belt
TNA-AJ to end unbeaten run of Soma Joe early in the year with the help of somebody given that Test has been seen at a lot of PPV and tapings it would make sense that he come in and helps a face beat the unstoppable object as you can tell by this i dont like Joe (let the mail flow) calling a sleeper a different name to make it sound cool doesnt work with me like wise the kenco buster i saw it in that awful cartoon ultimate muscle
TNA With any luck either Ryhno or Christian will be champ both have proven that they can cut a promo and both are over there are loads of matches they could have that would gain a high buyrate Monty brown would nicely into the mix as well.
Break out Stars
Seeing as I am English I am looking for Harry Smith (British Bulldogs Son) to make it huge in 06 given what I have heard about him from Chris Beniot and Bret Hart I think he could go straight in as a World Championship contender or a least IC champ, both of the above think he is the Best Young Wrestler ever alright harts going to say that but Beniot is not a family relation.
Paul Burchill-Will either have regal as mouth piece and do a smilar thing to Batista just destroy a bunch of mid carders and get over that way with at least i hope a new finisher the armbar sucks ass just let him use his indy moves his finisher was called The Move With No Name, If he is forced to start 06 like 05 went i hope to see him quit and go over to TNA where he could either be Heavyweight Champ or X Champ
Austin Aries-To go over big time in TNA winning the X belt off Daniels in a best of three PPV match would be great
Chris Jericho-Hopefully Vince will now understand that this guy can wrestle and is absolute gold on the mic if not perhaps if will find gold elsewhere and we will all end up seeing the self destruction of jericho where golden boy will trash him and every random jobber will say that he could wrestle etc
A bunch of stuff I'd like to see, although I don't know how likely some of it is. But who's Soma Joe? Is that going to be Nick Dinsmore's new indy persona after he gets released by WWE?
Sarcasm aside, here's some of what I see happening in 2006…
Raw
-Edge will win the WWE Title from John Cena.
I don't see any way this doesn't happen. I don't see Triple H in the title picture by Wrestlemania, and the only other credible challenger left on Raw is Edge. Besides, I'd be really surprised if they let this whole year long storyline leading up to his title shot end in a loss.
-Shawn Michaels will get another run at the WWE Title.
After losing the title at Wrestlemania, Cena's probably going to be in the chase for a while before getting another shot, so who better to challenge in the meantime? They've already had some good matches together and Shawn still looks good, so I don't see any reason for Shawn to not get another title shot.
-Big Show and Kane will still be World Tag Team Champions in May because the creative team forgot they were the champions.
Would this really shock anybody? Besides, aside from a one time pairing a la Mankind/Rock or Austin/Undertaker, there's nobody on Raw right now who can beat them.
-Chavo Guerrero Jr's sympathy push will disappear VERY quickly.
And let's face it, that's exactly what it is. There's a reason Eddy was World Champion and not Chavo. Now that WWE has shown that Eddy's death means nothing to them except storyline fodder, don't be surprised to see Chavo suddenly not beating JBL anymore.
-Triple H will not win the WWE Title back before Summerslam.
He may win the title at the end of the year, but with Cena and Edge most likely dominating the title through the middle of the year, Hunter is safely out of the title picture for now.
-Jerry Lawler will be canned as an announcer.
He had a good run, and I don't think he's quite as annoying as a lot of people make him out to be, but he's limited by what McMahon wants, and that's a cool, young heel announcer. If Jim Ross can get yanked, nobody's safe, especially Lawler.
Smackdown
-Randy Orton will beat Batista for the World Title at Wrestlemania.
I don't see any way this doesn't happen unless Batista's body doesn't hold up until Wrestlemania. There's literally nobody else on Smackdown right now that WWE even views as an option with Eddy dead and Kennedy injured. This leads us to…
-Ken Kennedy will return from his injury and immediately be put into the main event picture.
Expect to see him squashing everybody in his path come spring, and he'll probably wind up in a top match at Summerslam.
-Bobby Lashley will pick up the US Title no later than Summerslam.
This guy is money in the bank, and if they give him a slow, Samoa Joe-style build, he'll be a top player for years to come. Of course, the US Title still has to find its way through the situation involving…
-Chris Benoit and Booker T's main event days will be behind them.
Benoit got his run, and Booker's never going to get his. Simple as that. I think both men have peaked, unless Benoit gets a short title win from Orton, perhaps to set up a Kennedy title win, but don't count on it.
-Scotty 2 Hotty will still, inexplicably, have a job.
Seriously, why does this man still have a job? He's spent most of the last five years on the injured list, rarely appears on TV when he is healthy, and it's not exactly like he was main eventing when he was. He has to have incriminating photos of the McMahons, that's the only possible explanation.
-The entire brand will be reunited with Raw when nobody picks the show up after the UPN contract expires in September. The World Title will not be unified with the WWE Title until sometime in 2007.
Sure, they can try to webcast it, but it'll be extremely difficult for WWE to support an entire brand through webcasting. Smackdown is doing so poorly these days that I'd be surprised if it did wind up on another network.
TNA
-Jeff Jarrett will still be NWA Champion for most of the year.
I don't think this would surprise anybody. It's like they say, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. Jeff Jarrett certainly believes in this philosophy as the NWA Title has been steadily around his own waist for most of TNA's existence.
-Monty Brown will win his first NWA Title.
I think if they're going to do it, 2006 is the make or break time. The guy is wildly popular, is beating everybody, and really needs the belt if he's going to continue on as the monster of TNA.
-Samoa Joe will hold the X-Division Title until at least April, will eventually lose the title to AJ Styles, then make a run at the NWA Title.
Wouldn't Samoa Joe vs Monty Brown for the NWA Title be awesome?
-AMW will still reign supreme in the tag team division, despite probably losing the Tag Team Title to Team 3D at some point.
I don't see them putting the WWE guys over their homegrown talent for any significant period of time, so AMW will probably keep the NWA Tag Title for most of the year.
ROH
-Homicide will again fail to win the ROH Title.
Failure will perhaps be Homicide's greatest legacy in ROH, as he has lost chance after chance to win the ROH Title. I don't think 2006 will be the year he finally takes the gold home. I also think the fans will still continue to cheer him despite everything they try to get the fans to boo him.
-Samoa Joe will win the ROH Tag Team Title.
I think Joe is a pretty solid pick to be the first ROH Triple Crown winner. It's been kind of his unstated mission since losing the ROH Title anyway. As a side note, I think Joe will win the Lethal feud, but Lethal will still become a top title contender anyway.
-Austin Aries & Roderick Strong will split up after losing the ROH Tag Team Title and feud.
I figured they'd split up after losing to the Embassy in December, but they won and are still together. But with Jack Evans and Matt Sydal as part timers at best, it doesn't make much sense to keep "Generation Next" together with only two members, and both guys can only go up from here.
-The Part time AJ Styles will continue to be put over top ROH regulars.
I don't understand why they keep putting TNA's top guy over all their own talent, but they do. Don't look for this to change in 2006. This leads us to…
-Low Ki will still be a part timer, but will still beat everybody who isn't Japanese.
I think if Ki wrestled Styles in ROH, the power of the no-job would cause the building to implode.
Other Stuff
-The internet will become as widely utilized, if not more so, than TV.
The spread of internet webcasts will remain a big part of WWE's plan going forward, but will also become especially important for indy groups like JAPW who were already reasonably well known, but can always use the extra exposure.
-Wrestlecrap will cease operations.
As sad as I am to say it, this pillar of the IWC will soon finish up, as RD now has a family and everybody involved seems to be on the brink of burnout.
So there you go. I wish I could have predicted more storyline stuff for WWE, but their creative situation is so messed up that you honestly never know if Stephanie's going to wake up one day and decide to bury John Cena and Batista for the hell of it. In 365 days, we'll check back and see if I was any less wrong in 2006 than I was in 2005.
