Making yearly predictions is always a fun thing to come up with in the wrestling world. When you’re right, you get to boast about how you have foresight that others do not. When you’re wrong, odds are the column is almost a year old at that point and its likely that nobody will remember how wildly inaccurate you were. One thing I can promise you is that I will not make any predictions about CM Punk. Why? Because he is old news and will never be worth discussing in any column I write. With that said, here are some big predictions I expect to unfold in the wrestling world in 2021.

1. Jimmy and Jey Uso feud with at least one of them turning their back on Roman Reigns. Jey Uso has become a breakout star in the past six months while Jimmy has been on the shelf. It only makes sense to start some family controversy and I can only imagine the two of them would put on some great singles matches together.

2. Expect to see Samoa Joe back in action by SummerSlam. WWE is in need of another main event start, and Joe could easily step into this role as a heel or babyface. Joe is long overdue for a monster run. He should be getting the treatment that Bobby Lashley is getting right now but due to injury he is spending his time in the commentary booth. I fully expect to see Joe make a big return in a few months.

3. The WWE will go through another round of budget cuts at some point this year just like they did last year. You will see talent released that likely was not doing anything on the TV anyway. The internet will gripe and complain, but ultimately a week later nobody will miss them.

4. I do not genuinely think any established mid card talent or big name WWE stars will be leaving the company any time soon to head to AEW. I would imagine that if someone is released from their contract, sure they could end up there. But I do not think we will see any established big names not renew their contracts in 2021 and head to AEW. I believe the the performers are starting to see that things are headed in the right direction with the pandemic and we will begin to have audiences again. The place to be when audiences return is the WWE.

5. WWE will not run one show in 2021 at maximum capacity attendance. As much as they are ready to do this, the world is just not ready for it.

6. The AEW/TNA/NJPW incestual relationship will crash hard later this year. While it has certainly been intriguing to see the invisible lines crossed, I think you will see too many creative differences and viewpoints with all parties involved. It already happened last week with Sammy Guevara not wanting to proceed with Impact’s creative. While this may be a good idea on paper, I believe it will inevitably fail.

7, Expect to see a few of AEW’s current crop of talent to leave the company. AEW has been described as the best environments to work as far as the wrestling industry goes. I believe there is a lot of truth in that, but no place is perfect. Eventually talent is going to be disgruntled with their lack of television time. Expect to see some AEW talent head to WWE or other promotions.

8. I expect WWE to start shuffling more main roster wrestlers down to feud with NXT stars in order to help the weekly ratings on the USA Network. NXT has been struggling in the ratings for quite some time. While sending established talent to NXT for feuds is not the long term answer to improve their ratings failure, it can certainly be a band aid for the time being and help generate some interest while helping establish some up and coming stars.

9. Brock Lesnar will either be WWE or Universal Champion again by Survivor Series. With no sign of Brock wrestling at Wrestlemania 37, I fully expect him to be in the title picture come Wrestlemania 38 and putting over someone in a big way.

10. The Hurt Business will implode by the end of the year. Bobby Lashley is about to embark upon a monster heel run, but I believe by the end of the year he will be a huge babyface and go into Wrestlemania potentially as an opponent to Brock Lesnar putting him in a position to win either the WWE or Universal title at Wrestlemania 38.

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