Every few months I'll get bored with PW and wander over to another wrestling forum. Happened the other day and I came across this interesting topic- "Wrestling Predictions You Got Terribly Wrong." I threatened them with posting a hundred lol. Still think I can get there. But let's start out small with "only" 50...

51 Wrestling Predictions I Got Terribly Wrong because I can't count and roughly in chronological order

1. Ultimate Warrior will make quick work of Sgt. Slaughter at Royal Rumble 91 in what amounts to a stat padding title defense
2. The Minotaur will be WCW’s next main event monster heel as basically their version of The Undertaker
3. GWF's The Patriot will be the next Hulk Hogan
4. Hulk Hogan will win the 1992 Royal Rumble
5. Scott Norton will main event WCW pay per views
6. Ice Train will also main event WCW pay per views and likely be WCW Champion some day
7. Lex Luger will win the WWF Championship from Yokozuna at Summerslam 93
8. Ludvig Borga's inevitable feud with Lex Luger over the WWF Championship will become iconic as WWF's version of Rocky/Drago
9. Lex Luger will be the (sole) winner of the 1994 Royal Rumble
10. WWF will quit getting cute and finally stop trying to make Bret Hart a thing when they give Luger his long awaited WWF Title win at WM 10
11. Helmsley's ceiling is WWF's Regal. He'll peak as an 'annoying' midcard heel a la Mountie/Model/IRS. IC Champ/KOTR winner at best
12. Barry Horowitz worst to first push will culminate with him winning either the IC Title or Tag Titles w/ Hakushi
13. Ahmed Johnson will be WWF Champ and main event megastar. Only question is will he be the next Hogan or "merely" next Warrior?
14. Bluebloods will beat Sting & Luger at the January 96 Clash to finally get their well deserved tag title reign
15. Jeff Jarrett will be the Third Man!!!
16. Vader will win the 1996 KOTR
17. New Rockers will finally get their turn with the tag titles at Summerslam 96
18. Vader will dethrone Shawn Michaels at Summerslam 96
19. 1996 MOTY will either be Malenko/Benoit from Hog Wild or HBK/Vader the next week at Summerslam
20. Furnas & LaFon will be to 1997 WWF what the Steiners were to early 90s WCW. Expect a lengthy title reign and MOTY w/ Owen & DBS
21. WWF should stop trying to make Rocky Maivia a thing. It's never gonna happen. Should just cut their losses and release this scrub
22. Disco Inferno will be Honkytonk Man's protege
23. Yokozuna will join the Hart Foundation
24. Billy Gunn & Jesse James will never get over. They sucked as singles and they still suck as a team. Their push feels like WWF trolling us
25. Sable will ditch Marc Mero for Tom Brandi kicking off a mega babyface push for the former Salvatore Sincere
26. Al Snow will dethrone Shane Douglas at Wrestlepalooza 98
27. D'Lo Brown will follow in former Nation stablemate The Rock's footsteps as WWF's next big breakout star
28. I like the Hardys but they're never getting over in AE WWF. Hoping for one PPV appearance or fluke tag title win before the inevitable
29. APW will be the next ECW
30. Vic Grimes will be the next Mick Foley
31. Christian York is destined to become the Michaels to thoroughly mediocre Joey Matthews' Jannetty
32. Jerry Lynn will end RVD's already legendary TV Title reign at the August 99 ECW Arena show
33. With the TNN deal finally giving them national exposure it's only a matter of time before ECW surpasses WCW
34. Taz will become a dominant WWF Champ leading to a Battle of the Badasses with a returning Steve Austin to draw all the dimes
35. No way newly christened NY Times bestselling author Mick Foley is losing a retirement match to HHH at the peak of his popularity
36. Jericho, E. Guerrero, Benoit & Rey will never win a world title in WWF. Too small. Too WCW. And 3 of the 4 lack the necessary mic skills
37. Steve Corino will end our long national nightmare by dethroning Justin Credible at one of ECW's August 2000 NYC shows
38. Kurt Angle will be a WWE lifer
39. Women's wrestling will never draw many dimes in the US. Chyna/Sable was the one chance it had of drawing beyond the fetishist fringe
40. Raven will beat Jarrett to become NWA Champ on 4/30/03
41. Christopher Daniels will end Samoa Joe's ROH Championship reign at their September 2003 show
42. Ring Crew Express will get a feel good ROH tag title win
43. Chris Harris will be the breakout star of AMW while James Storm is destined to fade into obscurity
44. Teddy Hart will eventually grow up and have a successful WWE career
45. Mordecai will have an epic feud with Undertaker reminiscent of Taker/Kane from 97-98
46. Monty Brown will dethrone Jeff Jarrett and become the face of TNA
47. Johnny Jeter will be the next Chris Jericho...
48. Unless Alex Shelley gets to WWE first. Dude has the 2nd most upside of all the indie boom guys
49. Cena will lose to Triple H at WM 22
50. Cena will lose to HBK at WM 23
51. John Morrison & MVP are the future of WWE with Elijah Burke only a few steps behind
=============
2 bonus not-really-predictions more like opinions for the laughs....

-Bret & Shawn will never even win the IC Title, let alone multiple WWF Championships. Those tag team specialists as future legends? Gimme a break! Early 90s me would have found the idea of Bret & Shawn as main eventers so ludicrous it would never, ever have crossed my mind.
-"What's the deal with this Stone Cold crap? I miss The Ringmaster. The Ringmaster was cool! Bring back The Ringmaster!- 1996 me

This is a great idea

What's the other forum?

Oct 15, 2022 3:26:40 GMT 🤯 said:

This is a great idea

What's the other forum?

Telling you would make it too easy. Let's make a game of it instead. The answer is hidden in plain sight in my original post...
==========
A few more on the slow march to 100 while I'm here...

52. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff will return as a vengeful babyface battling the Four Horsemen in what will be the 1996 Feud of the Year
53. Steve Corino will join up with Fake Diesel & Fake Razor as the Fake 1-2-3 Kid
54. Crush will form a New Demolition in WWF. Probably with indie wrestler Demolition Blast
55. WWF will introduce a Mixologist gimmick played by either Maryland's own Corporal Punishment or a repackaged Barry Horowitz
56. Buddy Landel will join the NWO as their "Nature Boy"
57. Recent WWF signees Adam Copeland & Sean Morley will join the roster as the New Midnight Express
58. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams will bolster WWF's weak roster when he comes in as a credible main event foil for Steve Austin
59. Christopher Daniels will eventually become a full time member of the WWF roster. Don't know why it's taken this long tbh
60. Rock or Foley will leave WM 16 as WWF Champ. No way they'd ever end Mania with a successful heel title defense, amirite?
61. Old man Ric Flair will get one last WWE or World Title reign. And why not? He's still better, and more over, than most of the roster

Baker-man, I couldn't find it in plain sight but did trim your list down to predictions I would've either been sold on had I been watching in real time in real life or otherwise shared...

1. Ultimate Warrior will make quick work of Sgt. Slaughter at Royal Rumble 91 in what amounts to a stat padding title defense

4. Hulk Hogan will win the 1992 Royal Rumble

7. Lex Luger will win the WWF Championship from Yokozuna at Summerslam 93

9. Lex Luger will be the (sole) winner of the 1994 Royal Rumble

13. Ahmed Johnson will be WWF Champ and main event megastar. Only question is will he be the next Hogan or "merely" next Warrior?

27. D'Lo Brown will follow in former Nation stablemate The Rock's footsteps as WWF's next big breakout star

36. Jericho, E. Guerrero, Benoit & Rey will never win a world title in WWF. Too small. Too WCW. And 3 of the 4 lack the necessary mic skills

38. Kurt Angle will be a WWE lifer

39. Women's wrestling will never draw many dimes in the US. Chyna/Sable was the one chance it had of drawing beyond the fetishist fringe

40. Raven will beat Jarrett to become NWA Champ on 4/30/03

43. Chris Harris will be the breakout star of AMW while James Storm is destined to fade into obscurity

44. Teddy Hart will eventually grow up and have a successful WWE career

45. Mordecai will have an epic feud with Undertaker reminiscent of Taker/Kane from 97-98

46. Monty Brown will dethrone Jeff Jarrett and become the face of TNA

49. Cena will lose to Triple H at WM 22

50. Cena will lose to HBK at WM 23

51. John Morrison & MVP are the future of WWE with Elijah Burke only a few steps behind

59. Christopher Daniels will eventually become a full time member of the WWF roster. Don't know why it's taken this long tbh

60. Rock or Foley will leave WM 16 as WWF Champ. No way they'd ever end Mania with a successful heel title defense, amirite?

61. Old man Ric Flair will get one last WWE or World Title reign. And why not? He's still better, and more over, than most of the roster

I thought Jinder Mahal was going to get an immediate super push and win the WHC very quickly. Like I was expecting him to get a huge Del Rio style push.

It obviously didn't happen. But he did get one of the worst ever WWE title runs, so I guess that's something.

Oct 15, 2022 11:40:58 GMT 🤯 said:

Baker-man, I couldn't find it in plain sight but did trim your list down to predictions I would've either been sold on had I been watching in real time in real life or otherwise shared...

1. Ultimate Warrior will make quick work of Sgt. Slaughter at Royal Rumble 91 in what amounts to a stat padding title defense

4. Hulk Hogan will win the 1992 Royal Rumble

7. Lex Luger will win the WWF Championship from Yokozuna at Summerslam 93

9. Lex Luger will be the (sole) winner of the 1994 Royal Rumble

13. Ahmed Johnson will be WWF Champ and main event megastar. Only question is will he be the next Hogan or "merely" next Warrior?

27. D'Lo Brown will follow in former Nation stablemate The Rock's footsteps as WWF's next big breakout star

36. Jericho, E. Guerrero, Benoit & Rey will never win a world title in WWF. Too small. Too WCW. And 3 of the 4 lack the necessary mic skills

38. Kurt Angle will be a WWE lifer

39. Women's wrestling will never draw many dimes in the US. Chyna/Sable was the one chance it had of drawing beyond the fetishist fringe

40. Raven will beat Jarrett to become NWA Champ on 4/30/03

43. Chris Harris will be the breakout star of AMW while James Storm is destined to fade into obscurity

44. Teddy Hart will eventually grow up and have a successful WWE career

45. Mordecai will have an epic feud with Undertaker reminiscent of Taker/Kane from 97-98

46. Monty Brown will dethrone Jeff Jarrett and become the face of TNA

49. Cena will lose to Triple H at WM 22

50. Cena will lose to HBK at WM 23

51. John Morrison & MVP are the future of WWE with Elijah Burke only a few steps behind

59. Christopher Daniels will eventually become a full time member of the WWF roster. Don't know why it's taken this long tbh

60. Rock or Foley will leave WM 16 as WWF Champ. No way they'd ever end Mania with a successful heel title defense, amirite?

61. Old man Ric Flair will get one last WWE or World Title reign. And why not? He's still better, and more over, than most of the roster

Man I remember being sure nobody would be able to eliminate Sid from the 92 Rumble. He was my pick, Flair winning was one of the most shocked I’ve ever been. Same about the Triangle Match at Starrcade 95 watched it with friends on Scramblevision and was sure there was some mistake no way Flair just won this.

I also really thought Taz was going to be huge in WWF in 2000-2001, I think I even mapped out his career fan fic style in a notebook when he first showed up, was just a huge fan of him in ECW and envisioned that version of Taz winning King of the Ring, Taz vs The Rock, Austin, Taker main eventing Summerslam, Survivor Series, winning a Rumble. I should have known better right when they added the extra Z.

I was really pessimistic about WWF's outlook heading into 2000. With Austin, Taker and Foley on the sideline, I thought they'd really struggle to put on an entertaining show and their only hope was Taz setting things on fire. Meanwhile heading into Starrcade 1999, I was pretty optimistic about WCW. Finally Goldberg was going to get another run with the title and it seemed like after some teething problems, WCW would come into it's own.

I've rarely seen a company implode the way WCW did around December '99 - January '00. Once Revolution and Eddie walked out on WCW with Goldberg, Bret and Scott Hall on the sidelines it was obvious the show was on it's last legs.

I thought Team Alliance was going over at Survivor Series 2001 because there's no way they'd shelve the angle so early, especially with so many WCW guys on the horizon. I thought WCW sticks around, but on the next PPV The Rock goes over Austin to Unify the titles only to enter the fire with Hogan and co. coming in setting up for an epic Rock/Hogan WWF vs. nWo rivalry.

Never in a million years did I see The Rock going over Hogan at Wrestlemania X-8 and Hogan turning babyface right after. We saw babyface Hogan in 1999, nobody bought it, so it wasn't going to work in 2002. I'm still in denial about Wrestlemania X-8.

I thought the company was geared towards Rob Van Dam winning the WWE title at some point between 2002 to Wrestlemania XIX. RAW would be less WCW and more ECW with all-comers coming for RVD. Oh and Sabu would be in the company at the behest of Rob.

Speaking of this era, I thought Three Minute Warning would be one of the all-time great tag teams.

After Wrestlemania XX, I thought the brand split era would come to an end with Benoit-Eddie having a unification match at SummerSlam before the company goes hard into another Ministry stable with Taker, Kane and Mordecai. In the end the younger brigade have to step up in Cena, Orton and Batista with Eugene coming in for a feel-good assist.

After Wrestlemania XXI, I thought Cena would lose the title quickly to Hussein before being traded over to RAW with Benoit coming over to SmackDown to get the title and give us that Eddie-Benoit match. Kennedy, Shelton, Lashley, MNM all had huge futures and all bets were off with Matt Hardy in the picture. Edge was going to cash in his briefcase, win the title, Matt wins the Rumble and Matt beats Edge for a title at Wrestlemania XXII.

After Wrestlemania XXII, D-X were going to reform and we were going to get a redux of Austin/Vince with Cena in the Corporate Rock role. That's about all I had.

Bet your house, your life-savings and your first born that Randy Orton is going to beat HHH at Wrestlemania XXV. Surely they can't mess this up?

TNA themed: Desmond Wolfe is going to be one of the best acquisitions in TNA history and after his series of matches against Angle he's going to dethrone AJ for the title. With Beer Money, AJ, Samoa Joe, The World Elite, Bobby Lashley, MCMG, Morgan etc. TNA are in good hands.

It's taken awhile, but 2011 is going to be the year of John Morrison! I can feel it in my bones.

ROH themed: Elgin is going to go down along with Samoa Joe as one of the best hoss guys of his era. Sign me up for a hundred Elgin-Ciampa matches!

So Summer of Punk is going to play out like this. HHH is going to form a Corporation stable with guys like Sheamus, Swagger, Barrett, Del Rio, Ezekiel, Nash etc. forcing Punk to turn to young talent like Rollins, Ambrose, Cabana & The Kings of Wrestling to even up the numbers. It all leads to Punk vs. HHH at Wrestlemania.

2014 is going to be an awesome year in Pro Wrestling! Bryan finally wins the big one and the entire main event scene will change. We'll get Bryan/Cesaro, Bryan/Bray and variations of Bryan/Shield all leading to a Punk/Bryan Wrestlemania XXXI match. It's such a shame that Brock is getting jobbed out, but hey that's what happens when you cross the boss.

----

That's enough for now but I always like the pie in the sky type predictions. The more ridiculous the better - I could only imagine the reaction if Jeff Jarrett strutted his way down at Bash at the Beach 1996.

Oct 15, 2022 13:17:46 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Man I remember being sure nobody would be able to eliminate Sid from the 92 Rumble. He was my pick, Flair winning was one of the most shocked I’ve ever been. 

It was a shocker for me as well. Despite sporting a sad face as if his dog Shep had just died I didn't 100% believe my friend Vogel when, after much prodding at the bus stop, he grudgingly told me Flair won the Rumble in a disgusted whisper. Flair winning seemed so out of left field and...unWWFlike. Plus Vogel got me good a short time earlier by convincing me Undertaker had seen the light and become a white clad religious good guy now known as Heaven Above. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. He was probably acting in order to troll me again.
============
62. Hogan is obviously beating Yokozuna at KOTR 93
63. Bret Hart better watch out because King Kong Bundy is coming back to main event, brother
64. This whole DDP thing will never work out. I don't get it. He's annoying. He looks old. He just plain sucks. Vintage "Stupid WCW"
65. Marty Jannetty's New Rockers partner will be an unmasked Aldo Montoya
66. The Giant will be The Man to lead WCW into the next millennium. He'll be THE guy for them. Bank on it.
66.5 Ahmed & The Giant will main event WrestlemaniaCades for years to come. So many WrestlemaniaCades...
67. Bret Hart will win the 1997 Royal Rumble
68. Admittedly not 100% on this, but don't be surprised to see WM 14 turn into a double main event of HBK/Flair & Austin/Vince
69. Steve Austin will win the 1999 Royal Rumble
70. Steve Bradley will be WWF's RVD
71. AJ Styles is a great midcard workhorse but has too many drawbacks to ever be a top guy outside of workrate centric indies like ROH
72. See above. Rinse and repeat for Bryan Danielson. Only more so
73. Cody Rhodes is midcard for life. Best he can hope for is latching on to a cooler partner and riding their coattails as an almighty Jannetty

Oct 15, 2022 13:46:23 GMT Big Pete said:

That's enough for now but I always like the pie in the sky type predictions. The more ridiculous the better - I could only imagine the reaction if Jeff Jarrett strutted his way down at Bash at the Beach 1996.

Big Pete bringing the goods. I am especially fond of this one...

all bets were off with Matt Hardy in the picture. Edge was going to cash in his briefcase, win the title, Matt wins the Rumble and Matt beats Edge for a title at Wrestlemania XXII.

I never thought D-Lo was gonna be the next Rock but the WWF should have done more with him.

74. Sid will end up being Jimmy Hart's third Natural Disaster- VOLCANO
75. IRS will win the IC Title from Razor Ramon at Royal Rumble 94
76. The Smoking Gunns will sell out to Ted Dibiase and become William & Bartholomew: The Hired Gunns
77. Sid & The Kid will win the Raw Bowl and go on to have a long, dominant run with the WWF Tag Titles
78. Loch Ness will receive a push as big as himself culminating in a PPV main event or two opposite Hulk Hogan
79. Of course Ultimate Warrior's WWF return will be a success! Duh. Only an idiot would think otherwise of wrestling's second biggest star returning
80. All this Blood Runs Cold stuff is leading to 2 Cold Scorpio returning to WCW with a big push
81. While admittedly not a 100% sure thing like Ahmed & Vader, Goldust has a good shot of being WWF Champion one day. Certainly a better chance than Austin, Helmsley, Rocky, Fake Diesel, and Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw.
82. HBK vs. nearly every midcard heel in 96 had me thinking, if only for a second, the bad guy would score an upset to kick off a big push
83. I was wrong about Double J being the Third Man but becoming a Horseman and teaming with Double A as DOUBLE TROUBLE is better anyway
84. Faarooq will turn babyface, go back to being Ron Simmons, and form a dominant super team with Ahmed Johnson
85. Sabu will beat Taz at Barely Legal. He has to. It's Wrestling 101. Pestered good guy beats obnoxious bad guy. He'd be a bitch otherwise
86. Owen Hart may not win the WWF Title (even though he should) but he will get a PPV main event or two against Michaels
87. Owen will dominate HHH in their European Title feud. No way WWF would bury their most sympathetic babyface this side of Foley, right?
88. Russo & Ferrara defecting is WCW's biggest get in 2 years. For the first time in a year I'm worried. Methinks the war is about to heat up again
89. WWF will never bring Hulk Hogan back...
90. Or The Outsiders...
91. Or Bret Hart, who will never want to come back anyway...
92. Or Sable...
93. Or Jeff Jarrett.
94. Triple H will return at Survivor Series 2001 as the ultimate babyface to help Team WWF end the Alliance once and for all
95. OK so I was wrong last month but Triple H will return at Vengeance 2001 to decide the fate of the Undisputed Championship
96. OVW's Leviathan will debut in a major storyline involving Kane & Undertaker. Likely as a hitherto unmentioned 3rd brother
97. Jeff Jarrett vs. Hulk Hogan will happen and it will obviously be TNA's biggest match to date when it does
98. WWE will turn Cena heel. They have to given much of the audience is rejecting him. Because wrestling is weird it will make him more popular

*Only 2 more to go. I'm sure I could finish it now with two meh predictions, but I'm holding out hope for two half-forgotten real doozies to pop into my head. At the end I'll consolidate all 100 of them into one chronologically ordered post with spoiler tags.
**Also have to confess many of these aren't necessarily my predictions, but stuff borrowed from wrestling magazines, friends, friends of friends, and the internet. Basically if it seemed cool I'd will myself into believing it. Maybe 100 was too bold. Which means I'm slightly less of an idiot than previously thought!

In fairness to both Steve Bradley & Baker, my understanding is that Steve would have gotten a look. If wasn't in the WWF already.

Oct 16, 2022 1:53:19 GMT Ed said:

In fairness to both Steve Bradley & Baker , my understanding is that Steve would have gotten a look. If wasn't in the WWF already.

? I don't understand. 

For those who don't know Steve Bradley was under WWF Developmental Contract for ages. He was all the rage among the smark set during his Memphis Power Pro Wrestling run in 98-99. 

My favorite part of the Steve Bradley story is how he allegedly got on WWF's radar in the first place. Legend has it Vince McMahon was so put off by RVD's attitude during his 1997 WWF appearances that he sent his lackeys out to scour the indies for an RVD clone he could make a star as "WWF's RVD" just to spite the real RVD. Steve Bradley was the guy they found to fill the role.


===========
Time to wrap this puppy up and share 2 doozy bonus "predictions" that look great on paper, but I never really believed in...

99. Undertaker and Papa Shango will have an epic feud. Like so many of these this should have happened.
100. The Allied Powers will win the WWF Tag Titles. Duh. A gimme prediction. Even more of a sure thing than Ahmed becoming WWF Champion

Bonus Almost Predictions
-STING will be Mankind's mystery opponent at Survivor Series 98! Hat tip to peripheral neighborhood wrestling fan clique member Greg for this one. He swore it was going to happen. But I never truly believed.
-I did technically go public with predicting DINO BRAVO to win the Tournament For The Title at Wrestlemania IV! But I ultimately refrained from putting this one on The List as well because I don't think I genuinely believed it even back then as a dumb kid. It was more like wishful thinking.

I honestly thought Rocky was winning the Undisputed Title. First I thought he’d go over Jericho to tie up their feud and then get a win back over Austin. I figured Rock over Austin because he’s the big company guy and Austin was just coming off a heel run. 2nd choice was Austin, then 3rd was Kurt cos they were always high on him. Never suspected Jericho though.

Jan 23, 2018 4:04:00 GMT kingoftheworld said:

Never suspected Jericho though.

To be fair, I think the only person who would have made such a ridiculous prediction would have been Baker - and he would have actually been right!

Yeah Jericho was def. the Maggie Simpson choice. Even on the go-home show I think he ate shit on the outside compared to everyone else. Even Last Laugh Even Stevens Booking didn't factor in for me.

For my contribution I was convinced Benoit wasn't winning until Backlash in Canada.

Some of mine (and stealing some from Baker )

1. Hulk Hogan would easily beat Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI
2. Sting would squash Hulk Hogan at Starrcade '97
3. Triple H would be mid card for life.
4. Steve Austin would go down as one of the most unheralded and underrated mid-carders of all time (like Baker, early 1996 me)
5. Hulk Hogan would beat Yokozuna at KOTR 1993
6. Bret Hart never going to WCW
7. Hulk Hogan never going to WCW
8. Bruno Sammartino never being welcomed back by WWE
9. Ultimate Warrior never being welcomed back by WWE
10. Undertaker would never lose at Wrestlemania
11. Sting never going to WWE
12. Vader destined to be WWF Champion
13. Taz destined to be WWF champion
14. Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada being lured by all the wrestling boom hoopla in the US and coming to either WWF or WCW
15. Steve Austin being the first undisputed champion
16. Ultimate Warrior's 1996 and 1998 returns would be huge box office
17. Papa Shango and Undertaker would have a major feud
18. Papa Shango and Kamala would form an unstoppable tag team
19. Ahmed Johnson being the next big thing
20. WWF and WCW would co-promote a PPV one day
21. A returning Bam Bam Bigelow would run roughshod all over the New Generation
22. Same with a returning King Kong Bundy
23. An ultimate babyface battle of Classic Sting vs Hulk Hogan would headline a WCW PPV
24. Hulk Hogan would give Ricky Steamboat a WWF title shot in another ultimate babyface battle
25. Ric Flair would beat Triple H for the title on that 2003 Raw
26. Paul Orndorff would beat Hulk Hogan for the WWF Title
27. King Kong Bundy would beat Hulk Hogan for the WWF Title
28. Kamala would beat Hulk Hogan for the WWF title
29. Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan would meet at Wrestlemania VIII
30. ECW would never go down in flames like it did, especially by getting on TNN. I thought the big three was a sure thing for at least another decade.
31. Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels being the Third Man
32. Lex Luger winning the 1994 Royal Rumble
33. Vader beating Hulk Hogan for the WCW title
35. The Original Horsemen reuniting in 1989
36. The greatest version of the Horsemen reuniting in 1993
37. Lex Luger beating Ric Flair for the NWA/WCW title between 1988 and 1991
38. Z-Gangsta and Ultimate Solution would headline WCW PPV's against Hulk Hogan
39. Randy Savage smacking Hulk Hogan around at Starrcade '94 reigniting their feud
40. Steve Williams being an unstoppable force in the WWF
41. Kurt Angle would be an occasional main eventer but ultimately be a solid midcarder for the WWF. Good wrestler but no personality...
42. Dan Severn dominating the WWF
43. Lex Luger would sell out to Ted DiBiase and become the Narcissist again
44. Christopher Daniels would be a huge sensation in the Monday Night Wars
45. Raven and his minions coming to WCW would pose a big threat to the nWo
46. Hulk Hogan's mystery reveal at Uncensored 1995 would be the Ultimate Warrior
47. Booker T beating Triple H at Wrestlemania 19
48. RVD sticking with the WWF in 1997 to be a huge sensation during the Monday Night Wars
49. Nabbing Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, AJ Styles etc. would be a huge boon for WWE potentially leading them to another prosperous era

and finally...
50. OVW's Prototype and Leviathan would be standard bearers for the WWF well into the next decade maintaining Golden Era/Attitude Era popularity until at least the 2010's (based on photos from the circa 2000 PWI 500.)

Oct 16, 2022 2:29:52 GMT Baker said:

Oct 16, 2022 1:53:19 GMT Ed said:

In fairness to both Steve Bradley & Baker , my understanding is that Steve would have gotten a look. If wasn't in the WWF already.

? I don't understand. 

For those who don't know Steve Bradley was under WWF Developmental Contract for ages. He was all the rage among the smark set during his Memphis Power Pro Wrestling run in 98-99. 

My favorite part of the Steve Bradley story is how he allegedly got on WWF's radar in the first place. Legend has it Vince McMahon was so put off by RVD's attitude during his 1997 WWF appearances that he sent his lackeys out to scour the indies for an RVD clone he could make a star as "WWF's RVD" just to spite the real RVD. Steve Bradley was the guy they found to fill the role.


===========
Time to wrap this puppy up and share 2 doozy bonus "predictions" that look great on paper, but I never really believed in...

99. Undertaker and Papa Shango will have an epic feud. Like so many of these this should have happened.
100. The Allied Powers will win the WWF Tag Titles. Duh. A gimme prediction. Even more of a sure thing than Ahmed becoming the WWF Champion

Bonus Almost Predictions
-STING will be Mankind's mystery opponent at Survivor Series 98! Hat tip to peripheral neighborhood wrestling fan clique member Greg for this one. He swore it was going to happen. But I never truly believed.
-I did technically go public with predicting DINO BRAVO to win the Tournament For The Title at Wrestlemania IV! But I ultimately refrained from putting this one on The List as well because I don't think I genuinely believed it even back then as a dumb kid. It was more like wishful thinking.

I listen to Between The Sheets the podcast. Whenever Steve Bradley's name is brought up, it's always been said that he was athletic & had an enormous upside. However, by the time SB was gonna get called up, ECW folded & RVD was on his way.

Predictions I got right would be easier and shorter list

Oct 17, 2022 17:44:53 GMT bodyslam said:

Predictions I got right would be easier and shorter list

Do it.

I don't have too many things that I predicted or was so sure about enough to say out loud but I thought Zack Ryder would be spotlighted as a mid-carder but WWE refused to listen to the fans.

Oct 17, 2022 17:48:18 GMT @ness said:

Oct 17, 2022 17:44:53 GMT bodyslam said:

Predictions I got right would be easier and shorter list

Do it.

Big John Studd wins Royal Rumble 89 

I thought Steve Blackman might get an IC title run at some point.

Love these predictions. Keep 'em coming. Shootist had my favorites. Want to highlight this one in particular...

Oct 17, 2022 3:44:06 GMT Shootist said:

50. OVW's Prototype and Leviathan would be standard bearers for the WWF well into the next decade maintaining Golden Era/Attitude Era popularity until at least the 2010's (based on photos from the circa 2000 PWI 500.)

This one got me thinking. I've heard stories of wrestlers getting over back in the day simply through pictures in the Apter Mags- Brody, Abdullah, The Sheik, Road Warriors, etc. Lived through it myself with Sabu and ECW. Was OVW's Leviathan the last wrestler to gain a following based solely on photos? I think he might have been. The AOL chatroom circa 2000 was ready to crown Leviathan WWF Champion based on just a few pics. I happened to be far more conservative "only" predicting him to debut in a main event storyline with Kane & Undertaker. But not necessarily for the title! 

Oct 17, 2022 23:28:38 GMT bodyslam said:

Big John Studd wins Royal Rumble 89 

Impressed by young bodyslam going full Nostradamus. 

Oct 16, 2022 10:51:03 GMT @aaron said:

Jan 23, 2018 4:04:00 GMT kingoftheworld said:

Never suspected Jericho though.

To be fair, I think the only person who would have made such a ridiculous prediction would have been Baker - and he would have actually been right!

Ridiculous? More like ridiculously awesome! Wrestling would have been even better if most of my predictions had come true. But I would never, EVER have called Jericho winning the undisputed championship...

Oct 15, 2022 2:28:25 GMT Baker said:

36. Jericho, E. Guerrero, Benoit & Rey will never win a world title in WWF. Too small. Too WCW. 

I was more interested in Triple H's return than who would walk out of Vengeance 2001 as the Undisputed Champ. Don't remember having a strong hot take on who would win. Was probably leaning Austin because he usually won and also because it actually would have made sense to give him the belt again. Now that he was back to being proper Stone Cold it was only logical to heat him up right away. But I wouldn't have been shocked if Rock or Angle won instead. Jericho on the other hand....yuck!
===============
Going beyond a hundred now with two I'm glad I was wrong about....

101. Owen will eventually go crawling back to Bret and they'll form a good guy tag team. It's gonna suck but that's just the way wrestling works
102. Justin "BlackHawk" Bradshaw is not gonna make it. Too 80s. His finisher is a clothesline! LOL. WWF should do everyone a favor and just let him go
===============
Tempted to do a quickie fanfic project chronicling how I thought the WWF, WCW, and maybe ECW championship lineages would look. It'll be wild.

A few.. 

WCW would survive 2001 :
I really thought someone would buy the brand and set it off in motion towards the success it had from 1996-1999. The idea the WWF would buy WCW was absurd to a 17 year old Nath45, considering it had inter/national broadcasting, (aging) star power and they had just recruited a band of young talent. Did Booker, Steiner, Goldberg & Jarrett rival Rock, Austin, Triple H & Undertaker? No, no chance in hell. But I was sure there'd be an audience for the brand.  

TNA would see some considerable success likely similar to what AEW has achieved (more on that later)
TNA was on a warm streak if I recall in 2011. They had just run the BFG series, and it looked like Bobby Roode was being put over as the next big star. The company had a tonne of momentum and potentially had one of the best rosters imaginable to any AEW & NXTOG fans looking back today - Styles, Aries, Roode, Daniels, Team 3D, Motor City Machineguns, Storm, The Hardy Boys, Kash, the future Rainmaker (more on that later) Angle, Low Ki, Gen Me, Anderson, Pope, Joe, Sting, Mickie James, Magnus, Kaz, Mick Foley, McGuniness - this roster is literally TK's wet dream. But obviously poor leadership, poor creative and poor management killed all of that. They continued on though, and saw their biggest attendance in 2013 and it was all downhill from there.. 

AEW would rival WWE : 
Some may recall, I started the original AEW thread on PW - I was excited as the next guy about a promotion to rival the WWE - WWE main roster was killing me. The Elite/Bullet Club were the hottest things in wrestling, and had been for a few years, regardless of whether it was the Devitt lead group, the Styles era or the Elite circle jerk. The Rhodes influence was the professionalism the group needed, and Cody's ambition to promote was likely the catalyst for AEW. I doubt The Bucks and Omega have the combined maturity to see beyond sucking each other's dicks - metaphorically, of course. So to my point, I was excited. But, it hasn't rivalled WWE, nor is it great and it's more famously known these days for it's locker-room issues, poor leadership, growing egos and botchamania running wild on it's jobber-shows. 

No one outside of Japan would care about Japanese Wrestling : 
Wrestling in Japan was a far-away concept that serious " wrestler's " wrestlers and super-heavyweight WCW meat heads would talk briefly about in shoot interviews between making excuses as to why they weren't in WWE. Realistically, everything I saw from Japan between 2001 and 2010 was two generic dudes, with zero character in black trunks overselling weak looking fore-arm strikes, over-doing it on the palm strikes and running the ropes excessively. Realistically, it hasn't changed much, and I doubt if Bullet Club wasn't the gateway then NJPW would be as popular today in western countries as.. AJPW (does that still exist?) and Noah. A niche product, for a niche audience that will literally sit on their hands with ball-gags in their mouths during a hot match, but will lose their shit over some idiotic pop culture phenomenon intended for children. 

Oct 18, 2022 12:46:27 GMT NATH45 said:

WCW would survive 2001 :

No one outside of Japan would care about Japanese Wrestling : 

These are good ones. I'll even go a step further with WCW...

103. WCW will 'always' be around. Never expected them to be cancelled by the Turner networks, sell to WWF in March, and be a dead brand by November. Wild how quickly it all happened. I just assumed they'd be around in some capacity for years/decades to come. The Death of WCW was bittersweet for me as a WWF homer. Yeah, I was glad WWF won the war, but I didn’t really want WCW to go out of business- just get knocked down a peg. 

104. I never thought Japanese Wrestling would get over outside of Japan to the extent it has. Figured it would always be a fringe thing…a niche of a niche…due to the language barrier. I watched about as much wrestling as anyone in the 90s and 2000s but never messed with Japan all that much simply because I couldn't understand what the commentators were talking about.

105. As for TNA I never really thought they'd be a threat to WWE, but I did think they'd draw beyond the 1.1 after Christian chose to go there and Angle fell into their lap. Thought Christian might open the floodgates for disgruntled WWE superstars and thought Angle would be THE guy to finally get them over the hump. Never happened beyond maybe that first PPV match with Joe. As an Angle fanboy I probably always overestimated his star power.

106. "Jungle" Jim Steele will be WCW's Ultimate Warrior

Starting to think I never really understood WCW. I picked future WCW stars about as well as the 90s Cincinnati Bengals drafted future stars. Check out my version of David Klingler, Ki-Jana Carter, and Akili Smith...

The Minotaur, Scott Norton, Ice Train, The Patriot, "Jungle" Jim Steele, 46 year old Paul Orndorff...as a babyface, and Loch Ness will be WCW main eventers. Erik Watts, Robbie V*, Maxx Payne, and "Chief" Charlie Norris will be midcard staples winning a bunch of secondary titles. And Dustin Rhodes will be WCW's Bret Hart**

And of course JEFF JARRETT WILL BE THE THIRD MAN~!

*I will give myself a well deserved Barry Horowitz pat on the back for being high on RVD (hehe) all the way back in 93. And Maxx Payne was a borderline success.

**Dustin just struck me as the most "WCW" wrestler on the entire WCW roster. Plus being the son of Dusty meant he'd always be a contender. Without making the direct connection in real time I just saw him as their version of Bret in that he was this bland second generation veteran good guy slowly climbing his way up the ladder who would eventually become their champion even if there happened to be cooler, more popular wrestlers right there . I was just convinced they were going to make him a thing the same way WWF made Bret a thing. Like it was preordained Dustin would one day be their champion. 

Anyway, if I ever start a new fanfic project it's totally going to be this Bizarro World WCW.
But before I get to that maybe it's time for a Wrestling Predictions You Got Horribly Right thread to prove I wasn't always a complete idiot...

Baker, a big part of the reason I thought WCW would survive was the enormous amount of absolute rubbish reality-ish type stuff that had big.. ok, maybe decent audiences at the time. I remember Roller-Jam like shows, that were essentially pro. wrestling on skates, a basketball league that had trampolines for a court that was trash. How could a brand like WCW not find a home.

But really it never went away, a year later it was NWATNA. Which was likely the closest thing to a WCW product outside of a WWE x WCW show.

I'm sure guys like Booker didn't want anything to do with it.. but why they didn't exploit the brand and produce a WCW : ONS show in Atlanta just once, beats me.