FATP: 5 Bold Predictions for 2013

It’s time for the latest FATP with yours truly. Welcome along for the ride! It’s gonna be chock-full of my usual brand of ranting and raving, with maybe a sprinkling of positivity. Maybe. It feels pretty strange to be sitting down and writing a blog. I’ve not done any writing for about 2/3 weeks. The FATP Awards and WWE Year in Review were written WELL before Xmas and to be honest, I was a little bit sick of wrestling at that point. I’ve only really watched Impact and Raw from the last couple of days and that didn’t make me feel any better by the way!

Thanks to everyone who got involved and gave me some great feedback on the FATP Awards and Part 2 of the WWE Year in Review posts that were published over Xmas and New Year. I put a lot of work into them and there was a combined total of 20,000 words, so to say I felt a bit fucked would be an understatement! Haha…

So what have I done since the last time I sat down to actually write a blog? Well, there was a pretty monumental shift in the world. The world, as I knew it, ended on 29th December when I turned 30. Yup. Hard to believe right? Turning 30. I never thought I’d live to see that day. The sheer amount of booze and cigarettes I’ve rattled through in the last decade was for nothing. That’s proof that there is no God. Turning 30 means I’m supposed to grow up right? You’ll be glad to know that isn’t happening. Turning 30 means I’m finally allowed to be as grumpy as I want, so if you think that I’m going to mellow out in 2013, you’re fucking sadly mistaken. I’ll probably be angrier, swear a lot more and generally be harder to please as a wrestling fan (if that’s even possible). Bring it on Vince and Dixie. Whatcha got for me?

Today, I thought I’d make 5 bold predictions for 2013. They’ll cover both WWE and TNA, because they’re the only 2 promotions I regularly watch. Some of these predictions might not necessarily things that I personally want to see, but that I think will happen. We saw a lot of great stuff last year, and some things that just beggared belief, so there’s no doubt we’ll get the same in 2013! Let’s get to it shall we?

Daniel Bryan will win the WWE Championship

I think I’m developing a serious man-crush on Daniel Bryan. He’s just simply awesome, and he’s one of the main reasons I’ve stuck with Raw throughout the disastrous 3-hour shows. Bryan is an amazing wrestler, but more than that, he’s shown in the last year that he’s a fantastic entertainer. I tweeted the other day that I don’t know how he keeps a straight face during some of his segments or matches. He must want to laugh his ass off at how over he is with simple one-word catchphrases!

Some people might think that Bryan winning the WWE Championship isn’t a bold prediction, and that’s fair enough. However, how many indy wrestlers, especially of Bryan’s size, have held the WWE Championship? I’m not talking about the World Title. Almost everyone gets a run with that belt, but it’s harder to be given a WWE Championship run. Punk had to threaten to leave the company before he got a run with it, and he’d already been a 2-time World Champion in WWE at that point. Bryan deserves a long run at the top of WWE’s flagship show because of how entertaining he’s been in the last year. I’d have given him the belt last summer, but that’s beside the point. Bryan has shown he can hold his own at the top of the “sports-entertainment” world with athletes of all different sizes and capabilities. I’d love to see him feud with the likes of Orton, Ziggler, Rollins, Cesaro and Ambrose. It’d be awesome to watch.

Jeff Hardy will re-sign with WWE

For some inexplicable reason, the fans seem to love Jeff Hardy. Regardless of what he’s done in the past (Victory Road 2011 anyone?), Hardy has the crowd in the palm of his hand whenever he wrestles, which is something that VERY few people can do. I personally think that Jeff should never have won the TNA World Championship from Austin Aries at Bound for Glory. It makes a mockery of the integrity of the sport when someone who was in no condition to compete at a PPV event is given the chance to hold the top prize in the company. What example does that set to everyone else? I understand that everyone deserves a second chance, but the problem is that this wasn’t Jeff’s second chance. It was his third or fourth and I’ve gone on record as saying he’s not a charismatic enigma, he’s a charismatic liability.

With that being said, Hardy has pretty much had a singles feud with every member of the TNA roster, so there’s nothing else for him to achieve there. If he were to move back over to WWE, we’d see fresh matches with the likes of Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, John Cena, etc. The problems Hardy has had in the past make him perfect fodder for the jackass heels in WWE, and it’ll get the crowd behind him even more, as if he needs that. Hardy could make a bucketload of cash from another 2-year run in WWE, so I’d expect that to happen sooner rather than later.

Christopher Daniels will win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship

Over the last year, has there been a better heel than Christopher Daniels? I don’t think so. Daniels had arguably the best year of his career so far in 2012. He was entertaining, he had consistently great matches that wrestlers in both companies (aside from perhaps Aries, Styles, Bryan and Punk) came nowhere close to having, and he had me laughing my ass off at times. Hell, Daniels, along with Kazarian, was the only thing that kept me sane during the whole Crack Whore Claire fiasco last summer.

He cuts great promos, he’s entertaining and he has great matches, so it baffles me that he hasn’t had a run with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, but someone like Mick Foley has. That makes no sense whatsoever. Daniels has already been able to call himself one-half of the World Tag-Team Champions of the World, so why not give him a run as the World Heavyweight Champion of the World (not redundant!)? He sure as hell deserves it a lot more than some other guys on the TNA roster.

Garett Bischoff will win a championship in 2013 ahead of someone with actual talent

I can see it now. At some point this year, either Jeremy Borash or Christy Hemme (who is hot as fuck by the way!), will announce: “Your winner, and NEW (insert championship here), Garett Bischoff!” I almost feel violated having written the last couple of sentences. It makes me sick to my stomach. As much as I hate to say it, Garett Bischoff is probably going to get a hell of a push in 2013. I don’t understand why, and I don’t like it, but it’s likely to happen. Why? Because his daddy is Eric Bischoff.

We’ve already seen Brooke Hogan and her giant feet get more and more TV time since she debuted, so it stands to reason that Garett will be next. It looks as if he’ll be involved in this Aces & 8s reveal, which will be fucking laughable if it goes on much longer, and probably end up feuding with Angle and or Joe. Urgh… There’s just nothing about Garett that interests me. I care less about him than I do about Brad Mad-Ox. Oh, there’s a thought. Have you ever seen Garett Bischoff and Brad Mad-Ox in the same place? Maybe WWE and TNA have a timeshare agreement on that particular piece of “talent”. It’s sad to think that there’s probably more chance of Garett holding gold this year than someone like Bully Ray, Austin Aries, AJ Styles or Samoa Joe. You know? Guys with TALENT. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

WWE will have NO “big”men left on their full-time roster by the end of 2013

In case you couldn’t tell, I can be a pretty sarcastic guy from time to time, but I’m being genuinely serious here. I don’t think that WWE will have ANY big men on their roster by the end of the year. Undertaker is pretty much a one match a year guy at this point. Kane and Big Show are coming to the end of their careers and they’ve had their token championship runs now. After that, who is there? Nobody. Tensai and Brodus Clay are jokes at this point and even then, they’re nowhere near as big (in terms of their height) as Big Show, Kane or Undertaker. There’s nobody left. There’s no “freak show” so to speak. Those 3 guys are all special attractions and stand out because of their height. I’d go as far as to say that their size was one of the main reasons they were hired, before their in-ring ability was taken into consideration.

Show is the youngest of the 3 at 40. Kane is 45 and Undertaker is 47. Of the 3, Taker is in the worst shape and basically is a shell of a man at this point. His legs and hips are broken down to the stage that he can only wrestle one match a year. The other two aren’t far behind him. It’s a shame because they’re 3 of the best big men we’ve ever seen in wresting, and anyone who comes after them will always be compared to how great Big Show, Kane and Undertaker were. I genuinely think that all 3 men will have reduced roles by the end of the year and if they don’t, they’ll have retired.

There we have it. 5 bold predictions for 2013, but what 5 predictions have you got? You know the drill by know. Find me on Twitter @george_sltd and send me your thoughts, feedback or opinions on anything I’ve written, or if you just wanna chat wrestling. Don’t be shy! I’ll be back next Wednesday here on PWMania with the latest FATP, so until then, thanks for reading!

Peace out,

George