WWE Predictions: What We Know vs What We Hope

For the last few months, I keep reading predictions from all kinds of sources - personal opinions and credible sources - that have made me laugh, and also made me sigh in disbelief. It astounds me that people are making somewhat crazy predictions based on hope, more than using the information that we have at hand.

I like to think that any of my predictions in my Raw rants have been made based on what I've seen on that episode of Raw. I try to base them on who's feuding with who and having interactions with one another.

This morning I saw that Seth Rollins had tweeted about The Shield dealing with injustices. Chris Jericho decided to reply to this, asking what he was talking about before calling Rollins 'junior' and 'flash in the pan'. I instantly thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and predict that if Jericho were to return (which has been rumoured), then I felt that this war of words on Twitter could lead to The Shield dealing with Jericho should he come back. I instantly felt dirty. How could I predict such a thing when this was the first interaction that The Shield and Jericho have had? The one thing that I took comfort in was that at least I had took some information that I had at hand and used it to make a prediction.

There have been some predictions just lately that have been 'hope' over information-at-hand. Here's a few I can think of:

Brock Lesnar
With the short term contract that Brock has, there will be very few appearances where we'll see him. It will have to be an epic encounter for him to return. This has been the case with both the John Cena and Triple H matches. This trend will not stop whilst Brock has this contract/restriction on appearances. This is why it baffled me when people predicted that he would return to screw Ryback out of the WWE Title at the TLC pay-per-view.

I read several predictions as if people KNEW this would happen. This prediction kind of angered me - why would Brock come back at a pay-per-view that had no hype/wasn't expected to do well? If you're going to use Brock Lesnar to sell tickets/a pay-per-view, you would promote it weeks in advance. Brock is not going to be used as a surprise person to screw Ryback (or anyone else) as that would be wasting one of his appearances.Especially on a pay-per-view where you would use that guy to make you money leading into it.

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of the money making side to wrestling. I get that that's what they need to do to survive, but I hate it. I want things to surprise me; not be so predictable. But I fully understand that using Brock Lesnar in a situation that isn't going to make money is just NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

A more realistic prediction would be that Brock comes back at the Rumble in some way - maybe even to screw The Rock. This PPV has already sold itself because The Rock is going to be there so this would be a much more ideal situation to bring back Lesnar.

WWE/World Title unification
Another prediction that has been thrown around is that of a unification match at Wrestlemania 29. Why would this happen? As it stands, we have a dominant World Champion in the Big Show, and a credible title length in CM Punk's WWE Title reign. Now, you could look at this and say that both champions are on the sort of form that could warrant a unification match - for the first time in a long time we have two strong champions. But below these guys are several up-and-comers that deserve their chance to be at the top of the mountain.

By unifying these titles, you take away the chances of these future players. You also have one, undisputed champion and with that comes a lot of prestige - something that a lot of the up-and-comers haven't got the name to match. Wade Barrett is a good example of someone who has been waiting a while to get his opportunity to become a main event mainstay, and by having one World Champion you reduce his chance of getting there anytime soon.

Who would be part of this unification match? Well, if The Rock wins at the Royal Rumble, would this mean that he would be the WWE Title's representative in this match? I sincerely hope not. Although there's a lot of money to be made with him regaining the belt, I think it would be a terrible move to have him part of such a prestigious match - especially as he is a part timer; not having a regular WWE run since 2002. This would highlight the lack of megastars further.

IF this type of match were to happen it should be to elevate someone as it did the first time around in 2001 when Chris Jericho became the first-ever Undisputed Champion. That night he beat The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to achieve greatness. Things have changed a hell of a lot since then and I don't think anyone can take the role that Jericho played there. No one has that 'star quality' to make that big a step up.

Undertaker & Wrestlemania
This is another one where people are adamant that their theory will happen.

Originally, I read several opinions that Taker would face Brock Lesnar. I didn't see the point of this as Taker has become SO undefeatable at Wrestlemania that only God or Sting would cause doubt in my mind that he could be beaten. It also makes no sense to me because Brock hasn't really been around enough, and been dominating enough to cause people to think that he's a threat. He came back and manhandled Cena and LOST. Then he came back and beat Triple H... since then he hasn't been seen. Everytime he becomes a dominant monster, he leaves again. There's no momentum at all.

The latest view is that CM Punk will be Taker's Wrestlemania opponent. This is more interesting but again, has no basis. It says to me that the people making this assumption believe that Punk will lose at the Royal Rumble. Either that or they believe that Punk will go to 'Mania as Champion and have a (Championship) streak vs (Wrestlemania) streak. For me that would be interesting - Taker just does not lose at Mania, but he also doesn't wrestle past it, either. Punk defeating Taker in 'his yard' would be a massive feather in his cap - I'm not sure that that's something that the WWE are willing to give him.

The only thing that we can say about the Undertaker, with certainty, was summed up by Triple H at The Slammys - we haven't seen the last of the Undertaker. Prediction over.

Summary
Basically, I know people will always make their 'hopeful' predictions. I just wish that they wouldn't be so sure that they're right THREE months in advance?!

As I've said before, I'd like to think that my predictions are based on the information that I've been given. In reality, I don't really want to make any predictions - I'd rather sit back, enjoy what I'm watching, and be thoroughly surprised by what I'm witnessing. I want it to be completely unpredictable. These are my HOPES.