Wild and Wacky 2026 Predictions! - podcast episode cover

Wild and Wacky 2026 Predictions!

Dec 30, 202541 min
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Summary

Hosts Luke and Oli dive into their annual tradition of making outlandish predictions for the wrestling world in 2026. They kick off by revisiting their own and fan-submitted predictions from 2025, highlighting both hits and hilarious misses. The discussion then shifts to their bold new forecasts for 2026, including AI integrations, potential British wrestling booms, and surprising Hall of Fame inductees, alongside a new round of fan predictions for the coming year.

Episode description

Luke and Oli give their made predictions for 2026!

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Transcript

Intro / Opening

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Yes, you there, the one listening to this podcast. Hello, it's Luke Owen here from the WrestleTalk Podcast. Hope you're doing well. This is just a little quick plug to click the link in the podcast description because there is a survey there. are looking to build a better profile for their podcast listenership. So...

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Introduction to Wacky Predictions

Since 2017, Oli Davis and I sit down together to come up with our wacky predictions for the year following. And 2025 will be no different, as Oli and I do. our wild and wacky predictions for 2026. I'm going to go in DAD. And this, of course, is Oli Davis. Welcome to the WrestleTalk podcast here every Tuesday and Friday. I think this is going out on a Tuesday. I don't think there's an episode coming out this Friday. Welcome to the WrestleTalk Podcast. Yeah, Nostradolimus Davis, more like.

Yeah? Because I got that one right that one year. You did predict that CM Punk would return to WWE at Survivor Series. And a couple of years ago, I also predicted that Vince McMahon, the Netflix... I think I said the Netflix... that's in production, which was years and years ago before the whole scandal came out, that would cause a spotlight to go on Vince McMahon and women will start to come out and it will turn into a big scandal and he'll be cancelled. Yeah.

And I predicted that. You did predict that. Every now and again. We've been doing this now for nine years. I think it's our ninth one anyway. That every now and again. There's a little one that slips through the cracks and is actually a correct prediction. But yeah, if you're new to this one, if this is your first time here, we don't do safe.

No, this isn't Roman's going to win the Rumble or Brock Lesnar's going to retire. That's already been reported. I'm not interested in that. We did go over to patreon.com forward slash WrestleTalk to ask for your predictions. And I did say, you know... Be exciting, be different, be bold with your predictions. And a vast majority of them said that Gunther will retire Brock Lesnar. And I'm like, lads!

That's probably a given. We know that one. And the other half are usually, WWE and AEW would do a joint show. It's like, lads, we've had that one every year since 2019. And that's too much. You need to find that nice gooey middle. Yeah, there's a...

sweet spot in there if you said lesnor attire gunther oh maybe that might be onto something so yeah we try to be a bit bold bit so you know if you're looking for something maybe if in 2025 or at the end of 2024 you'd said My prediction for 2025 is John Cena. will turn heel and align with The Rock, and that will lead to him winning his 17th world title, that would be, I would say, a pretty bold, wacky prediction to do in December 2024, but would have been proven right in 2025.

But if you'd have just said John Cena will win the world title at WrestleMania, too safe. That's too safe. I think if you said AJ Lee will return, be like, well, that's not getting my juices going enough. But if you said AJ Lee will return in a mixed tag team match with CM Punk.

I'm like, that's specific enough. Specific. I like it. I can get on board with that. Didn't even need it to be against Becky and Seth. Yeah. You just needed to be specific. That's what we're after here. Which also means we get to go through last year's predictions. Do you remember? No.

Reviewing 2024 Predictions Part 1

I can never remember what I've predicted. I remember one of mine. And it did not come to pass. But my first one was, Rock and Triple H will have a control of WWE storyline. It gets over, but starts a downturn in WWE interest. Well, they did have a real life title. It seems over, over the creative head and into mania, but yes, to the extent where rock had to do a debrief session on the Pat McAfee show. I would say December, 2024.

We thought The Rock would be a much more featured character on WWE screens in 2025 than he actually was. I think even on January 4th or 6th or whenever that first Raw episode was. We still thought he'd be a big presence. Yeah, I mean, he even told us in that episode of NXT. Hey! Come along with The Rock on this ride. What ride, Rock? What ride did we go on? Your first one, Will. John Cena wins a world title to break Ric Flair's record.

in the last show of the year and immediately vacates it yeah that was one thing they could have done was it would it have been better well yeah it would have been a story better yeah My second one was Kevin Owens signed with AEW. I got at least one of these per year. And for this year, I went with Owens. It could happen next year, I think. Isn't he's contract or Bailey's contract? Bailey's contract is up, yeah. I could see her.

jumping over although she is really getting into the behind the scenes production work with wwe your second was kenny omega and the young bucks drop their evp titles this triggers a debate over the soul of aew however is a necessary step for AEW to evolve into its next multi-billion dollar stage. Well, that's not true. That's not happened.

It's almost like reading an ability on Clock Tower where Daddy Ben says, to understand this one, read it backwards. Yeah. No, that makes perfect sense. I mean, they're not really... They are just ceremonial EVP positions at this point. That's actually the point you made on the last episode. To do this, I just go back and re-watch the old episodes because I write them down for my ones and you write yours down. But we change them as we record because sometimes we bully each other.

other into making different choices but yes you were did say these are ceremonial titles and i think that will become a storyline on screen Well, if anything, it didn't. And they turned babyface again. I guess the Bucks actually lost their founding father. They did. They legit lost their EVP status. Yes, they did. In storyline, they did. And Kenny stepped down from that position.

was replaced by christopher daniels wasn't he was that what happened there no i think that was tony khan getting injured meant that chris daniels replaced him anyway that was 2024

Reviewing 2024 Predictions Part 2

Okay, there's a bit in there. There's an inkling, but I extrapolated it out a lot further. My one was War Games 2025 will be Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Jey Uso, and Big E versus Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, and The New Day. We were high on several things at the end of last year. That was the New Day's heel turn. Oh, they've got big plans for that. There's got to be big plans coming off the back of that, right? And Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and Drew McIntyre.

The Sword Faction. This year, I can't believe this was this year. Drew's Bloodline Hunter storyline was this year. It was in January and they dropped it. uh your third one was paul hayman becomes smackdown creative director oh that's a nice idea it's a nice idea yeah i wish he did I think he's smarter than that, though. I think he sees that as a sinking ship. It's going to go back to three hours again in like a couple of weeks time. Yeah. No one wants that job. My fourth was NXT Europe.

does launch they make a play to sign michael oku and car noir when they sign neither the promotion dies on arrival well didn't happen did not happen Maybe, because that's also a bit of a running gag on this, as I always make a prediction about NXT Europe. Maybe there'll be another one for this year. Your fourth, by June, after winning feuds against Kevin Owens...

Cody Rhodes and Gunther fans, although I don't know why you've done that, but I think you might feud against Kevin Owens and Gunther. Might have been Drew as well. Fans start to turn on Cody Rhodes. In June, we get an audible... Cody sucks chance. Did that happen? No, people are still into Cody Rhodes. I mean, it's kind of more, I suppose, ambivalent towards him, but there's no booze for Cody Rhodes. Maybe, yeah, if John Cena... didn't turn heel, and he was constantly going for Cody's belt. Yes.

Maybe people would have turned against Cody, but who could have foreseen the Cena heel turn? My fifth and final one was Tessa Blanchard wrestles for NXT and wins the main title, which upsets quite a few people. That could have happened. Yeah, could have done. She wasn't even part of the invasion slash showdown angle. She's clearly not welcome. And your fifth and final one was, and this is verbatim what you said. Saudi Arabia, Brock Lesnar versus Conor McGregor. They can't help themselves.

Oh, well, that didn't happen. Connor didn't fight at all this year. I have no idea. I do not know what that man does. But we both said in that video, really weirdly, we both were like, oh, yeah, I think a Brock returns on the cards in 2025, which is mad because he did return. I was like...

Fan's 2025 Prediction Recap

did not see this coming at all well did we say that i guess we didn't see it coming at the end of that show no we just we were waiting for it to happen I think maybe I was a couple of your fan theories that came in your fan predictions this is from for this year this is for this year Phil said Joe Hendry is TNA world champion and NXT champion at the same time

Tyler, Dominic Mysterio takes over as leader of the Judgment Day, removes Finn, JD, and Carlito from the group, keeps Liv and Raquel, and adds Pentagon Jr., Dragon Lee, and Santos Escobar. Dom also wins Money in the Bank and holds the briefcase for the remainder of the year. He would be a great Money in the Briefcase holder. Stromboli, Dom becomes a world champion via the return of the Championship Scramble match by pinning Rey in the last few seconds.

M claimed the debut of Raw on Netflix will have eight plus million concurrent views and for the rest of the year stay steady at around three to four million. They would love to be steady at three to four million. They would love that. Massively overshot that. I think we all did. Prodigal Geek, Cena will have a salmon suit moment when he retires. What, as in he backtracks on the retirement Mark Henry style? Yeah, he does not retire.

uh anthony jacob fatu becomes the tribal chief that would have been cool didn't happen n raf AJ Lee versus Becky Lynch, main event SummerSlam night one. Oh, you are close. Wrestlepalooza was, I guess, two shows after that. Yeah. Yeah, it was. And it wasn't the main event and it wasn't a singles match. But other than that. Yeah.

they're saving that for wrestlemania it seems pierre in 2025 we will see a match between john cena and hiroshi tanahashi Marikio Blumores Zack Sabre Jr. wins the AEW title at Forbidden Door that would have been nice R-Opolis Kevin Owens leaves WWE after WrestleMania and signs with AEW after All In Lewis disagreements with how Netflix utilizes WWE content will cause a rift and eventual dissolution of the partnership and thus reintroduce the WWE Network to UK users. God, if only. I miss it.

Diabetic Man. They were predicting that before Netflix had even started with WWE. That's what I want from my wacky predictions. Diabetic Man JBL will be TNA World Heavyweight Champion by Slammiversary. Just going to hold off that Mike Santana win a bit longer.

Jason Downey, TNA breaks the WWE partnership by having AEW Samoa Joe appear at a show. Chaos ensues. That's a fun. That is a really good specific prediction. Sam Wilson, they'll do an angle on Ring of Honor, which leads to a Ring of Honor pay-per-view doing better. attendance than an average dynamite no no uh tom of the pops a wwe wrestler will hold a new japan title by the end of the year did that that didn't happen did it no neo detroit

Chris Jericho returns to WWE. Oh, you might be a matter of days away. So close. Shane here says, Austin Theory becomes a mega over babyface and beats Gunther for the world title in 2025. Surely that was trolling. Walker, The Rock steals Punk's main event again to put on thrice in a lifetime versus Cena. And lastly, Brandon will win. Hulk Hogan will return for one more match to tag with John Cena. In the sky.

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Oli's 2026 AI Hogan Prediction

It's now time for the 2026 predictions. Oliver Davis, I'm so excited. We don't ever talk about what we might even think about putting down. So I come into this so blind with what you have. Hit me. I'm glad you finished on that last fan prediction from last year because that directly feeds into my first prediction. It's the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. And the show begins... with a video package but it's not archival footage that we're seeing oh no it is an ai generated hulk hogan oh no

Welcoming the Saudi crown prince by name, Mohammed bin Salman. Oh, no. And the General Sports Authority. And Hulkamania is going to run wild forever. I mean... I love it in a way. And maybe, you know, that sort of gimmick they had on the opening raw where there's, I think you put like a curtain or a mesh, very thin bit of fabric around the ring and you can project things onto it. And it gives the illusion of 3d people being.

in there. It's like ABBA Voyage or the Gorillaz concerts. Saudi Arabia have got more money than they know what to do with. They could do a spot in the Rumble. of warrior running down of yoko zuna in there and freaking i don't know chad gable's gotta stand there and wrestle no one in sync with the the projection and if there was one wrestler to trust to do that with that would be chad gable

He'd thrive. He'd get it over. So yeah, that's my prediction. The specific one, Royal Rumble in Saudi, we get an AI Hulk Hogan opening. The Wrestling Observer will report. That, because Triple H is doing more and more moves in politics, there are discussions about Shawn Michaels taking over the creative lead on the main roster.

Specifically, I want this to be Dave Meltzer right in the Observer newsletter. There have been talks about this. So you want fake news to be spread. I don't see it being Sean. because Sean's older than Trips. I think they need, you know, for legacy succession planning, you need someone a lot younger. I don't think, you know, because it feels like Sean is going to wind down in NXT in the next couple of years. Maybe.

Maybe they'll bring in some Hollywood writer and they'll be the new creative head or something. It'll be Kevin Feige. I mean, there are reports that Kevin Feige is going to finish up with Marvel once he's finished up this, you know, because he's pretty much done it all now and he's looking to run his own studio. Maybe that studio is WWE.

Luke's 2026 British Boom

Your second prediction, please. So over the last 10 years, I'm actually just... our whole lives as wrestling fans when you start to follow stuff outside of just north america you start to see these pockets and it's like there is always another country that is hot So in the late 2010s, it was New Japan. Japan was like the best promotion in the world to watch. And then over the last year, it's been CMLL.

Like that's doing insane business down in Mexico. That's why there's been so much interest from AEW and WWE getting a foothold in the Mexican market with WWE acquiring AAA and AEW's working relationship with CMLL. Now, when AEW started, they said that Britain was their second most important market. Hello. The United States is number one, but even over Canada, it's the British scene.

ITV have brought out their figures recently. Well, reportedly, AEW's viewership on ITV, which is a British TV channel. has increased by an insane amount this year. No way, because it was going on. It was a bit of a downturn, which I think was probably in correlation with the products. Yeah, yeah. There's one interpretation of that where actually the North American viewership is actually also trending upwards, not down, but that viewership is split over HBO Max and TBS and TNT.

So I think WWE, when they tend to see AEW doing well somewhere, because WWE are kind of getting more limited in their exposure, granted they're on Netflix, but it's not translated into this huge... awareness of WWE over here compared to where they were before. I think we're going to start to see a bit of a British battleground of WWE and AEW money coming into England. Interesting. You've got the Rev Pro show.

in August that's already been announced for the Wembley Arena. Yeah, for the Wembley Arena. We've got AEW running Wembley Stadium for a third time out of four years. Eva doing a show at the O2. Not like in the O2, but it's at the Indigo. So I think... A British wrestling bubble or boom. Nice. Maybe I'll jump ahead to my last one. It's a mirroring of sorts and ties into a bit of a tradition here. NXT Europe does launch.

And they make a play to sign Man Like Darius and Adam Maxted. When they sign neither, the promotion dies on arrival. So your same one as the year previously, just with the names changed. With the names changed. and i think yeah there's a couple of names i was like who do i think they'd make a play for man like darice feels like that is someone they would absolutely want and the other one is adam maxted

I feel like mine's not specific enough. I've just said British wrestling boom. But I like it. It feels like we're not due one, but our bubble obviously burst. The pandemic certainly didn't help, and speaking out didn't help it much either.

But it was on a bit of a downward trend anyway because NXT UK came in and signed up a bunch of the talent. So 2019 was a bit of a bad year forward. That really, really hurt it. And then the rest of the other things were just all compounded on top of the genesis. moment which is NXT UK but over the last couple of years it's been on a real big upward swing yeah just

Because we're in London and we can see all the promotions starting up and they're really good. Yeah. Like Riot Cabaret and Rev Pro, of course, Hustle. Progress are doing great. Progress. So maybe I'll go British Wrestling Boom.

to the extent where there are reports that WWE are... looking to start up something in the country or maybe there's not because like maybe mind one is too of an old school thing this idea of starting up a new promotion but really the business model seems to have been partnering with promotions and they used to have a working relationship with progress yeah so maybe uh i i see icw so maybe it just be a case of they acquire progress wrestling or a wxw or something

like that yeah over in germany kind of ties into europe yeah because i could i mean just sort of tying into your maybe i'm sort of extrapolating things here i don't know how we'll judge this when we get to it I reckon that WWE will try and then use that to try and get a British promotion a really good TV deal. Because that's the one thing that WWE have never been able to get in the UK is a really...

good TV deal. And they're on Netflix now, so they can't block AEW in these talks. Exactly, yeah. So the way to do that then is to find a promotion and try and get them onto TV instead. That was my second one. So your third one, please.

Oli's Dark 2026 Prediction

I'm going to bring, I am denied whether to put this in because it's not a fun one. It's actually quite a serious, upsetting one. But it's one that I haven't been able to shake. So I thought as a serious discussion point, I'll bring it up. A wrestler will be murdered by a fan. Yeah, I mean... I just... I feel like the... It's a bit of a ticking time bomb. Obviously, I do not want this to happen. No. Far from it. But there have been so many cases over the last five years.

with the sort of parasocial relationship and parasocial media, but then the pandemic effects. So many female wrestlers in particular are getting stalked and people show up at their houses. Frickin' Sonya Deville and... Soraya, I think Alexa Bliss had one as well. Those are people going to a place with ropes and things in mind. That's bad. And Mike Johnson published a really good... opinion piece after one of the instances this year.

Roy spoke about, look, this is a matter of time. It's going to happen. Just like, you know, we've seen other things in other sports or other sort of niches that this has happened. I feel like the airport incidents. are more frequent than they used to be. Like seeing wrestlers having to say, please give me some space at airports. Like that used to happen. It now feels like it happens much more frequently than it used to.

So again, it's that bubble, right? This is not one I will be celebrating that I got right if it happens. I do not want that one to come true, obviously. But I just, yeah, just the way the world is trending, it seems like.

Luke's TNA & Oli's AEW Predictions

It's a when, not if. My third. TNA on AMC does better ratings than Dynamite, but it will not last across the year. That's nice. That's a cheery one. Yep. So yeah, I think early doors, I think maybe for the first few months, better ratings of the dynamite. But as the year goes on, it just starts to, but not trickle off, flatten off. And they find what their base viewership is. Oh, that first episode will be loaded up with WWE stars. You'll have AJ's.

styles for sure on there certainly you'll have nxt stars so yeah that could do like a 600 000 definitely maybe Yeah, MC's a decent station. But then, yeah, I think ultimately it will settle beneath Dynamite. Maybe more at the collision level. Yeah. Maybe somewhere in between. Still, better what they're doing currently. It'll be hilarious if it beats NXT, though.

That first episode, the next. He's like, well, we wanted to beat AEW, but not like this. Not like this. Not at the expense of us. Your fourth, please. AEWs. Attitude Era. Uh-oh. There are two free agents, two potentially huge free agents on the market. And I cannot believe they've not been, well, one's very recent, but the other one has been around for a while. Can't believe he's not been snapped up, at least for historical legacy purposes.

I think Jim Johnston debuts his first AEW theme song. They're ditching the ruckus. They don't ditch ruckus. I bet he's just... They're just, yeah, he'll do... a couple of themes. Yeah. And he gets to sign with them. They make a little documentary about him. They honor him at a show, all that sort of stuff that AEW does well. But in the second half of the year... AEW finally gets an on-screen authority figure. It's Commissioner Foley. It's Commissioner Mick Foley.

I love it. Absolutely love it. I was trying to think who, because Foley was the one that jumped to mind, but I was trying to think the other one was. Maybe he'll say Angle, but he's too busy doing podcasts and stuff. I think it'll be Austin. He's probably on a Legends deal. I think they both are, really. Foley, yeah. But also, Angle now as a performer, I don't really know what he can give. I saw him, granted, it was under the Raw WWE booking.

But he didn't cut the best figure. But Foley is still very sharp. He's quick-witted. Yeah. Bang, bang. You know, he could be a great matchmaker. And that's final. And he can do his commissioner stuff. Have a nice day.

Luke's All In & Oli's PPV Return

I love it. Get a little office. Yes. Rather than the Tony Khan time cop. Yeah. A little sign he's got on his door. I like it a lot. My fourth one is... AEW sells more tickets for All In in 2026 than they did in 2024, but it won't be as much as they did in 2023. So somewhere, but was it 50,023? Yes. Or 24, rather. Yeah, and 80,000. So I think they do somewhere between those two numbers. That would be...

Man, I think they'll struggle to beat 50. I think they can give. They'll be by much, but I think they will do better numbers than they did the last time that they were there. Fingers crossed. Your fifth and final prediction, please. I actually thought that AEW one was too broad. How to phrase this? So WWE have done a lot of deals recently. For the rest of the world, you get...

all of your wrestling, all of your WWE on Netflix. But in the United States, they're on Peacock, they're on ESPN+, they're on Netflix, whatever. CW, stuff like that. I think next year, despite all those deals, you can start buying pay-per-views again. WWE pay-per-view. Back on pay-per-view! Whoa, a return to pay-per-view. First of all, start off as you can buy the pay-per-view on Amazon. So, you know, you'll have, let's say, Elimination Chamber. You can watch it on your ESPN Plus or...

for a slightly more expensive amount, so $45, let's say, you can watch it on Amazon as like a one-off purchase. But then later in the year... They will start doing pay-per-view only shows. I like the idea as well. I'm not adding this, trying to get you to add this onto yours. ESPN start having a pay-per-view service on their streaming platform. So you don't have to sign up for ESPN plus Ultra Alpha. You can just buy individual shows through it like it is traditional pay-per-view.

Because it's not a dead business model. AEW do very, very well on their pay-per-view format. And so does HBO Max, by all account. Now you can order stuff through there. I like it. My fifth and final prediction is...

Luke's WrestleMania X7 Hall of Fame

that this year's Hall of Fame, there's going to be a lot of celebrations of 25 years since WrestleMania X7. Okay. So I think we've talked about this. They're going to do like TLC. at WrestleMania 42 as a tribute to WrestleMania X7. But with the women's teams. But with the women's teams instead. Rock versus Austin is inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a match. Great shout. Which also...

Surreptitiously gets more Vince footage on screen because he's involved in the finish of it. He'll be part of the video packages and stuff. But also, and this is my really big one, Limp Bizkit are inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Perfect. That's the biggest prediction you could make as Luke Owen.

Leading into 2026. My way was the theme song. Here was me thinking, is he also going to say Vince versus Shane's going in? Or Vince will induct Rock and Austin? I think, yeah, he could induct that match. But no, Fred Durst. Do you think they could also do the first ever video package going into the Hall of Fame? Oh, with the My Way video package? Yeah, we're just going to keep adding things onto this. Yeah, I think it's going to be a lot of celebrations at WrestleMania X.

Well, I like him very much. Would you like to hear what the fans came up with? I guess so. Let's see their bad ideas. Once I sifted through all of the Gunther retirees, I was like, all right, mate, yeah, I get it. Brock Lesnar, I know, mate. Woofie bets.

Fan's 2026 Prediction Round 1

Jericho returns at the Rumble, wins it and beats Punk at Mania after smashing him through a real glass windshield. That took me a moment. So I was like, bottle? Glass? Is that the original Jericho punk feud with the alcohol? bottle and stuff no it's a reference to jack perry it's real glass crimey river excellent i don't think jericho needs to win the rumble for that i don't think anyone wants that but i

I admire the spirit of that. Bradley H, Samoa Joe, still signed by AEW, will be there for AJ Styles' final match. Because we didn't see anything from Edge, not even a phoned in video message, I think that's unlikely. I feel like it's unlikely. Vic Rish, there will be four male world champions born in the 90s, crowned in 2026. Four? Wow, that...

That implies there'll be four title changes for the men. That's right. So, Brombreaker. Who else? Oberfemi. Dominic Mysterio. Yeah, Dom. And let's just say Logan Paul. Harrison, Kevin Knight versus Speedball Mike Bailey will be the final of the Owen Hart Cup. Knight will turn heel in the process and will set up to face Will Ospreay at All In for the men's world title. Oh, that's... I really like that you love Kevin Knight that much, but I struggle to see him getting to that point in his career.

in six months time and also if you're doing that you're really going to hurt my prediction for ticket sales for for all in yeeter skeeters there will be more ple main event women's matches than men oh

Fan's 2026 Prediction Round 2

That's a tasty prediction. I like that one a lot. That's a really good one. I don't see it happening. Were there any... Did... Well, obviously evolution. Yeah. There will be a men's main event of an Evolution pay-per-view next year. That's my prediction. As WWE get more into the manosphere, they will have a men-only pay-per-view. Um...

There's not been any lady main events this year. I don't think there has been. I'm trying to think. Chambers main events by the men. Obviously, both Knights of Mania were. Backlash with Cena Orton. Rumble was the men. Men's Rumble. Money in the Bank is the tag match. with cena yeah night champions is is cena summer slam is cena check out survival series over here uh then night uh clash in paris is is it cody is that cody drew

Or is it the four-way for the world title? Oh, I can't remember now. And then Wrestlepalooza is Cody. I think it was the four-way. And then Wrestlepalooza is Cody Drew is the main event. Disappointing. Crown Jewel is Seth and Cody. Seth and Cody. Then it's the Men's War Games match. And that's our last PLC. So there's been none. So that's a really bold one there. Unlikely.

Aaron Davis Friend. Shane McMahon will be announced as an entrant into the 2027 Hall of Fame to be inducted by Stephanie McMahon. That's a good one. I was struggling to... Because I think every year we're like, how can we get Shane McMahon in these? Because he's one of our favourite things to do. He popped up on a podcast my partner was listening to. What? Popped up on a podcast. Yes, take that for the plosives.

She listens to this scam podcast. They'll call up Shane. They talk about scams. And she was like, oh, do you know... like he was involved in a scam or something. He didn't know this, but there were some dodgy people who almost had Shane McMahon semi-recently. involved in a scam like he attaches his name to a project but he didn't go through with it okay and i just she said it and she was like sounds like kendall i was like oh my god he is i haven't actually put

Shane McMahon in the Kendall mold in my brain. He's well Kendall. He's very Kendall. Homestar. To help promote the Street Fighter movie, Guile and Akuma will be guest characters in WWE 2K26. Not good enough. Why are they not in a match in front of a live crowd? Vince would have done that. He would have done. J, Jericho goes to NXT. In a bid to become the new head of creative. He's never, for all the strings he has to his bow, he's never, I've never really heard of him.

being that kind of creative person that can come up with ideas sure like money in the bank and stuff like that great great ideas but Him sitting down and writing other people's stories, I've never heard of. I think he felt more like he wanted to move into commentary after his run was done. Which he'd be great at. I actually...

I know you put some people off. I always got a kick out of it. I run hot and cold on it. So at times I quite liked it. When you said it, I thought that prediction was going to be he goes to NXT. Not returns to WWE and NXT, but at some point this year. goes down to NXT in a bid to win the NXT title. I'd love that. That is classic Jericho. Yeah. Oliver.

Tiffany Strand and Sabrina Carpenter will have an in-ring segment resulting in them tagging together at SummerSlam. Jack, this is actually similar to yours. A public partnership with OpenAI and Sora will be announced. AI advertising featuring younger AI wrestlers of the past with wrestlers of today all happen in 2026 to combat the negative press Triple H will spout some nonsense about how all of this is for the fans and that's just what we do then

the stock price will go up. Yes. I think it's difficult to like, because I guess the big opportunity there would be to do something like what Disney has done, where you license the wrestlers from the past. But that...

The reason Disney can do it is because they're animated. They own those rights. They're not selling Scarlett Johansson's face and voice. You can put Darth Vader. They can sell Darth Vader. They cannot sell Han Solo. And even actually with the animated characters, they can't sell the voice.

I think so you can get the genie from Aladdin but you can't have Robin Williams do the voice exactly so I don't think it will go to that extent but i think yeah i think they'll jump on that bandwagon i think tko will as well there'll be loads of ai ways to enjoy the product they'll say i rec i licensing old wrestlers i wonder if there's something part of the legends deal

Because, I mean, you get the likenesses sold for toy rights. Yeah. So maybe there is going to be something in their Legends contract that means we can also sell your likeness to AI. And the person who's going to be right at the forefront of that new deal is Hulk Hogan's estate. Absolutely, yeah. Brent, Drew McIntyre will lose to Cody for the WWE Championship once again.

This time, however, he goes dark for a month, skipping the Royal Rumble, only to appear at TNA. He immediately wins the TNA world title and slowly gets the entire TNA roster to do a full invasion of WWE as he views both Raw and SmackDown. as hostile work environments. That's on the basis that WWE see TNA as something main roster worthy. Which I don't think that they do. It doesn't even beat NXT in their minds. TNA is NXT's NXT.

But I love the idea of that, particularly if Drew drops the name McIntyre and reverts to Galloway. And he's a former TNA, well, Impact World Champion from the pre-WWE run. I had in my sort of like, we did a Royal Rumble, sort of predicting a Royal Rumble thing, and I had, I'd booked Tree vs. Oberfemi for the NXT title, and I had this idea, I was like...

Drew wins the NXT title and he goes, the title that I used to hold and he goes back to NXT for a bit because he's not going to win the world title anytime soon. I just don't think so. Maybe a stint down in NXT for the remainder of the year. Go on further. Have him win that Evolve title again. Drew Galloway was a big evolved champion. He was. And lastly, Fahim.

Oli Davis will finally release the unshittification of WWE video that's been working on and it will be seven hours long. That is that most outlandish prediction. Never gonna happen. When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A-game, you bring your AI game. Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents, so you can transform tomorrow. Workday.

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Podcast Wrap-up and Future

That one came in right at the end and it made me chuckle. Very funny. Well, hopefully, you know. December's a busy time. December is busy. And January will be busy. Yeah, I thought it was ambitious that you were trying to get this done in December. Honestly, I had such a good start at it though. I was writing it on weekends, any spare moment. So I racked up all the research pretty much, which involves a lot of trawling through financial reports. And then also...

7,000 words with 7,000 words and like a third draft as well. So, you know, you've gone over it multiple times, but I do think there's about 5,000 more to go. So I'm like 60% of it. Yeah. So yeah, well, thank you for your continued interest in the inshittification video. I'm interested. It will probably have jumped the peak of everyone's interest by the time it comes out, but I will be happy with it. A solid 50,000 views. Yeah.

And thank you so much for listening to this podcast for 2025. We'll see you in 2026. Our first podcast episode, I believe, will be a review of the Raw episode, the big Netflix episode that they've got with Brom Breaker versus CM Punk for the world title, Kabuki Warriors.

spending the women's tag titles against Rio and EO. No, Rio and EO. And then you got that right. So yeah, that will be back in 2026. Hope you enjoy the rest of your year. Happy New Year and all that good jazz. I've been Luke Owen, DAD. That's been Oli Davis. Jam that jazz.

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