It is always fun to look back at past events in wrestling and this is what this article is going to do. Around this time last year, I wrote an article entitled, “WWE: Things to Look Out for in 2019” and I wanted to continue that this year. I was curious to see the things that I got right and the things that are still to come. While many of us feel that wrestling is too predictable at the moment, many things aren’t and that is what makes it so great. It is a continually moving phenomena that captures some level of intrigue and it is interesting to not only look back, but to ponder what could happen in the upcoming year. I’m going to break down each thing I brought up in the article and within the next day or two, I will create another article involving the things to look out for in 2020

Taking a look back at “WWE: Things to Look Out for in 2019”

In my intro, I mentioned the fact that Mr. McMahon promised a changing product that was going to be a better product for fans. Did this hold up? Most fans will disagree in the long term, but I think the product has been a good bit better and all the evidence you need is WrestleMania 35. Most of, if not all of, the big matches at WrestleMania 35’s outcomes were indeed what the fans wanted. I can’t remember a show that was so lenient towards the fans. That is something that could be debated, but moving on to the article.

- John Cena’s Involvement

The first thing that I pointed out was John Cena and his involvement in the WWE going into 2019. I guessed that Cena would stick around for a couple months to put over rising talent, but that did not happen. Cena wrestled in 2 matches in January of 2019 and made appearances at WrestleMania 35 and RAW Reunion and that was all we saw of him. According to certain rumors, Cena is wanting a bigger role at WrestleMania 36, so I wouldn’t rule out a short-term return in 2020.

- Drew McIntyre’s Push

The next thing is something that we are still waiting on in 2020. It is regarding the push of Drew McIntyre and it is something that I personally am upset that did not come in 2019. McIntyre did not have one single televised title match and despite what seemed to be the signs of a legitimate push, nothing came of it. Hopefully 2020 will be McIntyre’s year.

- Improving the Tag Team Division

In 2019, many of the tag teams in the WWE were reportedly upset about their roles in the company and for the most part, I think their concerns were met. I’m not saying it was a huge improvement, but for the most part, tag team competition was better in 2019. The only thing that I don’t care for is the influx of 6-man and Triple Threat tag matches. There is too much going on and generally, the finishes of those matches aren’t really great. It isn’t a major concern moving forward, but hopefully we don’t see as many cluster matches.

- Solving Their Identity Crisis

Roman Reigns having to take time off last year sent every plan that the WWE had for him straight out of the window. It was a legitimate crisis and one that many fans, obviously including myself, were concerned about. Roman happened to make a return nearly 3 months later however, but it turns out all they had to do was listen to fan reactions. In the article, I pointed out two names that could be potential faces of the company while Roman was no longer in action and those guys were Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman. Rollins was the biggest player on RAW, but Braun Strowman had a quiet year. I predicted that they would solve their crisis in 2019. So, did WWE solve their identity crisis? Yes, they definitely did and The Man became the face of the company.

- Continual Growth in the Women’s Division

I started off this section pondering the possibility of a female competitor becoming the face of the company and solving the identity crisis and I was clearly on to something there. The Women’s division was the best thing heading into WrestleMania and as we all know, a Women’s Triple Threat match headlined WrestleMania 35. I mentioned that it was possible that Charlotte Flair would break Trish Stratus’s record for most title reigns. Not only did she do that, she currently sits at 10 Championship reigns. I was also concerned about Ronda Rousey’s future in the company. I predicted that she would wrestle throughout 2019, but I was clearly wrong about that. Her last match was at WrestleMania, but I think she could be poised for a return in 2020.

At the end of the section I mentioned a few names of who I think could get a bigger push in 2019. I mentioned Mandy Rose as a potential off-the-radar champion in 2019 and even though she had a PPV title match against Asuka in March, she did basically nothing after that. I also said that I thought Mandy and Sonya Deville would split in 2019 and even though they have only won one match in the span of 7 months, they’re still together. I also mentioned that I hope Ember Moon doesn’t get lost in the shuffle in 2019, but injuries hindered her chances to really prove herself fully. She did have a title match against Bayley at SummerSlam though. If health permits, I think Ember Moon could be a big name in 2020.

- Outside Competition

At the beginning of 2019, AEW was announced, but to be perfectly honest, we didn’t know what it was going to be. We had an idea that it was going to be a wrestling promotion in the near future, but it wasn’t a 100% certainty. At the time, I mainly only followed the WWE, but I casually would look into other promotions and by casually, I mean maybe once every month or two. AEW piqued my interest and I followed it for the whole year. To start off this section, I mentioned something about my interest of seeing how WWE would handle outside competition. We now know that they moved NXT to cable TV and anointed it as the third brand. It has been fun seeing this proverbial game of chess within the wrestling industry. AEW has been awesome, but were they a legitimate competitor for WWE in 2019? No. Could they be within the next 5 years? Possibly. It has been a wonderful year for wrestling and I’m interested to see where the Wednesday Night Wars ends up. Also, I would like to add that I mentioned something about the growth of NJPW in the US and ROH. It appears that NJPW involvement in the US is growing, but it appears ROH is trending downward. Also, Impact Wrestling has been on the rise and NWA was basically revived and it has been solid since its start a couple months ago, so it will be intriguing to see how things fare within wrestling in 2020.

Towards the end of the article I listed some superstars and how I thought they would be trending in 2019. I’m not going to go through all of them, but let’s just say I was right about a few and I was wrong about a few. After that, I jotted down 10 names of who I thought would be called up to the main roster from NXT. Of the 10 teams and singles performers, I correctly guessed 4 of them. To be fair, all of them but one did make appearances on RAW or SmackDown, but if I’m being a stickler, I got 4, which I think is pretty impressive considering.

That was it for 2019. I will release a similar article to the one we reviewed for 2020 and I hope you guys will enjoy what I have in store within the next couple of days. In a couple of weeks, I will also be doing a Royal Rumble scenario article like I did last year, so be on the lookout for that.

Yacs

A Look Back at "WWE: Things to Look Out for in 2019"