WWE
Seth Rollins will compete at WrestleMania 32
Things were going so well for Seth Rollins. WWE champion since WrestleMania and growing in strength after excellent defenses against John Cena and Sting, Rollins looked set to end the year on a high, but a botched powerbomb changed all that. The move tore his ACL, MCL and medial meniscus, ruled him out for anywhere between six to nine months, and worse still, ended his title reign in the cruelest of fashions.
The story isn’t over for Rollins however and I believe that his eventual comeback will similar to those of John Cena and Edge. The WWE love to exaggerate the severity of injury to make their superstars appear superhuman. While the ‘Unhappy triad’ injury is a serious one, Rollins should be able to recover well before the estimated timeframe, just in time to make a stunning return at some point on the road to WrestleMania.
The Undertaker will (finally) go into the WWE Hall of Fame
While 2016 may not mark the end of the legendary Undertaker’s in-ring career, there will be no better time for ‘The Deadman’ to finally enter the WWE’s Hall of Fame. Set to take place at the 100,000-plus seater AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, WrestleMania 32 has the potential to smash records and be the biggest ‘Mania event of all time. The Undertaker has long been one of the main attractions of the year’s biggest sports entertainment spectacle and more than deserves to be entered into the company’s gallery of legends as the year’s main inductee.
‘The Phenom’ is the most decorated and tenured superstar to not be honoured with induction, the WWE would be foolish not to make him the centrepiece of the biggest ceremony to date, especially given that it’ll also be emanating from his home state as well.
John Cena will win the WWE World Heavyweight title for the 16th time
Sorry Ric Flair fans, John Cena becoming a 16-time world champion is inevitable. It’s been an awfully long time since Cena last held the company’s biggest prize so expect the WWE’s top superstar to end his barren run and reclaim the crown at some point in 2016.
When, and who he’ll beat are wild guesses at this point, but it’ll happen. Bank on it.
UFC
Holly Holm didn’t just shock the world when she head-kicked Ronda Rousey into oblivion at UFC 193, she also dramatically altered the promotion’s long-term plans for their previously undefeated golden girl. Everyone wants to know how Rousey will come back from such a devastating loss; will she learn from the sobering defeat and return better than before, or is she destined to suffer the same fate against the deadly new champion?
Our questions will undoubtedly be answered at some point, but it won’t be at UFC 200, the promotion’s biggest event of the year. Rousey’s jaw is still in pieces and it’ll still be some time before she can begin light sparring, let alone learn and develop new skills to counter the striking perfection of Holm. Expect the biggest money match in the UFC at the moment to happen in 2016, just a little later than most are hoping.
We will still be waiting for MMA in New York
Rightfully tired of being repeatedly locked out of one of the most lucrative fighting markets in the world, the UFC went ahead and booked UFC 198 at the world famous Madison Square Garden, despite the sport of MMA still being outlawed in the state. Of the fifty states that make up the United States of America, only New York remains as a no-go zone for the UFC and the reasons for the ban still being in place are becoming more opaque with every passing year.
One day the UFC will be allowed to put on supercards at the ‘world’s most famous arena’, but something tells me that it won’t be for some time yet. The move to book the show was designed to force the legalisation of the sport, but there has been no news of the state’s backwards legislators budging. With the planned show booked for April, I wouldn’t be surprised if the UFC relents and moves it to the New Jersey-based Prudential Center.
CM Punk will retire from MMA
Yeah you read that correctly: CM Punk will compete inside the Octagon at some point in 2016, and despite the fact that he’ll probably win, it’ll likely be his only foray into active competition. Punk’s efforts to transition from sports entertainment to legitimate combat are admirable but he’s simply too old and not nearly athletic enough to succeed at the top level.
His debut is guaranteed to draw viewers in the same way Brock Lesnar did when he made his first UFC appearance in 2008, but Lesnar is a naturally gifted genetic freak...the opposite of the ‘skinny fat’ Chicago native fan favorite. Punk will be fed a local can before moving onto something a little more suited to his talents. An announcing gig perhaps?
Agree? Disagree? What do you think will happen in 2016? Leave your comments below!
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