My last blog focused around what WWE SHOULD do this year, I know that none of it will actually happen, so here’s my predictions of what WWE will actually spend their time doing in 2013.

1) John Cena Will Headline More Non-Title Pay-Per-Views
Here’s a fairly obvious one, although CM Punk spent the entire of 2012 as WWE Champion, he was rarely the main event, sometimes being eclipsed by “special attraction” matches like Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar or The Rock vs. John Cena, but other times he was looked over for John Cena vs. Kane at Elimination Chamber, the epic CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan match was overlooked for John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis, at Over The Limit John Cena vs. The Big Show was the main event, there wasn’t a time when CM Punk’s historic title reign was given a headline slot without John Cena. So in 2013 what can we expect? The exact same thing. When the WWE Championship falls to Punk again, or whoever wins Money In The Bank this year, most of the summer will be spent with John Cena feuding with someone outside the title picture but still as the main event. While this is done because WWE think that John Cena draws money, there’s proof that it really isn’t true. Hell In A Cell was a pay-per-view with no mention of John Cena at all, and the buy rate was more than 10% more than Hell In A Cell 2011 (which had John Cena in the headline match). And then Tables Ladders and Chairs, a PPV with no WWE Championship match but headlined by John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler (again replacing the much more hyped Shield vs. Ryback & Daniel Bryan) had buy rates 30% lower than the previous year which featured CM Punk capturing the championship. It’s just proof that respect has to be given to the championship as it’s not just enough to throw John Cena in any main event and assume that it will be for the best.

2) Release A Superstar With Great Potential
The locker room is literally bursting at the seams with new superstars at the moment, I even wrote in my last blog about how they shouldn’t debut anyone else until after SummerSlam. The only problem here is that with everyone trying to grab the spotlight, someone’s going to be left out, and it’s going to be a shame. Because they received a push so quickly in their careers they won’t be allowed the time on Superstars / Main Event / NXT to continue their skillset expansion, rather than be viewed on as a failure and released. While it’s a shame I’ll predict that one member of The Shield will be released this year after they break up and I think this years wild card entry may be Kofi Kingston. They continually drop the ball with something with such potential as Kofi, as he’s recently returned to his jobber role, only getting TV time for a few spot monkey moments and then quickly pinned. It’s a shame, as at one point during his feud with Randy Orton years ago it looked like he was going to be huge. Hopefully I’m wrong about this prediction, but by the time we hit 2014, we’ll be checking in on TNA to see how a certain someone is doing.

3) Continue To Keep JTG employed
This isn’t just a focus on JTG, but he seems to be the figurehead of confusing keeps in the WWE. So much so there’s even a website based around it (http://lolwrestling.com/howlonghasjtgbeenemployed/) , what I’m trying to get across here is that while there will be several releases this year that will leave us scratching our heads and shouting that we’re boycotting the WWE until they’re back, there will be several superstars that just seems to stay in the background for no reason. While I’m not wishing anyone to lose their jobs, no one can deny their reaction of “holy crap, Yoshi Tatsu and Alex Riley still work there?” reaction to their segment on Raw this week.

4) Drop The Ball With Undercard Championships
2012 was a great year for the undercard championships. The Tag Team division seems to boom, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston, Big Show and Wade Barrett added some real meaning to the Intercontinental Championship, and even though there was a dark spot with Santino and Jack Swagger holding the US Title, there was some real excitement around the belt when Zack Ryder won the belt from Ziggler, and Antonio is starting to wipe the dust of this championship and quickly proving that great wrestlers can hold the championship for a long time. However in the first part of 2013, something terrible has happened. While Daniel Bryan and Kane have been feuding mostly with themselves of Rhode Scholars, there’s been no advancement with other teams, Prime Time Players have disappeared again, the Uso’s are gone, the only tag team getting any TV time at the moment are 3MB squash matches. And Tensai and Brodus Clay... woo. I predict that when Bryan & Kane drop the belts, it’ll be a long time before the belts have any real meaning again. The Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett went on a five match losing streak, losing to Bo Dallas and Randy Orton three times, only just breaking that by squashing Kofi Kingston, it looks like they’re looking to make Bo Dallas seem like a big deal right away by possibly giving him the IC Title soon, but when they do there’s a chance that people might not care as much about the belt, people haven’t had time to care about Dallas enough to focus on him as a champion. Although I’m a fan of his, the majority of the crowd may just wonder what Wade Barrett has done to deserve it. As for the US Championship, Cesaro will eventually fall to an American title holder, who that will be I have no idea, but I think when they win the belt it’ll be someone who’s just taking the belt so Cesaro can move on to greater things and will be left holding the belt with no one to defend it against.

5) Triple H Will Continue To Pretend Like He’s A Hall Of Famer
Much like Bret Hart, I am not a huge fan of Triple H. Yes he had a period of being one of the biggest stars, but that was a time when The Rock and Undertaker was gone, Austin was injured and Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho were only just breaking through as superstars. Since then, the only time I’ve ever been excited for a match that had a huge focus on Triple H was because of Shawn Michaels and their rivalry in 2002. However, Triple H continues to get the push like he’s done a lot for “this business” as much as other people around him. Now that Undertaker is on his way out, Shawn Michaels has retired and The Rock probably won’t be here for long past Wrestlemania 30, Triple H will now be presented as the next Undertaker. Returning for a month out of the year to have a big match at Wrestlemania. Although he MAY put some superstars over by winning the match, which is highly unlikely considering he lost the last two years, most of his time will be spent taking someone away from possibly having a great Wrestlemania match, and putting them into a program where Triple H ultimately looks strong either way, never losing cleanly, and having a very limiting match considering Triple H’s old injuries will start haunting him soon. This one is inevitable. The only way of stopping this is getting everyone to pretend that Triple H really is as big as he thinks he is and definitely NOT chanting “you tapped out” the next time he loses. He’ll just keep coming back until he gets the ovation his “amazing career” deserves.

That’s it folks. You can follow me on twitter @DanHarrington91 and tell me I’m wrong. Or just yell in the comments.