It’s the new year. Everyone is making resolutions, anticipating upcoming events, and the mystery of a brand-new year keeps everyone’s hopes and dreams alive. At least until Quitters Day.
As pro wrestling fans the possibilities are endless. Who knows what 2025 will hold. But one thing we can be sure of is there will be surprises.
As such, here are some enormously wild predictions for the upcoming year. When I say wild, I mean WILD. Sure, you might read them and say that would never happen, but then again, who could’ve saw the disastrous exit of CM Punk from AEW after his prodigal son-like return to wrestling. Or the Montreal Screwjob. Or Vince McMahon being revealed as The Higher Power.
“It was me, Austin! It was me all along!”
Some things you don’t see coming. So why not indulge in the impossibility of situations becoming possible. Here are Kayfabe Bugle’s wildest predictions for 2025.
The Man Comes To AEW
Okay, hear me out. I know we just recently came off an intense face-off with CM Punk and Seth Rollins where Becky Lynch was referenced. I don’t know if they would do that, or if Rollins would talk about his wife, if he knew she was going to the competition. Especially after Rollins ripped Punk for doing that exact same thing.
At the same time, rumors have been circling on the internet ever since she took her time off from WWE. No one really knows what she’s doing, wrestling-wise. If you were to believe the rumors online, Lynch’s WWE contract expired in the summer of 2024.
So what if at one of AEW’s big pay-per-view events, maybe it’s AEW Revolution. Maybe it’s in Texas at AEW All In. Mercedes Moné, a woman wrestling fans know Becky Lynch is close with, is proclaiming herself the best wrestler in the world. She’s defeated everyone there is to beat. And there, in the middle of the ring, she quotes the Nature Boy: “Ric Flair said it best; To be the man, you have to beat the man. And I have beat them all.”
And then, BOOM! Becky Lynch shows up to blow the roof off the place.
The Return of Shane O’ Mac
While we’re talking about surprises and AEW, there were times in 2024 that rumors spread around that Shane McMahon visiting Tony Khan. That led speculation running rampant that somehow Shane could be joining forces with Khan.
Since Shane’s departure from wrestling many fans have thought he was done with the wrestling business. But the biggest shocker of the year could be not Shane becoming All Elite, but returning to the company that his father made a billion-dollar corporation.
What would make it even more shocking is that Vince McMahon has had no dealing with WWE as it stands now. Even Stephanie McMahon, who has appeared on WWE TV in the audience, doesn’t have an official role with the company. So, imagine the shock and awe to hit the wrestling world if Shane McMahon came back to WWE. It could break the internet.
WWE Buys TNA Wrestling
Okay, so, technically it wouldn’t be WWE, since World Wrestling Entertainment is owned by TKO Group. So the parent company would be the one that owned TNA Wrestling. But hear me out.
Admittedly, this wild prediction is a late addition to my list. If you would’ve asked me what I though the future was for TNA Wrestling at the beginning of 2024, I would’ve said the sky was the limit. WWE joined forces with TNA, and Jordynne Grace appeared in the 2024 Royal Rumble. It seemed the fledgling company was on the up tick.
But in February they let go of Scott D’Amore. A man who had steered the ship through troubled waters and righted it.
In recent months, many of the prominent stars in the company have been reported to be on their way out. The aforementioned Grace, along with Kushida, and Josh Alexander are all rumored to be leaving the company in 2025. With so many wrestlers leaving the company, one has to wonder why? And what this means for the future of TNA Wrestling. The company already has a working relationship with WWE. If the reason for the wrestler departures is monetary, one could think a buy-out of the company by TKO Group could be on the horizon in order to keep the company alive, and adding it to TKO’s portfolio of pro wrestling assets.
Jelly Roll Fights at WrestleMania
I can hear your laughter and maybe even some snide comments from my keyboard. “Jelly Roll?” you say. “There’s no way!”
My first reaction to that is the most recent celebrity to grace the squared circle and I’m not talking about Logan Paul. Bad Bunny. When Bad Bunny first appeared on WWE television, I didn’t see it. How in the world could that man not only get involved in a match but actually hold his own? But we saw that he could and did.
Over the years a number of celebrities have wrestled in WWE. I don’t know anyone who would call Bam Bam Bigelow versus Lawrence Taylor a five-star match. At the same time, as a young wrestling (and football) fan I was mesmerized by that match. A match, by the way, that main evented WrestleMania. And maybe older, hardened wrestling fans didn’t like it, but I loved it.
Jelly Roll is on another level of fame at the moment, with some of the hottest songs in the country. And at Summer Slam 2024, in front of an enormous Cleveland crowd, Jelly Roll not only got in the ring and dished out two chair shots to Austin Theory and Grayson Waller but gave a monstrous choke slam to the aforementioned Theory.
In recent memory, Pat McAfee came out and challenged The Miz to a match, which was made official by Snoop Dogg. It’s been reported that Jelly Roll is now down over a hundred pounds, so what if Austin Theory calls out the country superstar on the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania in Las Vegas?
Cody Rhodes Become Homelander
Finally, this might not seem like a wild prediction to some. There are wrestling fans out there that actually want to see Cody Rhodes turn his back on all the fans who have supported him over the years.
That said, there were certain wrestling fans back in 1996 that were tired of Hulk Hogan’s tried and true, all American demeanor. There was a slice of the wrestling audience that didn’t want to cheer for the Hulkster, and for some reason wanted to see the wrestling star turn on everyone. Even though there was a subset of people calling for it, it still shocked the world when it actually happened. When Hogan came out during Bash at the Beach and turned on Macho Man, aligning himself with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and forming the New World Worder of professional wrestling. It sent shockwaves around the world.
The American Nightmare, Cody Rhodes, has had his detractors. He’s had people calling for him to turn his back on everything he holds dear. And he has refused. But what would happen if he finally succumbed to the darkness. If Rhodes lived up to his own moniker and became the Nightmare. I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but even though some wrestling fans might like to see it, it would certainly send shockwaves around the wrestling world once again.
Here’s to 2025!
