Who are the stars five years from now?

[The Chief]

Listening to Dylan, Rob and Jeff on Shake Them Ropes talking about a back-up plan for Cena made me think about this. I touched on this in another thread but wanted to open this for discussion as it's own topic.

 

We all know how heavily WWE relies on past stars and part timers. I do think that we're kind of drawing to a close on this era based on age/time factors. You can argue that they've missed out on creating a lot of stars over the past decade. When Steve Austin went down in 1999, they had enough stars to fill that spot. If Cena goes down tomorrow, they're in deep trouble. Looking at who they rely on now:

 

Once a year for Taker is too much right now, let alone in a few years.
Rock came back and had his fun. He's still young but taking bumps doesn't seem like a huge priority in his life, nor should it.
We've seen Sting. And he's past 50.
HHH will most likely always be a presence and can still go, so I guess we've got him. His real-life role in the company kind of limits what you can do with him though.
Shawn is retired. Maybe, MAYBE he would come back for a match but you would have to believe he would want a star. So no, he won't be wrestling Roman Reigns, he'll be with Taker or somebody like that.
If Austin could physically go it would be for MAYBE one or two matches.
Foley is cooked and won't get cleared
Flair won't get cleared.
We probably haven't seen the last of Batista but Marvel will keep him busy until he's what, 50?
Lesnar may continue to work whenever. And like I pointed out with Shawn, it will only be with guys who are at "his level."

 

So who could you bring back for nostalgia? It's not a very promising list. They've missed out on a lot of guys over the past decade who were on the cusp. I'm not necessarily advocating these guys and some of them never reached that level due to their own fault and not WWE's, However, you can't argue that these guys were pegged as future stars at some point and treated as special. Guys like:

 

Bobby Lashley - he was treated as their next Cena at one point and has improved since then. He's basically been erased from WWE history though. Seems like he likes MMA more than wrestling.

John Morrison - never broke through, if he came back he would be in the same spot as when he left.

Rey Mysterio - He was never treated as a legend like he should have been and unfortunately he has never been a "big Mania match" kind of guy

MVP - No way

Mr. Kennedy - see MVP

Edge - retired

Jeff Hardy - I could see him coming back but like Rey, he's never treated as a dream-match type.

Chris Jericho and Kane - I can totally see these guys being used but Jericho hasn't been special in years and his short runs haven't set the world on fire.

Not to be morbid, but Big Show is approaching the age Andre was when he died.

So what do WrestleManias look like five years from now? What happens when we can no longer go to that well?

[Quentin Skinner]

Maybe a Batista, but the way his last WWE run ended left a bad taste in his mouth, he is creeping up on 50, and he has a burgeoning movie career to focus on. I would rule him out and put him in that same category of all the other guys who aren't "stars".

[The Chief]

I wanna throw Punk in the could have been pile. But like a Bret in 1997,there's a lot of bad blood there and you gotta believe those wounds will take a long time to heal.

[Grimmas]

None, fucking push up the people you have and don't rely on half-retired guys. Where is the new new generation?

[Mad Dog]

HHH, Stephanie, Lesnar, Orton and Cena. I think Cena will be wrestling less but I also think he'll be getting title runs every time they panic and feel the need to be bailed out.

[Matt D]

 

They'll kill everyone else off heat-wise and have to bring in Cavernario.

[Grimmas]

If I was an upstart company then Cavenario would be my Sabu, easily.

[Wade Garrett]

Can someone point me to some matches in regards to the Geico spoof dude above?

[MikeCampbell]

Cesaro - He's proven more than once that he can get himself over if given the chance. But, whenever a chance comes up, they yank the rug from under him.

 

Kevin Owens - if he can stay healthy then he seems like a sure thing.

 

Sami Zayn - The Shawn to KO's Bret. Once again, if he can stay healthy.

[Slasher]

Cesaro - He's proven more than once that he can get himself over if given the chance. But, whenever a chance comes up, they yank the rug from under him.

 

Kevin Owens - if he can stay healthy then he seems like a sure thing.

 

Sami Zayn - The Shawn to KO's Bret. Once again, if he can stay healthy.

Not that it couldn't happen, but in 5 years all of these guys will be nearly 40 if not already. I think they should infuse some youth in the mix just to ensure that they have some people going when those guys decide to hang it up.

[Tim Evans]

Chad Gable: I predict he will have a bigger career than Angle. Just an incredible real athlete with huge potential.

 

Apollo Crews: He has all the size and charisma that Vince likes. He might be a little too nice though.

 

Those are the two guys in developmental that I think have big time potential to be main eventers. Especially Gable.

[ZThomas]

Sasha Banks

Uhhaaa Nation

Cesaro

Prince Puma

Big Cass Enzo

[fakeplastictrees]

So come 2020, who can WWE bring in at WM to really sell the show? Let's break this down by the superstar's age five years from now:

 

 

Batista (51)

Jericho (49)

Mysterio (45)

 

 

Even if Vince/HHH wanted to mend all bridges with every past superstar:

 

Jeff Jarrett (53)

Kurt Angle (51)

Jeff Hardy (42)

 

Out of all of those people Jeff Hardy seems like the most likely case and that is ignoring ALL of his problems. Bobby Lashley will be 44 and if he keeps himself in great shape and continues winning in MMA (even if he retires before 40), WWE will at least have something legit to go off of for a nice short run with him. The pool is really thin as there is no way in hell Michaels, HHH, Nash, Steiner, Booker T, Taker, etc. will even step up to the plate. They would all be too old and broken down. So again, five years from now special WM attractions could potentially be 2015 TNA maineventers...go figure.

 

Oh...and then there is the guy who will 'never step foot in WWE again' CM Punk who will be 41 years old. WWE should be fine in 5 years come WM time as long as the company eliminates the trading wins and burying talent in the mid-card formula.

 

 

[Badlittlekitten]

John Cena

Randy Orton

Hhh

Sami Zayne(?)

Alexa Bliss

[El-P]

John Cena

Randy Orton

Hhh

 

This.

[NotJayTabb]

Probably a dull answer, but the stars in 5 years time probably aren't under contract yet or, if they are, they're the untrained guys learning in the Performance Centre. If you look at the top guys today, 5 years ago Sheamus was just debuting, Rollins and Ambrose were still on the indies and guys like Reigns and Rusev weren't even wrestling. In 5 years time, you'll have a couple of current names on top and a load of guys we've not heard of.

[dawho5]

But none of those guys you listed are stars yet. Reigns is the closest thing to it and will likely be the only one out of the four you can really call a star. The WWE won't get behind any of the other three anytime soon in order for them to get there.

[Stiva]

Pulling back from "stars", I'd think the likes of Big E, Cesaro, Balor etc will be floating around the top of the card. I expect Ambrose to have so much raw charisma that he makes it. I think Wyatt will have a run with the belt also. As for full blown stars, did anyone predict Daniel Bryan's ludicrous rise to the top in late 2013? Shit, it's almost possible that Jimmy Uso could get over huge ala Jeff Hardy.

[Loss]

Not so much the "major stars", but which of these guys are and are not in WWE in five years?

 

Sheamus

Dolph Ziggler

Luke Harper

The Miz

Big E

Kofi Kingston

Kevin Owens

Rusev

Damien Sandow

Xavier Woods

Ryback

Curtis Axel

Jack Swagger

[Mad Dog]

Wouldn't it be useful to go back 5 years and see how they've progressed talent into the main event to determine what the next 5 years will look like?

[Jimmy Redman]

Wouldn't it be useful to go back 5 years and see how they've progressed talent into the main event to determine what the next 5 years will look like?

 

WWE in 2010:

 

Raw: Sheamus shockingly won the Raw Title in Dec 2009 months after his debut and held it until the belt merry-go-round at Elimination Chamber. Cena vs Batista was the top feud for Mania and the next few months. Dave left and Sheamus and Orton re-entered the title picture for the summer, but the Nexus also arrived and they became the top heels. Miz cashed in MITB in November and ended the year with the belt, while Nexus had been killed off.

 

Smackdown: Undertaker defended against Rey at the Rumble, then lost the belt to Jericho in the Chamber switches, in order to work the Shawn re-match. Jericho vs Edge at Mania, then Swagger cashed in soon after. Swagger lost the belt to Rey, then Kane won MITB and cashed in the same night. Kane actually held the belt through that Undertaker feud, and then through that terrible Edge feud until Edge won it in December.

 

So on the top of the cards we have the usual crew who had been maineventing for years prior (Cena, Dave, Orton, Undertaker, Kane, Edge, Jericho) along with the newer, younger crew who were given token main event runs with a MITB cash in or some such, only to move back into the midcard/upper-midcard when their run was over, having not been established as a real main eventer due to MITB and all the other problems I hardly need to go into (Sheamus, Miz, Barrett/Nexus, Swagger).

 

Nothing has really changed in the interim, except for anomalies like Punk actually reaching that real main event level. I suppose you could include Bryan too, since his exit from the main event was due to injuries and not being de-pushed (even though you could argue they would have done so anyway). Arguably the Shield broke the cycle too for the duration of their run, although it's a lot harder to quantify with a team.

 

With everyone else it's the same story. We have the same long-established guys always at the top of the card, always the first ones they plug back into the main event - Cena, Orton, Big Show, Kane, Jericho, HHH (one way or another). We have newer guys who have runs with the belt, or on top, but who always get moved back down the card at some stage, and never get properly established on the same level as the first crew for all the obvious reasons - since 2010 there's been Alberto, Dolph, Ryback, Wyatt, Reigns, Ambrose, Rollins (so far I guess). The third crew is the special attractions, old guys who can only work once a year, or outsiders from a past era brought back for star power: Undertaker, Rock, Brock, Batista. These guys are always put over at the expense of the second crew. And above all, while Hunter and Steph have replaced Vince as the TV presence, the McMahons are always the biggest stars.

 

So unless things drastically change, it will be the same thing in five years, just plugging different names into the categories. Well-established main event stars who always hang around: Cena, Orton, whoever else is still well enough to work full-time. If we're lucky, one of the current stars-in-progress like Rollins, Ambrose, etc. will join this crew. Then there's the second crew who are the younger guys trying to move up but always headbutting the ceiling: Owens, Balor, Zayn, Uhaa, who knows. And then the special attraction crew who still get prime position on top of the cards: Brock, HHH, Kane, Show, Taker, anyone who is healthy enough. Punk could be back as one by then.

 

The main thing is that we just don't know yet. Look at today's main event scene, minus the Class of 2005, look at the newer stars and think about what they were doing five years ago.

 

Rollins: Was still ROH Champion.

Ambrose: Working ultraviolent matches in CZW, along with other indies.

Reigns: Learning how to work in FCW.

Brock: Was mid-UFC Heavyweight Title reign.

 

None of these guys were on the roster in 2010. Not even on the radar. So really, the guys who are having main events in 2020 could well be guys who haven't even signed yet. They could even be guys who haven't begun wrestling yet.

 

Along with, of course, Cena, Orton and HHH.

[The Chief]

Some interesting points. I was thinking more along the lines of who are they going to rely on to sell Mania in five years. If you don't have access to part time guys anymore, you're going to have to approach things differently.

 

They're going to have their hand forced within these next few years as these guys fade away. It's gonna be interesting to see how they react.

[Grimmas]

If there is justice in the world WM 36 should be headlined by something like Bayley-Sasha and Sami Zayn vs Roman Reigns or something more along those lines. It should be new headliners. The WWF needs a "New Generation" or "Attitude Era" type of movement that gets rid of old stars and focuses on new ones.

 

EDIT: Main guys should be more like Apollo Crews, Chad Gable, etc.. it's time to move on from the old.

[Slasher]

Some interesting points. I was thinking more along the lines of who are they going to rely on to sell Mania in five years. If you don't have access to part time guys anymore, you're going to have to approach things differently.

 

They're going to have their hand forced within these next few years as these guys fade away. It's gonna be interesting to see how they react.

With how the network has sort of cannibalized a lot of the Mania revenue with the cheap memberships, I can see them changing the model of how Mania is to be sold on to the public. They will not see value in bringing in the big expensive stars if they know they won't make that money back. What they do, I don't know, but it will be interesting to find out.

[Loss]

I expect Undertaker to be around in the exact same role in five years, sadly.