See what stories Steve Cook predicted wouldn’t be stories at all for 2020. Was Steve a fortune teller for what wouldn’t be a big deal in 2020?

The end of 2019 feels like it happened several years ago. Back in those times, I was trying to guess what the top non-WWE stories of 2020 would be. I didn’t know that most wrestling companies other than WWE, AEW & Impact Wrestling would be out of commission for most of the year.

Let’s take a look back at what I thought would be the Top 5 Non-WWE Stories of 2020…

5. Will ROH Make It Through 2020?

“Listen, I have nothing to base this feeling on. Maybe ROH’s ratings on Sinclair-owned stations are good enough to justify keeping the promotion running. I’m sure the ROH office is doing all they can to keep the execs happy. But man. There is just no buzz behind this fed right now. Like nothing. It’s like the past few years of Impact, where you wondered why they were even bothering.

The only time you even hear about ROH anymore is when somebody’s complaining about managment or concussion policies. They’ve lost their spot as the smark darling. They aren’t the #2 or #3 fed by default. They’re not even New Japan’s little sister fed. It’s a random fed with random stuff going on airing in syndication in random time slots on random stations.

Can ROH get their buzz back? Things aren’t looking good from where I sit.”

What Happened: You’re going to notice a trend as we move through each story. The coronavirus put a big dent in most of non-WWE wrestling, as promotions weren’t able to run shows on a regular basis due to social distancing guidelines and government orders. Ring of Honor spent most of 2020 airing spotlight shows highlighting their top performers. As somebody that hadn’t watched much ROH over the past couple of years and had picked up review duties for 411, I appreciated getting to know the competitors.

Then they came back with stricter COVID guidelines than any other wrestling company, while bringing back the Pure Championship. I don’t know how the show is doing viewership-wise, but I’m liking what I’m seeing.

4. NJPW of America: Will it stick?

“So there’s been all this talk of the new company New Japan has formed in America. It’s been a slow process that culminated with an announcement in October. There have been phases, which I will quote here:

Phase one: discovering new wrestlers in markets outside Japan and developing talent through the LA Dojo.
Phase two: run events in the US, including at Madison Square Garden and Dallas this year, both independently, and with the assistance of other promotions.
Phase three: establish a company within the US, and be ingrained in the everyday fabric when it comes to fans’ wrestling consciousness.

There’s going to be a more active touring schedule. Cool. But how are these shows going to look & compare with a standard NJPW show? And how are they going to be ingrained in the everyday fabric of fans’ wrestling consciousness when their TV deal with AXS TV looks to be done & their streaming website isn’t easily accessible for North American-based viewers? I think something announced this past week, where Chris Jericho agreed to give Hiroshi Tanahashi an AEW title shot if Tanahashi could beat him at Wrestle Kingdom, might be something to keep an eye on. Is the AEW/NJPW relationship better than we’ve been led to believe, or is Jericho/someone else trying to work an angle to help get the companies on the same page? I, for one, am intrigued.”

What Happened: As it turns out, this isn’t a great time to try & expand your footprint into America. Plans to run shows in front of fans in America were shelved. NJPW did produce a series called NJPW Strong focused towards the American market, airing on NJPW World & Fite TV. They’ve been doing that since August, with an eye towards building off of it once things return to “normal”. As for an AEW/NJPW relationship, nothing has really developed on that front.

3. The Powerrr of the NWA

“Probably the biggest surprise of 2019 was the return to the forefront of the National Wrestling Alliance. Billy Corgan’s fed had gotten the ball rolling with the 10 Pounds of Gold webseries, but things got kicked up a notch with the debut of NWA Powerrr. A studio wrestling show that looked like 1983 Georgia Championship Wrestling with a similar format & some modern performers was able to find a sizeable audience on YouTube. There was a slight bump in the road with one of the announcers, but that issue has been addressed & the commentary has been upgraded with the addition of Stu “Good News” Bennett.

So what happens in 2020? They seem to be testing a monthly PPV model with Powerrr on YouTube every week. Should that work out, we may see a move to bigger venues. What I know for sure is that Corgan had a 20 year plan when he bought the promotion, so he’s not in any rush. And he’s in a good spot to not be in that rush right now. It might behoove him to stay in that spot.”

What Happened: The previously mentioned pandemic led to Powerr being shelved at least for the time being, along with the cancellation of 2020’s Crockett Cup event that would have featured a match with Nick Aldis & Marty Scrull. The NWA started producing other weekly content on YouTube, but that got derailed when David Lagana left the company after allegations of sexual impropriety. NWA went dark for sometime before popping up recently with “Shockwave”, a PPV & eventually YouTube series in association with the United Wrestling Network. Some of the NWA’s stars have moved on to other places during the pandemic.

Their women’s championship has been featured on AEW Dynamite, with Thunder Rosa & Serena Deeb defending the title on multiple occasions. It’s one way to keep the NWA brand out there while they still try to figure out their future.

2. Will Impact’s improved TV lead to a resurgence?

“2019 was a good year for Impact Wrestling. The Don Callis/Scott D’Amore regime produced a show that got good critical reviews & managed to keep at a certain level in spite of a talent roster constantly in flux. Their parent company bought AXS TV and gave the show a better night, time slot & network. For the first time I can remember, there’s something of a positive buzz around the company.

Impact will have a constant television presence at the same time all year, unless they decide to change it themselves. They have fresh talent like Sami Callihan, Tessa Blanchard, Brian Cage & others. There’s also some established talent like Rob Van Dam. Can they get the right mixture going & produce a show that appeals to an even wider audience? It could come down to Callis, D’Amore and other Impact staff being able to scout talent. They won’t be able to keep people that WWE want, and it’s likely that AEW could take people they want. If Impact keeps a deep bench & plans ahead, they should be able to keep making waves in 2020.”

What Happened: Impact definitely had its ups & downs during 2020. They managed to keep running regular television in Nashville without fans in attendance. They put their world championship on Tessa Blanchard, who was unable to return to work before her contract expired and wasn’t terribly interested in coming back once she was able to return. They could have handled that better, along with the Kylie Rae situation.

Other than a few bumps in the road, it was a pretty solid year for Impact. Their TV continued to be pretty solid for most of the year. Some nice quality wrestling mixed with some silliness that works in the Impact environment. While they’re obviously not the #2 US-based fed anymore, they’ve held off other feds to keep the #3 spot, and are getting some newfound attention by working with #2. They’ve lost some talent, but have picked up enough talent to keep things interesting.

1. The progress & patience of All Elite Wrestling

“AEW was the biggest non-WWE story of 2019, and I can guarantee it will be the biggest non-WWE story of 2020 in some form or fashion. There are two key points to keep an eye on:

The progress: People will be looking at TV ratings for Dynamite because that’s what they’ve been obsessed with since the late 90s. As important as those are, we also need to keep an eye on YouTube views for Dark, Being the Elite, clips from Dynamite and all their other programming. Attendance is also an important metric for AEW. Dynamite has been up & down, but the big events are still selling out in short amounts of time. Should that stop happening, we’ll know there’s really a reason to worry.

The patience: Will AEW management panic over things like falling ratings? So far, they’ve been content to play the long game with their story telling. They’re trying to build stars, and haven’t given up on people who haven’t started out well. (Dark Order) If the ratings keep falling, and other metrics take a turn for the worse, will they push the panic button? If they do, what will it look like?

I hope I’m wrong because I want everybody to be successful, but I get the feeling we’ll find out in 2020.”

What Happened: Well, forget about that attendance part. Ratings have been the story for AEW in 2020, and they’ve been fairly steady most of the year. Overall viewership between Dynamite & NXT has been closer than those prime demo numbers, where Dynamite regularly cleans NXT’s clock. NXT does better among older viewers, which is one nut AEW has yet to crack in spite of their involving various wrestling legends on their program on a regular basis. A contract extension with TNT gave AEW a boost heading into an uncertain time.

Personally, I haven’t noticed any sustained period where it looked like AEW was scrambling or in reaction mode to anything that WWE was doing. Not everything has been a hit. There have been some clunkers. It still seems like they have a direction they’re trying to go in more often than not.

Even with 2020 being 2020, AEW did ok for themselves.