Cook’s Top 5: WWE Stories of 2021

It’s become a tradition unlike any other here at The Chairshot. Around the beginning of every year, I put on my prognosticator hat and guess what the biggest stories in pro wrestling will be. Today, I’ll tell you what the top five stories will be in WWE. Soon, I’ll tell you the top five stories outside of WWE. You’ll love it, I promise!

5. Will The Man Come Around?

There were a lot of things missing from WWE in 2020. One that probably doesn’t get enough talk is Becky Lynch, who left in May on maternity leave. Lynch had become one of the top stars in WWE and was a focal point of the women’s division. Things didn’t fall off much there, as Bayley & Sasha Banks took advantage of Lynch & Charlotte Flair’s time off to shine as the division’s brightest stars. WWE could definitely use Becky, though. There’s been rumors that she’ll return early in the year, and there’s been rumors that Ronda Rousey will return early in the year.

Just rumors for now. Could be something big.

4. Contracts!

Around this time last year, it was looking like the best time to make a living as a pro wrestler since the early 2000s. WWE was offering big contracts to mid-carders to keep them around. AEW was looking to fill their roster. New Japan was looking for more talent to appeal to an American audience. Once the coronavirus hit, that all changed. WWE started releasing talent that had signed big contracts to stick around. AEW’s spots for ex-WWE talent started filling up, and they were more interested in finding younger talent to fill lower positions on the card. New Japan’s expansion slowed down a bit. Ring of Honor wasn’t taking in new people until just recently. Impact Wrestling had some space for a few folks.

There’s been rumor & innuendo recently about WWE making lower contract offers & talent holding off on signing. What happens when it gets closer to the time where contracts expire? Will things get better, or worse? Will talent stick around? I think they will, for the most part, but it’ll be interesting to see if there’s more turnover on the roster than usual.

3. Will The Rock Come Back?

We’ve been talking about a potential match between Rock & Roman Reigns for a few years now. Story wise, 2021 would be a great time for it to happen. Roman claiming to be the Head of the Table and the leader of the Anoa’i family seems like the perfect reason for Rock to come back and claim that he’s the true leader & Roman needs to check himself. There’s little doubt that Rock’s return would generate more mainstream buzz than anything else WWE could probably come up with.

Is it likely? Depends who you ask on which day of the week. It’s something Rock wants to do, but we know he has quite the packed schedule. Also, that’s the kind of thing you really need live fans for.

2. Can NXT Overtake AEW?

Some might be wondering if NXT stays on Wednesdays. I don’t, NXT does a perfectly fine number for USA and does its job of taking a dent out of AEW’s viewership. The question is if NXT can generate enough buzz to get more people watching and start challenging AEW in the key demos on a regular basis.

The talent’s there. Guys like Finn Balor, Kyle O’Reilly, Pete Dunne have been delivering big time in the ring. We know the women’s division is stacked. Can they present the talent in a way that the younger audience will find more interesting than AEW? There’s a certain coolness factor that NXT used to have that seems to be lacking right now. They need to get that back.

1. Will WWE Go Back On Tour?

We’d like to think so. Hopefully, we’ll reach a point where enough people have been vaccinated & the coronavirus has died off enough that we can go back to having regular shows & TV tapings in places other than Florida. That isn’t a 100% certainty as I write this. One also wonders if WWE might consider keeping their TV show in-house in the future. The Thunderdome gets good reviews from critics, and the reaction of the crowd can be manipulated to what Vince McMahon wants.

Will there be the same number of house shows? What will the touring schedule look like? Same as before, or smaller? Hopefully WWE will get the chance to answer these questions in 2021.