The Magnificent Seven: 7 Things to Look Forward to in WWE in 2017

It’s easy for the IWC to be negative, and particularly as a columnist, I’m inclined to be critical. Just the same, as a lifelong wrestling fan, there’s plenty about the wrestling world that obviously makes me happy—hence my continued viewership across the decades. While we’re still early in the new year, this week I thought I’d look ahead at seven positives that look to be on their way to WWE in 2017.

The format of this column calls for a ranked order, and so I’ve more or less put these items in order of how I excited I feel about them, but like any column that predicts the future, there are both elements of guesswork (I don’t know that any of these outcomes are actually on their way or what the execution will look like) and the limitations of simply not knowing what else the year has in store—WWE’s booking plans, or who will get injured when, or who might organically rise up the card. As always, this list is based on my opinions, and I welcome you to chime in in the comments with yours.

#7. A WrestleMania After WrestleMania 32

WrestleMania 32 was a strange, awkward event. I know that the show had its supporters, and that the show delivered good numbers for WWE, but as I watched the show live from my apartment in Oregon, I kept checking the clock. Was WWE really going to go for five hours just because, by virtue of airing on its own network, they could?

There’s a time in my life when I would have said the more wrestling better, and might have relished the idea of a five-hour ‘Mania (not to mention a two-hour pre-show), but it turns out a show of that length is long enough to exhaust even the most devout fan, and the effect was made all the worse for a combination of deflating booking (Sasha Banks, New Day, and Styles all putting over not only heels, but acts the larger audience was less interested in), and booking that was predictable in the worst way (Reigns triumphing in the main event after a half hour slog). Add onto that Ambrose-Lesnar and ‘Taker-Shane not really delivering, and you have a show that was a chore to watch with little reprieve, and one of the very few ‘Manias that I haven’t felt any compulsion to rewatch in the year to follow. Add onto all of that a two-hour live pre-show which included the embarrassing spectacle of Kalisto and Ryback wrestling in front of maybe hundreds of fans.

Here’s the thing: on paper WrestleMania 32 didn’t have a bad card, and I think if it were to be trimmed to its best three-and-a-half hours it would become a much more watchable show—not an all-time great ‘Mania by any means, but no longer in the discussion for worst of all time. Looking ahead to WrestleMania 33, the card that’s already shaping up has promise. While the path to Seth Rollins vs. Triple H has been long and somewhat predictable, the match ought to be great. Shaq vs. Big Show should be a fun spectacle. The world title scene is open, but with the possibility of AJ Styles and/or Kevin Owens figuring into it, we certainly could have at least one great match out of that mix. We can’t take The Undertaker’s WrestleMania matches for granted any more—assuming he is on the card this year, this could be our last time seeing him wrestle at ‘Mania. There are plenty of permutations of women’s matches—particularly form the Raw brand—that could deliver huge. With lots of potential both in terms of star power and in-ring work, if WWE can work toward more effective time management and reasonable length, ‘Mania should be on the upswing.

#6. The Goldberg-Lesnar Blow Off

Speaking of WrestleMania, all signs point toward the completion of the Goldberg-Lesnar issue at ‘Mania, possibly as a stand-alone dream match, possibly with a world title at stake.

Goldberg-Lesnar has benefited from a very good build twice over—the WrestleMania 20 program set the two hosses on a logical collision course and escalated nicely; WWE played off the men’s respective legacies to generate genuine excitement for Goldberg’s comeback at Survivor Series 2016.

Both Goldberg-Lesnar matches hit the strange un-sweet spot of being super memorable, and never breaking one-star territory. The first time was a trainwreck of both guys leaving the company, the NYC crowd dumping on them, and the guys awkwardly staring at each other for most of the match. The second time was an out-of-left-field squash that the jury’s still out on.

Regardless of which direction WWE takes, you have to assume WrestleMania 33 will blow off the issue between these two once and for all. The novelty of the quick squash at Survivor Series was fine as a curiosity, but fans won’t be kind to a repeat performance. Thus, with a lengthier match, the guys will either deliver (and I do hope for the best—a hard-hitting ten-minute power battle with all the key spots) or flop again. In either case, given how high profile the rivalry has been and the age of Goldberg, in particular, this is going to be the end, I’m hopeful of a resolution that satisfies and leaves us with no lingering questions about one of wrestling’s strangest rivalries.

#5. More Indy Talents

Those of us who hung with WWE straight through the Attitude Era and into the period when the company seemed one-hundred-percent devoted to creating Randy Orton clones recognize how special it is to have had a surge of indy talent showing up in WWE. It started with CM Punk and Daniel Bryan knocking down the door and earning main event spots, but for every success story like theirs, there were several more abject failures to successfully use indy talents: the cautionary tales of Low-Ki, Colt Cabana, and Chris Hero, not to mention top indy players like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels who hadn’t gotten their shot.

WWE has switched trajectories. With the overwhelming success of NXT, and with indy graduates thriving toward the top of the card, WWE has gone on a spree of actively signing top indy names and international stars to fill in its three televised rosters (not to mention the cast of 205 Live). 2016 saw Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, and Finn Balor win world championships. It saw Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Asuka reign over NXT. Add onto that Bobby Roode immediately getting top guy treatment in NXT and Austin Aries as a solid upper mid-carder in developmental who is seemingly en route to preside over the Cruiserweight division when he returns to the ring.

What will 2017 hold? We know Chris Hero has been signed again. Guys like Joe, Nakamura, Roode, The Revival, #DIY, and Hideo Itami could each conceivably make a splash on the main roster at a moment’s notice. And then there’s the whole indy market out there. WWE probably won’t come to terms with (or maybe even be interested in) some of the top prospects in 2017—the Ricochets and Zack Sabre Jr.s of the world—but could a guy like Christopher Daniels who we’d all written off as a WWE hopeful years ago still surface in NXT? I’m not predicting it, but I’m also not ruling it out, and there are dozens of other indy talents ranging from veterans to budding stars who may be welcomed into a WWE roster that is more open than it has been in a very long time.

#4. A Diversified Raw Women’s Championship Scene

This is a tough one to articulate. I’m a mark for Sasha Banks, and Charlotte has slowly re-won me over to the idea that she’s a star talent deserving of her spot as pre-eminent face of WWE women’s wrestling. Moreover, I’m a fan of most of their matches in 2016. While I think it’s dubious to classify any of their matches as a legit top ten match in the WWE-NXT universe last year, you could easily make the case they had four matches that should crack the top-twenty-five—a mark for consistency of quality that no other rivalry could really contend with last year (maybe Sami Zayn-Kevin Owens, but that feels like a stretch).

Just the same, with a storyline that rarely pushed past we’re two very good wrestlers who are going to wrestle each other for the title, and after spending over four months without anyone else getting a meaningful shot in the title picture (and that’s not counting them feuding from the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania, with Becky Lynch in the mix), it will be refreshing to see Bayley really get into the title picture now, with Nia Jax waiting in the wings, not to mention the intriguing outside shot of Paige coming back to do something meaningful, or Stephanie McMahon entering the fray for a one-off along the lines of her better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be program with Brie Bella.

We are in the thick of a golden age for women’s wrestling, and with a broader spotlight and more opportunities for more of the very good female talents to shine, there’s reason to believe Raw women’s wrestling will get even better in 2017. (Smackdown has potential to continue growing in this arena, too, but has interestingly had both a more level playing field and less great women’s wrestling, so it’s a different story over there).

#3. An Open and Interesting Royal Rumble

I’m a mark for the Royal Rumble, but have been sorely disappointed with WWE’s efforts the last three years (and the 2013 edition wasn’t that much better). Part of the problem is execution, with a mix of not meaningfully advancing sub-angles to keep the overarching story of the match interesting, and eliminations that are both anticlimactic and deflating (see Daniel Bryan in 2015 or AJ Styles in 2016). Additionally, there’s the inevitability problem. Like it or not, once Batista returned for 2014’s Rumble, the writing was on the wall that he’d win—an outcome made all the more predictable when the number thirty entrant passed and Daniel Bryan was nowhere to be found; Roman Reigns got the most traditional Rumble push possible in 2015; Triple H was the least surprising surprise entrant to ever win the Rumble in 2016.

But in 2017? The field is wide open. A lot of attention has gone to Goldberg and Brock Lesnar and I wouldn’t be surprised with either man winning. The totally reasonable dark horse field is deep, though, with The Undertaker lurking, Finn Balor quietly approaching readiness for return, the potential for WWE to go all in on the Braun Strowman experiment, Chris Jericho (Jeri-KO explodes at WrestleMania!), Seth Rollins or Triple H (a long walk to get these two back to each other in a ‘Mania title match, but it wouldn’t be totally out of left field). And while they’re far less likely to get the big push, there remain guys who it’d be fun to tease winning like Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, and Dean Ambrose. I’m in no way predicting it, but we also can’t entirely rule out a real outside-the-box surprise win by a part-timer like The Rock, or a debuting NXT talent like Shinsuke Nakamura or Samoa Joe.

Particularly with the brand split back in effect, there are twice as many stories WWE could tell coming out of the Rumble. Pair that with no clear incumbent winner (not to mention the entirely legit possibility that both world titles could change hands between now and WrestleMania) and this Rumble has more intrigue than any in at least the last five years, besides the unspoken pressure for the match to deliver in front of a monster crowd at the Alamodome and after recent flops.

#2. The Return of Finn Balor

Finn Balor got the push of a lifetime last summer, emerging from NXT to pick up clean wins in an upper card Fatal Fourway, over Roman Reigns on Raw, and over Seth Rollins to become the first Universal Champion at SummerSlam. Injury struck at about the worst time possible as he got hurt during the title winning bout and has been out ever since.

In 2017, he’s due back.

Balor resides in the unusual nexus of a killer worker hardcore fans love, and a guy whom, for whatever combination of reasons, the WWE brass was willing to push to the moon. We’ll have to see if Balor picks up where he left off or if the powers that be are trigger shy after the injury. Either way, he’ll be a welcome addition to the Raw upper mid-card to spice up the increasingly stale Roman Reigns-Seth Rollins-Kevin Owens-Chris Jericho rotation, either in the build to WrestleMania, or in the aftermath when the part-time guys leave a void. I, for one, can’t wait to see the demon crawl down the ramp again.

#1. AJ Styles as the (Baby)face Who Runs the Place

Let me be clear—AJ Styles’s heel work in 2016 was transcendent and I don’t think he would have gotten over to nearly the level he has if he had remained a face. If he gets the chance to work his style and still show his personality, though, I think the guy actually has more upside as a face. He’s already super organically over for his phenomenal ring work. His size and aerial skills make working face a natural fit, too.

WWE’s is having a quiet top-face crisi, masked by the era of part-time legends returning at convenient times. But if you forget about Goldberg, The Undertaker, The Rock, Sting, and John Cena (it’s premature to call him a part-timer, admittedly, but WWE has acknowledged that’s what he’s becoming), and who’s left? Despite WWE’s persistence, and even his growth as a performer, Roman Reigns just doesn’t look like he’ll make it as the guy, at least for a while. After that, Seth Rollins and Finn Balaor each have the potential to reign over Raw, but on the Smackdown side, Dean Ambrose was a tepid face of the brand, and Dolph Ziggler is too entrenched in the mid-card for us to really buy him as the top face for an extended run at this point. Styles as a top face holds all sorts of potential, particularly looking ahead to programs opposite Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, Baron Corbin in time, or even the resurgent Miz (to say nothing of whoever might get traded or drafted in the year ahead).

While Styles is both too far along in his career and not enough in WWE’s traditional mold to be a likely choice for long-term top face, I’d love to see him get the chance on Smackdown in 2017 and, if he is still capable, I’d love to see him bust out the Spiral Tap at least once in a WWE—the kind of maneuver that fans can’t help but cheer.

What would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.