What's next: Forecast

[shalliin]

As we all know, it's now official that both Shaumus and Cena are out for at least 4-6 months each.

My question is this: with arguably 2 of the top guys gone, who do you think will be pushed up or will step up to try and fill their spots.

Now, I know Punk and Bryan are the two that most will consider, but as far as I am concerned, they are already the top two of hte rest of the roster.
What I want to know is who are they going to be facing. Who among the rest of the roster is ready for this opening.

Is it Sandow and Ziggler? Maybe Rhodes will be pushed? Who is the next one to fill the missing roles, as either face or heels.

I can see ryback or henry getting a push since they are 2 of the guys who've been at are near the top tier for the last year or so. Henry a former champion*during his best run of his career), and Ryback was a 3rd of the three way feud between cena/punk and himself.

Orton has been positioned as a heel 'face' of the company thanks to the SS cash in and Raw's events. With Bryan as his face opponent, who will step up to counter Punk.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As we all know, it's now official that both Shaumus and Cena are out for at least 4-6 months each.

My question is this: with arguably 2 of the top guys gone, who do you think will be pushed up or will step up to try and fill their spots.

Now, I know Punk and Bryan are the two that most will consider, but as far as I am concerned, they are already the top two of hte rest of the roster.
What I want to know is who are they going to be facing. Who among the rest of the roster is ready for this opening.

Is it Sandow and Ziggler? Maybe Rhodes will be pushed? Who is the next one to fill the missing roles, as either face or heels.

I can see ryback or henry getting a push since they are 2 of the guys who've been at are near the top tier for the last year or so. Henry a former champion*during his best run of his career), and Ryback was a 3rd of the three way feud between cena/punk and himself.

Orton has been positioned as a heel 'face' of the company thanks to the SS cash in and Raw's events. With Bryan as his face opponent, who will step up to counter Punk.

In the grand scheme of things, nobody has gotten pushed to the sort of level that John Cena has. Not Sheamus, not Orton, not Jericho, not even Punk. But John Cena is completely out of the picture right now and will be for, at least, the rest of 2013. As a result, WWE needs to push someone to the top as the top babyface or babyfaces of the company and that person or persons need to be someone that's extremely over and hot. As of right now, frankly, nobody fits that better than Bryan and Punk.

The beginning of the Fall TV season is just around the corner, which means Monday Night Football will be returning. With the top star and overall face of the company out of commission, WWE is going to have to push someone to Cena's spot. They need a very strong, very over babyface that fans are firmly behind and invested in to cushion the impact the return of MNF is going to have on ratings. MNF handed Raw its collective ass last year in a major way and while I'm not saying that it's something WWE can avoid no matter who they push, Bryan & Punk are their best shots. Cena's been THE guy for so long and there's no doubt that some people are burned out on that. Daniel Bryan especially has got momentum on his side right now, he's very fresh, fans are heavily invested & interested in the idea of him pursuing Randy Orton to ultimately capture the WWE Championship.

As I said, there's no guarantee that Bryan or anyone will be able to keep Raw's ratings from tanking while Monday Night Football is on the air. John Cena didn't last year and maybe neither Bryan or Punk can. But somebody has to be in Cena's role and they're easily the two best choices right now.

 

[Cash Carson]

Nobody but Punk and Bryan can fill that void now. Ziggler could be if booked better. Rhodes has no shot in hell

 

[jg_awesome1]

Here are a few things I see happening over the next 4-6 months
1) This new version of The Corporation will be the prominently featured as the top guys(Orton , The Shield, HHH, and possibly Ryback because his current gimmick fits right in.)

2) Bryan, Ziggler, Big Show, and Henry will continue to try to take down the "machine".(also since HBK trained DB I could see him becoming involved in the story.)

3)RVD will become the WHC.

4)Kane will become a member of the Wyatt Family

5) Rhodes and Sandow will compete in a best of 7 series for the MITB case.

6)CM Punk will continue to pursue Paul Heyman running a program with Axel and maybe a new Paul Heyman guy, eventually leading into Punk v Brock II


These are some stories that I can see playing out while Cena is out.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Pushes happen when you get over, then you get pushed more, if all it took to get as over as John Cena and sell as much merch as John Cena was a strong push, WWE would be the richest company on the world. So please people, stop with this "with a better push/with Cena's push" garbage.

The forecast is fun. I see Punk turning heel. He's better at that and it'd really be sweet if he sold out in DB. Sheamus is kind of like ADR. Solid, but sort of in the upper card tier but not really a full time main eventer. Cena will be one of the most over faces and heels (depending on who he's in front of of course) when he comes back.

I'd kind of like to see the Royal Rumble come down to a returning Cena and Daniel Bryan with a double winner and a rematch at Elimination Chamber.

 

[thebarber]

While Cena is out, Daniel Bryan will be the number one face on Raw, feuding with Orton and the McMahons. This will drag on until the end of the year, where Cena I am sure will return around the Rumble and assist Bryan in his feud. Once Punk is moved on from his Lesnar/Heyman angle, he will probably be enlisted to assist to. Bryan will be the go-to go, and will finally get his big moment at Wrestlemania 30. I am convinced of this.

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

WWE Title Picture:

Not much of a prediction, but I think were in for a lengthy program between Orton and Bryan over the WWE Title. I could see at first Bryan getting overlooked for a title shot so maybe Orton takes on someone other than Bryan at Night of Champion's so Orton can get in a clean dominate win as a heel to begin the program. After that I think we will probably have Bryan go through obstacles to get his title shot. From there we will probably have a few DQ, screwjob finishes to keep the title on Orton. I wouldn't expect Bryan to regain the title until Survivor Series at the earliest and Rumble at the latest. For the most part the title scene would just revolve around these two until the Rumble. At that point I would expect Punk to win and set up a singles match against either guy, or even a triple threat.

World Heavyweight Title Picture:

At this point, I think Del Rio is a placeholder as champ meaning that he really doesn't have or will have a major story and will retain the title until WWE has something bigger in place for the title. I can see this going one of two ways:

a) Del Rio retains against RVD and could either continue his feud with RVD or move on to the next opponent. At some point he would move on to Rhodes who would beat him for the title only to have Sandow cash in on him and win the title. This would be the re-start of the Rhodes/Sandow story that if it gets over with the crowd could be the Title match at Mania.

b) RVD beats Del Rio for the title and retains it in the rematch. Then at some point Sandow finds the opening he needs and cashes in on RVD to win the title. Rhodes would be elevated to the title picture around the same time and if Rhodes/Sandow is over with the crowd they have there title match at Mania. If its lacking then they could add RVD to the match.

CM Punk

From now, until the night after the December ppv when were on the road to the Royal Rumble Punk should be invovled in a story with Heyman and Heyman's guys. First up is Axel. There story is already in progress and I expect it to continue over the next two ppv's. At Night of Champion's there would be a DQ finish which allows Axel and Heyman to walk away from the event unharmed. At the following ppv, Punk would defeat Axel in a non title match and then just as he is about to get his hands on Heyman, a new Heyman guy (not sure who) would come out and save Heyman by beating Punk down. This would be the start of Punk v Heyman's new guy. Punk would get some sort of victory over this guy at some point to get a match against Heyman. Heyman would have a plan to save himself that Punk would thwart which leads to Punk finally getting revenge for everything Heyman put him through. This would all wrap up by the December ppv thus allowing Punk to transition back to the main card en route to his first Rumble win.

 

[MCMG]

The McMahon/Bryan stroyline will take a large proportion of TV time. There will also be branching stroylines with the likes of The Shield, Ziggler, Show and whoever else they add. Each Raw will probably start and end with Orton/Vince and co. plus many segments dotted around.

Sheamus and Cena are big losses but as long as they are back by the start of 2014, I'm sure the WWE will be fine. I refuse to believe that John Cena will be out for 6 months. I would not be shocked to see him back before the year is out. Punk and Bryan are obviously going to remain at the top and we know they will deliver with their popularity, ring-work and with promos.

As for individuals that could step up in that time I think it is paramount that Ziggler and Rhodes become fully part of the main-event scene. These two guys in particular are extremely talented and should be given staring roles. Looking long term these guys are very important and if Sheamus and Cena aren't involved then thse two need to get pushes. A worry is that the Big Show and Mark Henry become too involved and the WWE lose sight of a great opportunity to push some different guys. I'm sick of the Big Show and I don't want to see him involved in the McMahon feud.

 

[shalliin]

Some of you missed the point of my question. As I stated, I know and I think most of us agree that with Cena and Shamus gone, the top 3 right now are Punk, Bryan and Orton. What I was wondering was who would be brought to a level to face off against them, as it's unlikely to be a three way feud for the entire time cena and shamus are out.

And with Kane out to shoot See No Evil 2, that's another spot opening up for someone to reach out and grab a spotlight.

So again, who will that person be? Who is ready for the next stage of their career? Not Lesnar, no HHH, no one like that, but someone who hasn't been near the top but is ready or potentially ready for that level.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Some of you missed the point of my question. As I stated, I know and I think most of us agree that with Cena and Shamus gone, the top 3 right now are Punk, Bryan and Orton. What I was wondering was who would be brought to a level to face off against them, as it's unlikely to be a three way feud for the entire time cena and shamus are out.

I think you're overestimating Sheamus' overall importance in the grand scheme of things. While he's definitely a popular traditional babyface, he's not really someone whose absence is going to leave a massive void. Whether it's Raw or SmackDown!, WWE seems intent on firmly establishing Daniel Bryan as the new top babyface when you look at how prominently he's been featured. The WWE brass didn't decide to just push someone all willy nilly at the last second as some sort of test. Bryan is someone that has consistently gotten over and whose popularity has done nothing but grow since late 2011. Aside from CM Punk, nobody else on the roster can touch Bryan when it comes to overall popularity.

When it comes to the WHC picture, which Sheamus was prominently featured throughout most of 2012, it's not nearly as important as the WWWE Championship scene in the eyes of the WWE brass or fans. For a little while after Money in the Bank, it looked as though Cody Rhodes might be heading in that direction. I suppose that he still could be in the near future, but the fact that WWE's been jobbing him out to Curtis Axel lately isn't a good sign.

Kofi Kingston is someone that a good number of people have wanted to see elevated for a long time. He's been a consistently over mid-card babyface for years now and he's highly entertaining to watch inside the ring. I've said a lot of times that I believe there's untapped potential there, but WWE seems determined to keep him where he is in the grand scheme of things.

There's also Dolph Ziggler, but it looks like he's busy with The Shield and will probably be going after the US title. If I had to guess, WWE is going to put Ziggler back in the WHC scene sometime next year in the hopes of giving him a fresh start.

However, as far as the WWE Championship scene goes, it's either Punk or Bryan. There's no other babyface on the roster right now, who hasn't been there before, that's ready to be a top tier challenger for Orton at this point. As I said earlier, Punk & Bryan are clearly the two most over babyfaces on the roster right now, so featuring them front & center is WWE's best hope of cushioning ratings. Tomorrow night's Raw might pull a bad number due to it being Labor Day weekend since last year's Labor Day Raw pulled a lousy number. The next Monday, Sept. 9th, will be the return of Monday Night Football. So I don't see WWE pushing someone completely, 100% fresh, someone that's NEVER been there challenging and/or winning the WWE Championship before, into that spot. They're looking to put talent there who can draw strong numbers and, over the past couple of weeks, Bryan & Punk's segments have been the top drawing parts of Raw. That's what WWE wants and needs heading into the next several months: established talent who are really fresh in the hopes of generating a level of interest that simply wasn't there at this time last year.