Who are the current champions in WWE?
Who do I think will beat them for the title?
WWE CHAMPIONSHIP
Current WWE Champion: Big E
Prediction for Next Champion: Goldberg
Explanation: I have beyond zero idea and I doubt WWE has anything in mind after all these releases, too. Fuck it. I'll guess Goldberg for now. But you know what wouldn't surprise me at all? If Brock Lesnar somehow won this title and they did both championships on the line against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania and completely disregarded the Royal Rumble, since everything's pure chaos in WWE these days.
WWE UNIVERSAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Current Universal Champion: Roman Reigns
Prediction for Next Champion: The Rock
Explanation: I'm confident WWE has absolutely no plan right now for who the next in line may be. The idea is just "Reigns will retain until we think of something or we need to put the belt on someone else for some reason." However, if there are two people who could be considered a bigger priority to win the title instead of Reigns holding it until someone like Gable Steveson gets his footing, it would be either Brock Lesnar or The Rock. Considering how the bigger story overall is Rock vs Roman, maybe there's a chance they give The Rock the title at the end of all this and he has a short reign (and maybe even loses it back to Roman and they start the whole cycle up again).
RAW WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Current Raw Women's Champion: Becky Lynch
Prediction for Next Champion: Rhea Ripley
Explanation: Bianca Belair winning it back doesn't make much sense, so the next biggest name on the brand is Ripley. Sure, they could go with Doudrop or someone else, but I'll bank more on The Nightmare since she's already been to the mountain top.
SMACKDOWN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Current SmackDown Women's Champion: Charlotte Flair
Prediction for Next Champion: Raquel Gonzalez
Explanation: WrestleMania?
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Current Intercontinental Champion: Shinsuke Nakamura
Prediction for Next Champion: Ridge Holland
Explanation: Total shot in the dark. Happy Corbin could win it, too.
WWE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP
Current United States Champion: Damian Priest
Prediction for Next Champion: Finn Balor
Explanation: I had thought Austin Theory would win it when Damian Priest was still a babyface. Now that he's a heel, I expect Finn Balor to be the main threat and the person who could take the title off him around WrestleMania, maybe.
RAW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Current Raw Tag Team Champions: RK-Bro
Prediction for Next Champions: The Hurt Business
Explanation: Apollo Crews and Commander Azeez would stand a chance. I also entertained the idea of The Street Profits, but it would make more sense for them to be the ones who beat the team who beats RK-Bro. With the way the Raw roster looks right now, I'm more inclined to believe WWE pairs up two other singles stars, rather than that they'll go with The Hurt Business winning the belts, but since there's no way of knowing which two random people could team up, Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin become the default option.
SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Current SmackDown Tag Team Champions: The Usos
Prediction for Next Champions: The New Day
Explanation: The New Day and The Usos always feud with each other and they're the top of the division by far. While there's a chance The Viking Raiders randomly get another push or that they go with Hit Row, I don't want to lean more into the newer team getting that big upgrade over The New Day being reliable.
WWE WOMEN'S TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Current Women's Tag Team Champions: Carmella and Queen Zelina Vega
Prediction for Next Champions: Two randomly paired people
Explanation: Knowing WWE, they'll put two people together like they did with most of the previous pairs. They'll wait until something manifests out of thin air and just go with the flow. There's no way there are actual plans in mind of building to something.
WWE 24/7 CHAMPIONSHIP
Current 24/7 Champion: Dana Brooke
Prediction for Next Champion: R-Truth
Explanation: By its sheer nature, WWE will literally do completely random things with this title at completely random moments and none of it will mean absolutely anything. That means there's ZERO point in trying to predict who the next champion will be. The general rule of thumb, though, is that if it's not currently on R-Truth, he'll probably be the next champion or the one after that. If not R-Truth, it's usually either Akira Tozawa or Drew Gulak.
NXT CHAMPIONSHIP
Current NXT Champion: Tommaso Ciampa
Prediction for Next Champions: Bron Breakker
Explanation: I'll admit, I'm thrown for a loop. I didn't think Samoa Joe would be back in the ring beating Karrion Kross. Then, I didn't think Joe would have to vacate the title. Then, I thought Kyle O'Reilly would win the Fatal 4-Way and he was taken out. Then, I thought that meant Pete Dunne was the easy pick to win the title, but Ciampa won it. Then, I figured "Okay, well, Bron Breakker is winning it at Halloween Havoc." Nope. At this point, this is a total crap shoot. It could circle back around to any of these people where Joe could turn heel and win it or something along those lines. Let's just stick with Breakker.
NXT WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Current NXT Women's Champion: Mandy Rose
Prediction for Next Champion: Sarray
Explanation: I could see them giving this to Zoey Stark, but I'll go with Sarray for now instead to go along with the trend that the Japanese women always win the title. Asuka, Kairi Sane, Io Shirai and Meiko Satomura, for examples.
NXT NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Current North American Champion: Carmelo Hayes
Prediction for Next Champion: Odyssey Jones
Explanation: Very cool how they did the cash-in for the NXT Breakout Tournament setup. As a follow-up champion to Hayes, my first initial gut reaction is to go with Odyssey Jones. Maybe that's a bit too obvious, though, and they'll go with someone else who is built up more over time, like Xyon Quinn or maybe even Solo Sikoa. For now, I'll stick with Jones.
NXT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Current NXT Tag Team Champions: Imperium
Prediction for Next Champions: The Creed Brothers
Explanation: Despite how it would be transitioning from one heel team to another, I think there isn't a strong enough babyface tag team worth buffering these two. Maybe Kyle O'Reilly and Von Wagner win it temporarily to give it to The Creed Brothers, or #DIY reunites for that role, or even Johnny Gargano and Dexter Lumis pull that off. However, I think the bigger scope is that WWE will put the belts on The Creed Brothers down the line, rather than thinking about who Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner will drop the belts to.
NXT WOMEN'S TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Current NXT Tag Team Champions: Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne)
Prediction for Next Champions: A team that doesn't exist yet
Explanation: I doubt WWE has any ideas of pushing any of the teams that are currently in NXT, like Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter. Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta could win it, but that's the most obvious outcome and therefore, the least likely worth predicting.
NXT CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Current Cruiserweight Champion: Roderick Strong
Prediction for Next Champion: Someone not on the current roster
Explanation: Strong should stay champion for a considerable reign. It doesn't need to be a year or anything, but the longer he holds it, the better, I think. As it stands, I don't know if there's an obvious contender to be next in line. Maybe it's just someone they haven't fully debuted or signed yet.
NXT UNITED KINGDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
Current United Kingdom Champion: Ilja Dragunov
Prediction for Next Champion: Teoman
Explanation: This is by no means a strong gut reaction. It's just a guess with little to no value to it.
NXT UNITED KINGDOM WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Current United Kingdom Women's Champion: Meiko Satomura
Prediction for Next Champion: Emilia McKenzie
Explanation: Aoife Valkyrie is a strong possible chance, especially if she turns heel. However, they're doing a lot to build up McKenzie having a relationship with Satomura. Maybe they go the route of the student overcoming the teacher.
NXT UNITED KINGDOM TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Current United Kingdom Tag Team Champions: Pretty Deadly
Prediction for Next Champions: Moustache Mountain
Explanation: It would be weird if they never held the titles, right? I feel like Tyler Bate dropped the NXT UK Heritage Cup in particular to open these two up to win the tag titles. It seems they want to give Bate all the accolades and they can't do that without the tag belts being in the mix, and it would be very strange if he were to win it alongside someone other than Trent Seven.
NXT UNITED KINGDOM HERITAGE CUP
Current United Kingdom Heritage Cup Champion: Noam Dar
Prediction for Next Champions: Joe Coffey
Explanation: I had Noam Dar down as my next champion for SO long, and then switched it to Jordan Devlin only for Noam Dar to win it. Ha. So now, I'm going with my gut for as long as I can and I'm saying Joe Coffey wins this next. If it ends up being Rampage Brown, my second pick, grrr.
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