ONE37pm's Future WWE Champions Predictions

Vince McMahon and all the suits in WWE are setting up Gable Steveson for greatness. Once we learned that he was drafted to Raw without having to step foot in WWE’s developmental system, that aforementioned statement became clear. Gable is a legit athlete whose credentials are as follows - he’s a Dan Hodge Trophy winner, the reigning NCAA Division I National Champion, a two-time Big Ten Conference champion (three-time finalist), and a two-time All-American out of the University of Minnesota. We can envision a future where Gable realizes his full potential and morphs into this generation’s Kurt Angle. With the WWE machine behind him and his already impressive skill set in mind, we just know Gable has a WWE Championship reign in his future. Brock Lesnar vs. Gable for the strap at WrestleMania 39 in 2023 sounds like the perfect coronation moment to us!

Roman Reigns has been unstoppable as the reigning, defending WWE Universal Champion. The “Tribal Chief” evokes memories of champions from the 80s and 90s that held championships for months on end. Thanks to the 2021 WWE Draft, we now have a long list of fresh challengers for Roman to clash with. One of the most intriguing draft picks that we think we’ll be built up enough to knock Roman off the mountain is NXT 2.0’s former UK brawler, Ridge Holland. Ridge is a powerhouse with the body build and intimidating stature Vince loves so much. Even though he’ll most likely begin his time on SmackDown as a heel, we think he’ll eventually transition into a babyface role and morph into a huge star for the brand in 2022. And at some point, Ridge will get enough steam behind him to relinquish Roman of his most prized possession.

Keith “Bearcat” Lee is getting built back up into the domineering behemoth we missed during his health scare-related absence. As one of the best big men on Raw, everyone has been keeping their eyes on him as a top prospect that has numerous championship wins in his bright future. At some point, he’ll get his hands on either the WWE or Universal Championship. But we think it’s going to be a while before he gets his massive hands around one of those top prizes.

This is why our gut is telling us his first title win on the main show will be the United States Championship. Damian Priest is getting the push of a lifetime as the current US Champion, which is amazing to witness since we adored him so much during his NXT run. Once WWE finally revisits the incredible series of matches Keith and Damian competed in by replicating them on Raw, greatness will ensure all over again. And Keith will emerge victorious from that feud as the all-powerful US Champion.

One of the most shocking draft picks resulted in NXT 2.0’s Hit Row making their way over to SmackDown in full. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott is the leader of this stable and runs with the trio of Ashante "Thee" Adonis, Top Dolla, and B-Fab. Isaiah now competes on a show that’s jam-packed with some quality midcard talent, such as Ricochet, Cesaro, Sheamus, etc. Shinsuke Nakamura currently has the Intercontinental Championship within his grasp and has been enjoying a solid reign with Rick Boogs by his side. Isaiah is a top prospect now that’s on the main roster, plus he has a bigger group of allies by his side. With all those great attributes in his favor, we can totally envision him being the one to defeat Shinsuke and inject some exciting new blood into the midcard scene as the new IC Champion.

Okay, so first thing’s first - “Doudrop” is a terrible gimmick name and we refuse to call Piper Niven that. Secondly, we’re ecstatic now that she’s no longer tied to Eva Marie and is making waves as a solo competitor. During her lengthy tenure on the NXT UK roster, Piper competed against the very best and solidified herself as one of the best women’s wrestlers on the scene today. The Raw women’s roster is pretty strong right now thanks to the fresh presence of Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Mia Yim, and Tegan Nox. The competition sure is strong for the WWE Raw Women’s Championship, that’s for sure. At some point, Piper will get a run with the title and emerge as one of the most likable babyfaces on the main roster. The thought of Piper putting on classic matches with all the ladies we mentioned earlier fills us with glee!

Things weren’t looking too good for Shayna Baszler during her tag team tenure alongside Nia Jax. She found herself competing in the sorts of matches that were usually below average, plus she got caught up in a corny feud with Alexa Bliss. But someone in the back rewatched Shayna’s NXT reign of terror and realized “hey, let’s go back to that!” Now she’s back to destroying limbs and not looking remorseful about any of it. She’s been switched from the Raw brand to SmackDown, which means she has a whole new lineup of ladies to torture. Sooner or later, she’s going to get her hands on the SmackDown Women’s Championship and give us a replay of her dominant run in NXT. Here’s hoping she wins the first-ever Queen’s Crown tournament!

Before the draft took place, we got a teaser of The Usos’ next championship feud. Chad Gable and Otis, otherwise known as the Alpha Academy, stepped to them backstage and made their intentions clear. Sadly, we won’t be getting to see that clash unfold now that Chad and Otis have been moved over to Monday Nights. Currently, the Raw tag division is ruled by RK-Bro. The rest of the pack includes AJ Styles & Omos, Rey & Dominik Mysterio, The Street Profits, The Dirty Dawgs, and Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander. Out of all those duos, Alpha Academy has the most potential and the perfect team to overcome the power of friendship between Randy Orton & Riddle. They’re the perfect combination of speed and power. And they’re overdue for their first tag team title reign.

Man, WWE sure knows how to kill a good thing while it's going strong! In a move that left us completely befuddled, they broke up the enjoyable tandem of Mustafa Ali and Mansoor before they even got a chance to sniff the tag team scene on Friday Nights. Now we're down one tag team on SmackDown post-draft, which is really disheartening. The Usos are fine mainstay tag team champs over on the Blue Brand, but it's looking like they'll have to contend with a powerhouse duo that we feel could topple them.

And that duo is none other than Erik and Ivar, who's otherwise known as The Viking Raiders. They're the only team that poses a serious threat to Jimmy and Jey Uso. Before 2021 comes to a close, we fully expect The Viking Raiders to knock off The Usos and enjoy a solid title run into the new year. With a new lease on life, Erik and Ivar have a shot at making big things happen on their new home brand.

The Queen’s Crown tourney kicked off on a very...lackluster note, to say the least. Two of the women everyone expected to go far got beat in a combined amount of time that’s not even enough for your average Kickoff Show match. Liv Morgan and Toni Storm deserve so much better than what they’ve been given lately. And an easy fix for their horrid treatment by WWE is by letting them run with the Women’s Tag Team Champions. The women’s tag team division got decimated by the draft - SmackDown’s main women’s duo of Shotzi Blackheart and Tegan Nox is no more. This just leaves the random pairing of Morgan and Storm to get their hands on the belts at some point. Anything’s better than Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. if you ask us!

We’re going to match the random energy the 24/7 Championship division has had from the jump and pick a future holder of the belt out of thin air. *looks at the entirety of the Raw roster* VEER! Yeah, him. Alright, let’s move on...

If you’ve been keeping up with the NXT 2.0 relaunch since its debut, then you already know who’s been getting primed for the developmental brand’s top spot. And that’s none other than Rick Steiner’s son (who sounds just like his uncle Scott Steiner when he cuts a promo, funny enough!), Bron Breakker. For someone that’s never done a whole lot of wrestling on the indie scene before he got signed to WWE, Bron always looks great whenever he’s in the ring. Ever since viewers have been introduced to the blue-chipper, he’s been presented as NXT Champion Tomasso Ciampa’s next challenger and the one who’s eventually going to topple him. If Bron doesn’t capture the NXT Championship at Halloween Havoc, then consider us shocked. Even if he doesn’t win it then, we see him capturing the belt before 2021 comes to a close. 

One of the best midcard title scenes within the modern-day WWE landscape is attached to the NXT North American Championship. From the inaugural titleholder Adam Cole right up until its current wielder Carmelo Hayes, NXT diehards have been treated to a wealth of legit superstars competing for and winning it during hotly contested matches. NXT 2.0’s mixture of past indie greats and developmental newbies has produced a roster full of superstars that could make a good run for the North American strap.

We get the feeling that Kyle O'Reilly will be the one to step up to Hayes in the near future and make a winning attempt at claiming his first singles gold in the company. Kyle just strikes us as the sort of talent that can further improve the midcard division through his matches with a host of title contenders. Think John Cena’s United States Championship Open Challenge - Kyle has the tools needed to win the North American title and hold it for a lot longer than many expect as a workhorse champion.

Let’s be quite honest here, folks - the glory days of the Cruiserweight Classic are far behind us. And the greatness of former champs such as Neville, Buddy Murphy, and Cedric Alexander may not come back as strong with future titleholders. But at least we can be comfortable knowing that many of NXT 2.0’s stars have it in them to continue the longstanding legacy of the NXT Cruiserweight Championship.

Do you know who we can’t wait to see capture that belt? The criminally slept on Trey Baxter. He looked great during his NXT Breakout Tournament showing and has done some great work on NXT & 205 Live ever since. We envision him winning the title in a shocker of a match that no one will expect him to win. And once he finally runs wild with the Cruiserweight Championship, he’s going to raise his stock even further and open a lot of eyes to his maximized potential.

Kay Lee Ray turned heads during her extended NXT UK run. The “Scary Queen of Scots” turned doubters into believers thanks to her eventful NXT UK Women’s Championship run. Her title defenses with Jinny, Piper Niven, and Toni Storm painted her as one of the NXT UK’s brands most impressive competitors. NXT 2.0 is Kay’s new home for the time being, which means we’re going to see her work the same magic she did with the women’s title in NXT UK in its American counterpart. Mandy Rose is clearly being built up to take a stab at beating current NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez. But we think she’ll fail in her attempt, which will make way for Kay to rise up the ranks and eventually topple the powerhouse titleholder. 

NXT 2.0’s barroom brawling duo of Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen gives off serious Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch mixed with APA vibes. And from what we’ve seen of their work thus far, we’ve been nothing short of thrilled. We’ve already prepared ourselves for much of the new blood stepping over the old blood of the NXT tag team division for future title reigns. The odds of Grizzled Young Veterans and Imperium winning the NXT Tag Team Championship are extremely low, in our eyes. Right now, the brand new faces of the division will reign supreme for the foreseeable future. The first fresh duo for the NXT 2.0 era that will capture the NXT Tag Team titles first has to be Josh and Brooks.

Io Shirai and Zoey Stark have been halfway decent NXT Women’s Tag Team titleholders since capturing them from The Way. Since the NXT 2.0 relaunch, we've been treated to one title defense from the strange bedfellows. And it was a successful one against the up-and-coming duo of Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne). Since they’ve knocked off the map for a bit, we think they won’t be getting their hands on the women’s tag team straps anytime soon. This is why we think the ongoing partnership between Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro is going to be adorned with tag team gold out of nowhere. And we think it’ll most likely come from a miscommunication from Io and Zoey that’ll lead to a shocker of a win from Kayden and Kacy.

Walter’s reign of complete dominance as the NXT UK Champion came to a definitive close at the hands of Ilja Dragunov at NXT TakeOver 36. And based on the epic length of Walter’s run, we just know Ilja’s run with the strap will go on for an equally long time. When we take a look at the landscape of NXT UK, some of the top contenders for the top prize in our eyes are Dave Mastiff, Joe Coffey, and Rampage Brown.

We’re going to go out on a limb here and go with the master of the “Doctor Bomb” himself. His impressive stature, power-based arsenal, and past clashes with NXT UK’s best have set him up as a must-see prospect for the NXT UK Championship. At some point in the next two or three years, Rampage will finally climb to the top of the mountain and best Ilja for NXT UK’s top prize.

Walter’s gone ghost ever since relinquishing the NXT UK Championship to Ilja. We’d love to see the Austrian juggernaut go to the main roster and provide Big E or Roman Reigns with a worthy challenge. But we’ve heard through the grapevine that Walter has no desire to stay in the States as a member of the WWE main roster. So once he makes his return, we feel like it’ll be in his home brand of NXT UK. And when he steps back into the ring, it’s more likely that he’ll switch his focus to the NXT UK’s midcard championship glory.

Thus far, we’ve been treated to two champions - A-Kid and Tyler Bate. Walter needs a new challenge to confront and it’s clearly going to be the NXT UK Heritage Cup. And we’re betting he’ll get his hands on NXT UK’s grand trophy on his very first try after a hard-fought encounter with one-half of Moustache Mountain. Walter as the new NXT UK Heritage Cup holder means he’s not going to drop it for a very long time. And we're totally open to watching that reign from start to finish.

Our previous prediction leads right into this next one. When Tyler inevitably drops his status as the NXT UK Heritage Cup champion, the odds of him teaming back up with Trent Seven to capture tag team gold will skyrocket. It’s hard to believe that Moustache Mountain has never enjoyed a single reign with the NXT UK Tag Team titles all this time. We love us some British Ambition (Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey). But we’d definitely prefer Trent Seven and Tyler reuniting to get their hands on the tag team straps for just one good time in NXT UK. They did some amazing work during their all too short NXT Tag Team Championship run, so we just know they’d enjoy one of the best modern-day tag team reigns in WWE when they get their hands on the NXT UK Tag Team Championship.

Aoife Valkyrie is a relatively fresh face when it comes to the rest of NXT UK’s ladies contingent. She made her debut for the brand in 2020 and nabbed some major victories over Amale, Isla Dawn, and Jinny. Even though she’s already failed in her first attempt at defeating the NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura, that doesn’t mean she can’t prevail in her next attempt. We believe in Aoife due to her legitimacy as a serious threat that can capture the women’s strap at any time. With the right storyline build, she has the best chance at getting her hands on the NXT UK Women’s title and birthing a new era of supremacy.