CM Punk will have the most success of any comic book writer turned MMA fighter.

I'm setting the bar low for predictions. The WWE Network support team will fix the bug that does not allow me to watch any show on my Samsung Smart TV, and then immediately watch another one without having to exit the app and reboot.

Will be easier to find here instead of buried in the viewing thread:

Seth Rollins will be the highest placing for the WWE roster on the 2015 Wrestling Observer MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER category.

Kane will win a match clean.
Big show will not.
Lesnar will hold on to the title til 2016.
Cm Punk will return.

How is the WWE Network a bad idea? They are getting $120 out of me they never would have gotten before. Granted I don't think they need to give the pay per views for free, but I'd say there are a good majority who only signed up because of the older stuff.

It's not, that dude is a pure troll.

Network is the way of the future. WWE got in on the ground floor and will have some growing pains, but it's here to stay. There's no viable escape plan.

WWE isn't close to maximizing the potential of the Network. The more live, original content (talk shows, there's just no good reason something like Austin's podcast isn't a regular weekly feature) they start getting up there, the more it will take off.

I wouldn't be shocked if the price eventually jumps, but it's a killer deal now and I think they know they can fade a bump to 15 or so (I'd pay 20 easily).

There were folks buying every ppv for what, $50 or $60 a piece? Those fans got a huge price break when the Network gave them that, and more, for $9.99 a month. That couldn't have helped WWE's bottom line.
And with the current product being less than compelling, and all the canned stuff not going anywhere, why should anyone subscribe and keep the subscription going year round? Why not just get a month for $9.99, go crazy watching wrestling for 30 days and then cancel? This is why subscription internet sites didn't work. If I cancel my subscription right now, I get a lot more for my money by resubscribing in the future (more content will be up then.) And the longer I wait to sign back up, the less likely I'll be to ever actually get around to resubscribing.

It looks like they were hovering around 200,000 buys for the minor PPVs in 2012 and 2013. They broke a half million for the Rumble and over a million for Mania (which they charged more for, I think). Their subscriber count broke a million in January. Seems like that puts them around break-even on the months with minor PPVs and causes them a loss at this point in the months with majors. I assume that they expected to incur some short-term losses as part of getting the network going, but I don't know how much higher their realistic ceiling is as long as the current product is what it is.

WWE didn't and doesn't get $50 or $60 a piece though for PPVs; generally the cable companies get half of what a customer pays, although Vince was known for struggling to try and get a larger share.

WWE probably could have made a lot more money putting 8 PPVs on the Network and keeping the big 4 on PPV only.

Yeah that was a bit silly of me not to think of, that they're getting a more direct cut now.

I disagree that it would work better to keep the majors on PPV though. It's events like the Rumble and WM that get people to sign up. Their subscription count would go way down if those events weren't included.

So do you think people sign up for the majors and then just don't bother to cancel after the event or get hooked on it? Will be interesting to see how many cancel the Network shortly after Mania.

I do tend to think that a lot of people wouldn't bother canceling it.

They really should be charging a premium for month-to-month subscribers, and along with the "$9.99" catchphrase seems like a major mistake so far.

I also wonder what the effect has been with the larger venues. I'm not sure if it's just around here, but there used to be a couple bars that showed PPVs and a movie theater that showed at least Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania that don't anymore. I know larger venues are supposed to pay a much higher price for PPVs.

There are a ton of content ideas that they can capitalize on still, and I think long-term it's a matter of them not screwing it up. I know it will never happen with Vince around, but I think that separating running WWE the business with WWE the wrestling would help them immensely.

probably

wrong

I'm sticking by it. Of course, I don't know exactly what UFC expects.

Probably not too late for this prediction: Reigns wins belt at WM and holds it until next WM where he defeats Cena. Match doesn't main event.

Lesnar's first ppv got 600k as the only of the 2 main events with drawing power (although I don't believe it was the main event). I would assume the assumption for punk can't be more than 700k (which I think they clear)

Fair enough.

lesnar

I wonder what chance I have of this being accurate are, especially with the injury to close the year. His in ring work was great and he had a good year results wise, but none of the feuds were really all that captivating and his mic work was simply above average for todays wwe (which means was rather mediocre overall).

Nope. And they didn't even do it this year.

He's understandably back with the Wyatts. I'm pretty sure his singles career is just about over.

Balor not called up. Itami was in the WM battle royal, but not really "called up". Then he got injured.

Speaking of injuries....ugh, too depressing to think about.

It wasn't the world championship, but he had a very memorable run with the US title.

I guess they're still together. Does anyone care though?

Close enough.

Don't know what I was thinking here.

Does winning KOTR and abandoning a massively over gimmick count as an injury? How about being in one of the dumbest feuds in recent memory?

Nailed it. But everyone could see this coming.

I think most outstanding wrestler doesn't include mic work. They have another award that is more all encompassing (Wrestler of the year/Thesz/Flair award)

oh nice, better chance then. Though I might have some trouble if we include nxt as "wwe roster"

My other predictions were pretty bad, but I think I won the thread

An announcement about signing with UFC. 15 months later, nothing.