These are some of my predictions for the wrestling world for next year and beyond. I was accused by a reader after my last column of lacking a sense of humor. To show that I do have a sense of humor (be it good or bad) some of these predictions are serious and some are meant only as a joke. I will leave it to you, my highly intelligent readers, to work out which is which. Or you can just flame me for the ones you don't like.

10. Bret Hart continues on as champion for a few months before he finally decides to leave the sport after having (and winning) the match with Hulk Hogan that he has wanted all along. He retires graciously and with dignity the way he would have liked to go out in the WWF. He then returns to Calgary to run Stampede wrestling and return the promotion to prominence.

9. Sid, when informed that he can't play softball this season, goes ballistic on Vince Russo with a pair of scissors AND a squeegie. Russo and Ferrera decide to rethink their decision to be involved in the wrestling business and start working on a pilot for a new sit-com about the wacky adventures of a female mud wrestler.

8. Vince McMahon finally gives the fans what they have been begging for and The Rock wins the Rumble and goes on to face new champ HHH at Wrestlemania. An outstanding feud ensues with Rock as the face this time around culminating in a win for the Rock at Wrestlemania 16. The Dwayne Johnson era dawns in the WWF.

7. Wrestling in the WWF drastically improves when playing Wrestlemania 2000 on the N64 becomes mandatory for the entire roster. Lost arts like pacing, building to high spots, working long matches and delayed selling improve dramatically.

6. A new lobby group is formed called Keep Wrestlers Wrestling (KWW). The group specifically targets Hulk Hogan, Sting, DDP and Piper and even offers to hold telethons to help raise the money to keep these guys in wrestling to save the world from any further atrocities like Assault on Devils Island, Suburban Commando or Mr. Nanny.

5. The WWF continues the trend of bringing in celebrity wrestlers and brings in the Backstreet Boys and signs them to a match against Faarooq, Bradshaw and a returning Ken Shamrock. Under direct instructions from Vince McMahon; Faarooq, Bradshaw & Shamrock shoot on the group - killing them all. The incident draws tremendous publicity for the WWF - overwhelmingly positive. WCW and ECW follow suit and bring in various boy-bands to be destroyed thus systematically eliminating the genre. Vince McMahon is hailed as a genius by music lovers everywhere.

4. The Hardy Boyz continue to steal the show at every single opportunity and continue to get over doing it. They take the number one tag team slot in the WWF around Wrestlemania and engage in very memorable feuds with the Holly's, Too Cool and Kaientai.

3. WCW and WWF have shows in the same town on the same night and wrestlers from both feds come across each other at a bar later that night. Jeff Jarrett runs into Jim Ross and a heated argument ensues over the circumstances surrounding Jarrett leaving the WWF. A spectacular bar fight breaks out but since its Jarrett no-one even bothers paying attention. Seeing the lack of reaction a beaten and bloodied Ross claims a moral victory screaming 'See I told you - NO CHARISMA!'

2. Jericho, in the mold of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Austin and the Rock, is made into one of the top five stars in the industry with an extended reign with the IC Belt. Sensational feuds with X-Pac, Edge, D'Lo Brown and the re-packaged Papi Chulo make for riveting viewing and push Y2J to main event status by Wrestlemania 17.

1. Ted Turner accidentally watches a couple of minutes of WCW Nitro and is startled by what he sees saying 'What the hell is this and what have they done with my 'rasslin' ?'. He immediately fires Russo and Fererra over the phone and puts Ric Flair in charge of WCW. Flair happily takes up the dual role of on-air commissioner and off-air head booker and with the help of Terry Taylor leads WCW back to ratings prominence with a combination of quality wrestling and interesting storylines.

Under the new leadership in WCW old wrestlers who can't work a decent match are deemed surplus to requirements and are released. Say goodbye to Piper, Hall, Savage, Ed Leslie, Van Hammer etc. Nash is the new color commentary man on Nitro but no longer wrestles. Talk of a Hulk Hogan-led wrestling league on the Fox Network is rekindled supposedly featuring these now redundant stars..