5 Christmas Gifts Wrestling Fans Want To Return (& 5 They Want To Keep)

So we’re done with Christmas but it is still the holiday season. That means a lot of people are going to be getting and receiving a variety of gifts. Some of those will be a lot better than others, but thankfully some of the weaker ones will be coming with gift receipts.

Today we’re going to look at a few things that a wrestling fan might want to return, along with a few they might want to keep. Let’s get to it.

Return: Open Challenges

These things can be fun, but only if they’re done at the right time. That’s where the whole idea tends to fall apart, as the US Title has been defended for such a long stretch of 2025. It feels like the title is on the line every single week and that loses its charm very fast. If it’s so easy to get a title shot, why should I care about the matches that take place the rest of the time? Just beat everyone else to the ring and you’re good.

And yes, it can work on occasion. The John Cena version in 2015 was compelling television. Sami Zayn’s version was good enough. The problem here though is rather simple: not everyone is a Cena or a Zayn, who can make that style work. It has its moments, but when it happens multiple times a week, just like anything else in wrestling, it wears out its welcome very quickly.

Keep: Continental Classic

AEW has presented this round robin tournament for the last few years and it has turned into one of the highlights of their calendar. It’s a two group, twelve entrant round robin tournament featuring a variety of wrestlers facing each other with a point system that's pretty easy to follow. The top two scorers from each group face off in the semifinals and then finals at Worlds End, winner take all.

While I could go for dropping the somewhat ridiculous title situation attached, I can absolutely go for having so many good matches in a row. This is where AEW tends to shine, as they take the focus off of the angles and focus more on the in-ring product. That makes for quite the six week or so stretch and this year’s edition was no exception. If you’re a fan of in-ring work, this is absolutely something worth checking out every year.

Return: The Rock's Random Cameos

I grew up watching 90s WWF so The Rock was a big part of my childhood. My friends and I laughed our heads off at his promos and his matches were just as great. Then Rock went away for a long time, only to come back for one of the biggest matches ever with John Cena. Then Rock came back again for some more matches and... it just wasn’t quite as good. The talent was obviously still there, but The Rock was basically gone and has been replaced by Dwayne Johnson playing The Rock.

Now Rock, a member of the WWE Board Of Directors, pops up whenever he wants, does whatever he wants, and then leaves again. That was the case earlier this year with the Cody Rhodes Soul deal and… whatever Travis Scott was doing out there. It made the whole John Cena heel turn borderline nonsensical and added pretty much nothing, which is a terrible way to go. If this is all Rock is going to do, then it's best for him to go make some sequel to a better movie instead, because he’s not needed in wrestling.

Keep: John Cena's Legacy

This was the year of John Cena, as he announced his retirement last year and then spent most of 2025 facing a variety of former opponents. He also had quite a bit of success of his own, breaking the record for World Titles and even picking up his first ever Intercontinental Title. Cena was the focal point of a lot of the year, and that really shouldn’t be a surprise given that… well it’s Cena, so of course it was a focal point.

Like him or not (and there is a lot to dislike, both over his career and in this year alone), there is no denying that Cena is one of the biggest stars in the history of wrestling. Cena is gone from the ring, and that is going to be quite a change. Having him around was a nice safety valve for WWE, but that era is now over. Cena got a lot of attention this year and it added to his legacy, which is quite the amazing set of accomplishments and will be around for a long time after he is gone.

Return: More Titles

Championships are the most common prize for a wrestler to win and it is pretty rare for a top star to not have held a variety of them over their careers. Now though, things have gone in the completely other direction, with promotions having SO MANY TITLES that it is hard to keep track of what is going on. WWE has unique titles to all three of its brands, and the less I try to even remember (let alone understand) AEW’s title picture, the happier I am.

While we’re beyond the point of having a World, Intercontinental and Tag Team Titles for the entire promotion (either of them really), there needs to be a much better middle ground. AEW alone has five men’s singles titles (World, Unified, Continental, National and TNT, which isn’t even getting into Ring Of Honor) and it’s just way too much. Just recently, the Ring Of Honor World Champion faced the National Champion for a ring. Just cool it with the titles and unify some of them already, because sweet goodness enough already.

Keep: Bron Breakker

I remember watching the Steiner Brothers back in the early 90s and being in awe of them. That was over thirty years ago, and now Breakker is looking like the two of them merged into one. It’s uncanny how much Breakker has both of his relatives’ greatest strengths and how quickly he has taken to wrestling. He’s becoming something of a modern day Brock Lesnar with the incredible athleticism and it’s no surprise that he’s taken off so fast.

It really wouldn’t surprise me to see Breakker win the World Title on the first Monday Night Raw of the year, but outside of a fluke injury or something like that, it’s all but guaranteed to happen sooner or later. You flat out do not find a prospect like him very often and WWE seems to have an idea of what they’ve got with Breakker. Let them push him to the moon and see just how far he can go.

Return: The Bloodline Saga

You might have heard of this one, partially because it just keeps going. While the story isn’t something that is taking place and being advanced all the time, it is something that WWE goes back to so often that I’ve lost any interest in keeping up with the thing. It’s the same people arguing about whose side they should be on and it’s been going on for the better part of ever now and the expiration date is long since expired.

It isn’t to say that the Bloodline Saga hasn’t done wonders for a lot of people involved. Roman Reigns had an all-time great run with the World Title and Jey Uso of all people wound up being the World Heavyweight Champion. Throw in all kinds of great moments and promos and it was one of the best stories WWE has ever produced. The key word there though is was, because it is time to move on.

Keep: The TNA/NXT Crossover

I’m kind of surprised that I picked KEEP for this one, but it’s something that has been beneficial to both sides. TNA stars are getting to showcase themselves against some different talent and NXT stars are getting a place to work that isn’t the Performance Center or in front of about 200 people in a Florida armory. Granted a lot of that is WWE getting to find out which stars they want to steal, but at least TNA is getting a little something before losing those stars.

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What matters the most here is that both sides are benefiting. While WWE is going to benefit the most in the long run, I’ll take a fresh infusion of talent over recycling the same feuds and matches over and over. It’s a great thing to see for both sides and while I could go for less of the invasion style stuff, this could be a heck of a lot worse and I’ll take that as a nice surprise.

Return: Double Champions

This goes along with having too many titles, as a lot of it is due to so many belts floating around. The idea of having a wrestler winning a title and then fighting for another doesn’t so much make me think they’re impressive, but rather takes away the interest I have in them holding a title in the first place. If a title shot is supposed to be valuable, what exactly does it mean if you just keep getting them? Also, what does it mean if a reigning champion loses a shot at another title? How valuable does the title they hold still seem?

Case in point: Dustin Rhodes. While I get that he’s a talented veteran, earlier this year he was holding two Ring Of Honor titles and an AEW title at the same time. It stopped feeling important and instead became “ok, I guess this is something that is still happening”. Then we had the whole Mercedes Mone belt collector thing, which just went to another level of absurdity. NXT had something similar with Sol Ruca and the whole thing was just a mess no matter where they were. Just let it be one at a time, which has worked for the better part of ever in wrestling.

Keep: The Future

While there are a lot of issues with rosters getting stale, help appears to be on the way. This is coming from all over the place, as you have Kevin Knight and Kyle Fletcher in AEW, Je’Von Evans and Sol Ruca in NXT, Leon Slater and Xia Brookside in TNA, Gunther and Bron Breakker in WWE and many, many more (including some who are in between shows at the moment). That isn’t even including the wrestlers who are coming up from the developmental systems and moving into a different roster.

These people might not be ready yet, but we’re getting a nice tastes of a lot of them. That’s the kind of thing that you do not get to see very often and my goodness is it great. It doesn’t mean that some of the older wrestlers need to be put out to pasture immediately, but it certainly does mean that we can start seeing the future as it develops right in front of our eyes. In this case, that’s a very bright future indeed.

As it can often tend to be, wrestling is in something of a strange place. You never know what you’re going to see, but on occasion that isn’t the best thing. At the same time though, there is always the chance that you’re going to see something awesome, because the cycle always continues. That’s exactly what we’re seeing again, as some of the old stuff is being replaced by something fresh, and it’s making things exciting all over. If those transitions wind up working, everything will be on fire again, because that’s how wrestling works.