Eva Marie, Braun Strowman make WWE's 'Superstars to watch in 2016' list

It's a list only a General could love.

Just kidding...with 16 names, the staff of WWE.com hits a lot of favorites while predicting wrestlers who they think will have a breakout year in 2016. But with both All Red Everything and BigAss McStrongman on the list, how could I not tease the boss?

In the opinion of the folks behind the scenes at the sports entertainment giant's web site, here are the Superstars they believe are "destined for great things in 2016":

1) Seth Rollins
2) Apollo Crews
3) Samoa Joe
4) Sasha Banks
5) Kevin Owens
6) Jason Jordan & Chad Gable
7) Asuka
8) Braun Strowman
9) Cesaro
10) Dana Brooke
11) Hideo Itami
12) Corey Graves
13) Eva Marie
14) Neville
15) Kalisto
16) Peyton Royce

They've basically taken most of the people who were doing  big things in 2015 but got injured, thrown in the hot acts from NXT and a couple of surprise, fan favorite Slammy winners. Which is as good a way as any to do it. Jokes about Eva and Strowman aside, the biggest surprise might be Royce. The Australian came in at the same time as another wrestler some indy marks like yours truly were higher on in Billie Kay, but Peyton looks to be a step ahead of her on WWE's charts.

Out of curiosity, and because I sometimes like to pretend I'm doing something resembling real journalism, I Googled up last year's list to see how WWE does on these things. Here are the 15 to watch from 2015...

1) Damien Mizdow
2) Alexa Bliss
3) Enzo Amore
4) Tyson Kidd
5) Wesley Blake & Buddy Murphy
6) Luke Harper
7) The Vaudevillains
8) Bad News Barrett
9) Sting
10) Renee Young
11) Charlotte
12) Finn Bálor
13) Roman Reigns
14) Kevin Owens
15) Dolph Ziggler

Pretty similar formula - right down to the one announcer-type. 2016 features more folks returning from injury, because 2015 was full of injuries.

But if the model holds, we can expect some of the NXT names to become champs of that brand in the coming year while one of the main roster men becomes WWE champ and another disappears to UpUpDownDown.

Place your bets.

NOTE: The numbering is mine, just as a way to keep track of the list. WWE.com presents theirs slideshow-style with individual comments from the writers who chose each wrestler/performer, without a definitive ranking. The numbers do represent the order of the slides, but are not presented as representing "most likely to break out".