10 Reasons why 2018 was the best year in NXT history

3. There were more great matches than any other year

Ricochet performs an insane double

moonsault

at Takeover: War Games II

Aside from obvious barn burners like Gargano and Ciampa's trilogy at Takeovers in New Orleans, Chicago and Brooklyn, the six-man ladder match, the second War Games or Aleister Black and Adam Cole's Extreme Rules match, 2018 was still nonetheless jam packed with stellar in-ring encounters from all parts of the NXT roster. Johnny Gargano pinned Velveteen Dream early in the year in a high quality weekly show match to cement the end of his losing streak before heading into Takeover: Philadelphia, only for The Dream to return the favor later in the year in an even better match where he beat Gargano and went on to nearly take the NXT Championship from Tomasso Ciampa at the second Takeover: War Games. Ricochet performed in above average affairs against Dream and Adam Cole, then went on to compete in perhaps the greatest NXT TV match of all time against Pete Dunne, followed by an excellent triangle match with both Cole and Dunne. The Fatal 4 Way with Gargano, Aleister Black, Killian Dain and Lars Sullivan at the top of the year was highly entertaining, as were Undisputed Era's excellent tag team wars with Moustache Mountain and Oney Lorkin & Danny Burch.

Not to leave the ladies out, Kairi Sane's triangle match with Candice LeRae and Nikki Cross was top quality; ditto for Shayna Baszler's Royal Albert Hall title match with Toni Storm, and Bianca Belair's three-match series with Cross and pre-Takeover dark matches with Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo. Other honorable mentions include Undisputed Era vs. Pete Dunne, Oney Lorkin and Danny Burch, Andrade Cien Almas vs. Johnny Gargano (Title vs. Career), Lars Sullivan's showdowns with fellow big men Killian Dain and Keith Lee, and Matt Riddle vs. Punishment Martinez.