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2018 was a very noteworthy year for WWE not just because of what transpired in the ring but also everything that happened around it. The company's stock (which closed 2017 at $30.58) sky rocketed this year to a lifetime high of $96.73 on the back of the new FOX deal, only to come drastically down to $63.09 (as of November 21st) possibly due to their inability to capitalize on their strengths.
While the juggernaut in wrestling business received tremendous mainstream attention for one of their biggest talent signings ever in Ronda Rousey, the same company had to endure serious resentment towards its other decisions like proceeding with their controversy-marred Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia and naming a match at WrestleMania after The Fabulous Moolah.
With 2018 rapidly coming to a close, it's time for us to take a look back at the year to rank some of the Best and Worst things that transpired in the ring this year in Vince McMahon's wrestling empire.
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#5 (WORST): AJ Styles' WWE Championship Run
Wait, don't get me wrong. The impressive 371-days WWE Championship reign of AJ Styles atop the Smackdown Live mountain was far from being the worst thing this year. In fact, this item is on this list not for how bad it was (because it wasn't), but because how much better it could've been.
While Styles had a great year at the very top of his brand, being booked strongly as the champion and gracing the WWE 2K18 game cover, one can't help but wonder how much more it could've been.
For starters, Styles' WWE Championship programs played second fiddle to whatever else was happening on the same brand for the better part of the year. Programs like Kevin Owens-Sami Zayn vs. Shane McMahon-Daniel Bryan, The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy and most recently Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte were pushed as the top programs of their time, positioning Styles' respective program at that time to the sidelines.
While having new blood in the world championship scene is always a good thing, did anyone come out of a WWE Championship program this year with more or even the same level of momentum they had going in?
Guys like Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe and Rusev are just a few names who lost much of their aura after a program with Styles. Now while that did put Styles strongly over as the legitimate champion, WWE could've avoided derailing Joe and Nakamura's momentum despite them losing (just like Joe was protected even after his loss to Lesnar for the Universal Championship last year).
Most importantly, Styles' WWE Championship reign was heavily marred by a lack of PPV main events this year, and almost all of his big matches ending in some sort of screwy finish, be it his match with Joe at Summerslam or with Nakamura at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
In addition, can we recall a single technically outstanding AJ Styles match this year? While he did have great matches against the likes of aforementioned competitors and Daniel Bryan, was there a single match out of these good enough to stand the test of time?
And that's saying a lot since his cracking main event matches with the likes of John Cena, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose were what got Styles over to begin with.
#5 (BEST): The RAW Gauntlet
Remember when Seth Rollins used to casually tear the house down whenever he used to step in the ring on TV and PPV? His matches with the likes of Cena, Lesnar, Ambrose, Neville and many more were what made him "The Man" before his knee injury.
Fast forward to the start of 2018 and Rollins was not the same "man" anymore. Lackluster matches, a mistimed babyface turn and a directionless character were just a few reasons for his mediocrity at the time 2018 rolled in.
One fateful night on RAW in February though, everything changed. What started as the opening segment to the 3-hour broadcast soon took up just under 2/3rd of the entire show's run-time and ended up becoming one of the best editions to the Monday Night show in recent memory.
Building towards the Elimination Chamber match a few days away, all the participants were involved in a tremendously put together Gauntlet match which saw Seth Rollins wrestle for over an hour alone and beating the two poster boys of WWE, Roman Reigns and John Cena clean one after the other in the process.
It was a rare star-making performance that was missing from Rollins all this time, but which came at the best time of the year heating him up in the build towards WrestleMania.
What worked for this match was also the fact that RAW almost always opens with an unnecessarily dragged promo segment from an authority figure which accomplishes nothing other than booking an uninspiring tag team match for the main event of the same show.
Seeing the best competitors on Monday nights involved in a wrestling match to open the show was a very fresh approach, driving away from the template WWE has been accustomed to using for years now.
We just hope WWE feels more comfortable trying these unique presentation techniques for its 3-hour flagship show, considering that this edition had the highest second hour ratings since the packed RAW 25 show.
#4 (WORST): Cooling Off Braun Strowman
In a previous article, I had briefly mentioned how Strowman was not going anywhere on RAW and should be moved to Smackdown. My reason for that thought was the fact that WWE was not mentally ready to move past its top priorities in Lesnar and Reigns; Strowman was but a sacrificial lamb to play a small part in their stories.
Five F5s later, I don't know if even that's going to help Strowman anymore. Pointless heel turns, failed MITB cash-ins and comedy tag team wins alongside 10 year old kids aside, Strowman's butchering at the Crown Jewel event this year was sadly the reflection of his entire career to this point. He builds all this momentum to raise his stock in the company only to get planted in the ground again and again.
Is Strowman already done? Not at all... since he does have all those Smackdown lads to beat at Survivor Series next year, just like this year and the one before it. But with everything said and done, Strowman has lost so much credibility this year that it's hard to buy him as the legitimate Universal Champion even if he manages to hold that belt now.
#4 (BEST): 205 Live
Whereas 2017 was a complete debacle for the cruiserweight division of the WWE, 2018 saw a complete resurgence of the brand known as 205 Live. The company evidently took some drastic measures in 2018 to make sure the division thrived this year.
For starters, they took the division out of their regular weekly segments on RAW. While the idea works on paper to have the performers getting such a big stage to work with, it was painful in execution. Multiple tag matches on the red brand, uninspired writing and drawbacks of a worn-out crowd doomed 205 Live right from the beginning.
While in 2017, for every Neville as the Cruiserweight champion, there was an Enzo Amore too, but this year there have only been two champions yet, and both Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy are phenomenal athletes.
What worked in 2018 above all was how WWE let the performers from the purple brand do what they do best, "fly". They were given slots on the main PPV cards rather than the pre-show which resulted in some of the best bouts of the entire night.
Murphy vs. Alexander was by far the best match on the Super Show-Down card and arguably so was Murphy vs. Ali at Survivor Series.
WWE has let the brand of the cruiserweights grow organically this year rather than squeezing a pointless segment or two out of it every week on RAW and it has greatly benefited 205 Live and the performers competing on that brand. Next year should see even better things for the brand.
#3 (WORST): Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
While Daniel Bryan's in-ring return was easily among the biggest highlights this year, it was the poor follow up that derailed all that momentum for him and hence, a mention in this list.
For a moment, we could forgive his lackluster feuds with the likes of Big Cass, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, since his money feud with The Miz was on the horizon.
And so it finally happened, and it was... disappointing. If we were to rank Bryan's top 10 career rivals, The Miz would by far be the biggest of them all, with the two having history dating back to Bryan's days in NXT.
When the infamous Talking Smack segment happened, fans all over the world started clamouring for the two rivals to lock horns in the ring one more time, only to realize that Bryan has already retired.
It was 2018 when Bryan finally got his clearance to compete in the ring and fans got to see what they had wanted for years. The Miz was drafted back to Smackdown and hence started the biggest disappointment of 2018.
Bryan vs. Miz had so much hype around it that it was once rumoured to be the main event of WrestleMania. However, what followed was a strange program which not only produced mediocre matches, but also managed to incorporate both competitors' respective wives, a fake infant and a segment featuring crying kids.
#3 (BEST): Women's Evolution
2018 started off with the Royal Rumble being main evented by the first ever women's Rumble match but was it all that great? Up until the end of 2017 and to some extent in 2018 as well, the women's evolution/revolution has come across nothing more than an agenda to shade WWE in a positive light and to position Stephanie McMahon as this goddess of women's wrestling.
What could've been a genuine milestone in women's wrestling was overshadowed by its announcement on RAW where Stephanie gave a pep-talk to the women, who themselves came across as high school teenagers at best.
However, all that started to change with time, thanks in large part to some of the talent coming to their own and going beyond the normal shackles of the women's division. The WrestleMania match between Charlotte Flair and Asuka coupled with Ronda Rousey's debut was enough for the division to organically move forward.
Then there was the Evolution PPV, which did have the same Stephanie McMahon announcement cloud on it, but turned out to be one of the best PPV events of the entire year, thanks to the blood feud Becky Lynch had going against the aforementioned Flair.
The PPV also helped highlight the NXT talent with the match between Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler alongside the finals of the Mae Young Classic featuring Io Shirai and Toni Storm.
This year, the women's evolution was not about WWE being kind enough to grant opportunities to its female talent, but about the female talent snatching opportunities from WWE, and it's safe to say that the women's division on each main roster brand is currently its biggest strength.
#2 (WORST): Heel Turns
I believe 2018 was a wake up call for fans like ourselves who are so easy to jump to the conclusion that for us, the only way to get out of a tricky situation is to have the wrestler turn heel. Roman Reigns not getting over? Turn him heel. Randy Orton not going anywhere? Turn him heel... and so on and so forth.
Well this year though, WWE gave us exactly what we wanted. There was a plethora of heel turns on the main roster alone this year. There are so many, I bet we'll probably miss some out here or there.
Superstars like Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Lashley, Becky Lynch, Braun Strowman, Randy Orton, Nia Jax, Dana Brooke (twice), Big Show, Aiden English, The Bella Twins, and many more succumbed to their evil sides this year with the most recent being Dean Ambrose and Daniel Bryan on their respective brands, and that's not even counting Charlotte and Bayley who supposedly turned heel this year, only going back to being babyfaces the next time we saw each of them.
The point is, a heel turn should be this huge revelation that fans do not see coming or is something fans are invested in. There was practically no weight in most of these heel turns this year simply because of how frequently we've seen it happen in the past few weeks alone.
Yes, it was me who fantasy booked Ambrose and Reigns turning on Rollins earlier this year; but that was because the end goal was to have a Shield Triple Threat in the main event of WrestleMania.
The story and the stage demanded those turns; Now, it's all about the short moment with little-to-no future planning or character motivations.
WWE seriously needs a good grasp at creating engaging babyfaces rather than having a roster full of performers and authority figures vying for crowd heat for five hours every week.
#2 (BEST): Intercontinental Championship Scene
It was WrestleMania 31 in 2015 where WWE finally decided to elevate its two midcard titles and restore their long lost prestige back. That night Cena won the United States title while Bryan won the Intercontinental title.
While the US title thrived post 2015 - thanks in large part to Cena's open challenges and his feud with then NXT Champion Kevin Owens, the IC title didn't really do so well after Bryan's retirement and subsequent line of underwhelming champions.
Thankfully, all that changed soon after the brand split in 2016 with the cracking title vs. career rivalry between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. 2018 was even better for the historically rich title and this time, it was The Architect involved in the mix.
Together, The Miz and Seth Rollins redefined the RAW midcard scene along with Finn Balor for the first half of the year, having great TV matches left and right, culminating in one of the best matches of WrestleMania 34.
Since then, the Intercontinental title has been the de facto main event on RAW - also because of the absence of the Universal title on the brand and managed to main event a WWE 2018 PPV (Extreme Rules) with the iron man match between Rollins and Ziggler.
This was in itself a phenomenal feat since firstly, the WWE Championship was also defended on the same show and secondly, the last time IC title was defended in any PPV main event was at the 2001 Backlash event, in a match which also featured the WWF Championship and the WWF Tag Titles being defended at the same time.
Hopefully, the way WWE has rejuvenated the Intercontinental title and capitalized on it on RAW, they can do the same with the United States title on Smackdown come 2019 too.
#1 (WORST): Crown Jewel PPV
Controversies surrounding the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi & the lack of women's matches on the card aside, it can objectively be argued that Crown Jewel was the worst PPV event WWE has produced in a very long time - even more so than Survivor Series 2017.
What could've been one of the biggest highlights of the year turned out to be the biggest dud this year thanks to WWE's inability to firstly capitalize on a new concept and secondly to break from the status quo after some unfortunate events took place prior to the event.
For starters, the World Cup tournament that was scheduled to take place at the event could've been something genuinely epic because of the men involved and the way it was promoted. Going into the event, fans were fantasy booking the best possible combinations that they could witness as part of the tournament.
From Kurt Angle and Randy Orton waging war to Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins tearing the house down, everything looked right with the tournament.
What followed was a series of under-cooked matches with questionable outcomes that did nothing to excite the fans. However, nothing comes close to taking the largest piece of the pie more so than the stupidly embarrassing outcome of Shane McMahon winning the entire thing without even being in the tournament to begin with.
It was such a backwards booked move that killed the entire concept of World Cup before it could even survive a whole night.
Elsewhere on the card, we saw Braun Strowman get absolutely man-handled by Brock Lesnar in a quick squash match for the vacant Universal title after witnessing the story for months that the title needed to come back to RAW, a story which had already culminated back at Summerslam.
It was a typical WWE move to go back to the status quo after Roman Reigns was diagnosed with leukemia and had to relinquish a title which hadn't been around for over three years prior to that.
What made matters worse was the main event of the night, which featured The Undertaker, Kane, Triple H and (a returning-from-retirement) Shawn Michaels in 2018. But did we really need a match featuring these stars who are already long past their primes? If that weren't a surety prior to the match, it is a painful truth now.
The match was such a sloppy affair that it was plain sad watching Michaels' in-ring return after over 8 years. The Undertaker was uncomfortably immobile, as is the case with all his matches now, Triple H tore his pectoral muscle and Michaels landed hard on the floor busting his face open.
It didn't help that AJ Styles had to fight Samoa Joe yet again after their program had completely culminated at the Super Show-down event prior to this one. All in all, WWE had a chance to put on a decent show amidst the controversies surrounding Crown Jewel to turn it into a positive, but what followed was a frustrating show which - more than anything else - disrespected its core audience.
#1 (BEST): Becky Lynch
As if you expected something else. Becky Balboa has been the greatest success story WWE has produced in years, let alone in 2018. This could’ve easily been part of the Women’s list item before it but it’s not and that’s because Becky Lynch is not the biggest female star in the company today; she’s the the biggest star, period.
The SmackDown Live Women’s Champion is on a roll of her career thanks in large part to her wicked character work and being involved in some of the best wrestling matches all year or even in history.
If it is in fact true and Lynch does end up main eventing WrestleMania 35, it would be after getting forgettably eliminated from the forgettable battle royal at WrestleMania 34. That’s inhumane levels of success.
When women were rumoured to main event WWE’s biggest show earlier this year, it felt more like an agenda WWE has been pushing lately with its female talent more than anything else, but now is there any possible match that feels bigger than Lynch vs. Rousey at WrestleMania?
It was Lynch's match that closed out TLC PPV last Sunday - not because WWE wanted to have “women” close the show but because that match would've butchered anything and everything that dared following it. And that my friends... is The Man for you!
