5 Best & 5 Worst WWE Things Of 2018

#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.

The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio for the Semi Finals of the World Cup

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.

Edited by Gabby Duran