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2018 was a bit of a mixed bag for WWE. On one hand, it was a year that The Shield reunited, Bruan Strowman's rise to the top of the card and Daniel Bryan's surprise heel turn. On the other hand, however, 2018 was also the year of countless injuries, controversial booking decisions and the stalling of the Universal Championship, which played a major role in hurting the company.
And that's not even mentioning Baron Corbin's run as acting Raw General manager or how inconsistently Finn Balor was booked, but it honestly felt like the good outweighed the bad. In fact, it seemed like the only reason why the WWE Universe was so caught up on the bad is due to how late it took to happen.
With that being said and another year finally in the rearview mirror, here are ten things WWE actually got right in 2018. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below and also please be sure to tell us what you think WWE got right and wrong during the 2018 calendar year.
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#10 Rusev becoming United States champion
Let's be honest here. Rusev winning the United States Championship was a deserving moment for him and hopefully, a sign that the company has big plans for The Bulgarian Brute. Interestingly enough, it all came down after a failed bid for the WWE Championship and months of toiling away in the mid-card, which helped create a cathartic kind of moment when he finally won the title again.
In fact, it was a great way to cap off what was surely a tumultuous year for WWE and at least served to give fans a little bit of hope in the process. It also took the title off of the struggling, Shinsuke Nakamura, who could be heading to NJPW once his contract with WWE expires. If true, it was the right move at the right time and WWE should be proud of that!
#9 John Cena losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 34
Despite this being a dream match of sorts on paper, especially with the added importance of a stage like WrestleMania, WWE didn't put a whole lot into this storyline. Interestingly enough, however, it turned out to be one of the best decisions the company had made all year as the storyline didn't take up too much TV time and was really short and sweet.
Beyond that, WWE made the right decision by having a loud-mouthed over confident John Cena losing to The Undertaker, which was a cool little five-minute match to watch. Of course, it was nothing compared to what these two men could have done in the ring ten years ago at an event like this, but its simplicity only added to how great the moment was.
Think about it! No matter how much time was invested and no matter who came out the winner, the WWE Universe finally got to see two of the best in the company go at it at WrestleMania. If nothing else, it was a pretty breathtaking moment, to say the least, and Undertaker going over at the end was icing on the cake!
#8 Making Becky Lynch a tweener
What a year Becky Lynch had in 2018! She started off the year with a surprising winning streak and quickly inserted herself into the SmackDown Women's title picture shortly thereafter. Unfortunately for Lynch, WWE almost messed things up by making her a full-blown heel at SummerSlam and having her attack Charlotte Flair, but they eventually relented after much protest and a made her a tweener
Not only did it finally allow the WWE Universe to get behind Lynch in the way they wanted, but it also was the genesis for one of the best characters the company has had in a while. In fact, between Lynch's unbeatable trash talk game, her invasion angle the week before Survivor Series, and her gruelling title matches with Charlotte Flair, Lynch's stock is at an all-time high!
In all honesty, Lynch's heel turn has cooled off a little bit after getting injured and then losing the Smackdown Women's title to Asuka, but WWE could easily make up for that by going forward with their plan for Lynch versus Rousey at WrestleMania 35. It could even end up being the first ever WrestleMania to be main-evented by women if the company plays its cards right.
#7 Elias' face turn
A face turn doesn't always turn out as planned and that's one of the reasons why Elias's turn in 2018 was so surprising. Not only was it a seamless transition, especially with much of the audience already into his guitar antics, it also came at a time when WWE needed a strong mid-card babyface to take over for countless injured superstars.
Fortunately for Elias, the WWE Universe got behind him as babyface pretty quickly and while a lot of that probably had to do with his witty concerts, it also had a lot to do with how likable the guy was! In fact, he has been said to remind some fans of The Rock, which is a pretty cool comparison for the young superstar.
In the end, WWE did it in the right place, at the right time and with the right person. The WWE Universe had been wanting to cheer on Elias for a while now and the company was genius to capitalize on that.
#6 Moving Mustafa Ali to the main roster
WWE needed a feel-good story in 2018 and there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that Mustafa Ali filled that role perfectly. Of course, he did come up short multiple times to Buddy Murphy for the Cruiserweight title and wasn't featured on main roster television much, but all that changed when WWE made him a full time member of Smackdown Live.
They then put Ali in a main event match on Smackdown Live against Daniel Bryan and Andrade Cien Almas, which resulted in the former 205 Live superstars pinning the WWE Champion clean as a whistle. Not only was this a huge win for the underdog superstar throughout the entire company, it also showed that WWE might be willing to change their ways.
In the end, Mustafa Ali's move set is straight fire, he is so agile in the ring and will be a perfect addition to Smackdown Live. Beyond that, he is a great underdog in the same way that Rey Mysterio, Shawn Michaels and Daniel Bryan were before him, which could end up leading him to quite a few title bouts as time goes on.
#5 Daniel Bryan's heel turn
Daniel Bryan turned heel. As crazy as that may sound, WWE turned Daniel Bryan heel in 2018 and it turned out to be one of their best decisions of the entire year (that's my opinion). WWE even had Daniel Bryan win the WWE title from AJ Styles that night for good measure and then put him one on one with Brock Lesnar, where he came close to defeating The Beast.
If nothing else, his babyface character was the thing that was holding him back and now he is arguably on the best run of his career. Of course, who knows how long that is going to last or even if Bryan will come into WrestleMania 35 with the title around his waist, but its a lot better than him toiling down in the mid-card.
Beyond all that, his heel character seems to be somewhat based on his real-life beliefs and that really helps bring a lot of believable to it. Another thing that is really helping the heel turn flesh out is Bryan's performance on the microphone, which also seems to be the best its ever been and will probably continue to help propel him to bigger and bigger heights.
#4 Randy Orton's viciousness
What is going on with Randy Orton? Seriously though! Orton has had so many different heel persona's over the course of his time with the company, that one would have to imagine there isn't that much left to explore. Fortunately for the WWE Universe, he proved that theory not to be true and started to become unusually vicious during his matches.
From stretching Jeff Hardy's earlobe to sickening proportions to almost breaking fingers of Tye Dillinger, Orton has somehow become even more devilish than he was already. His promos have taken on a darker tone as well and to top it all off, the crowd absolutely goes wild when he hits an RKO.
If nothing else, this is an extremely combustible concoction WWE has on their hands and it will be great to see who they unleash it on next. With that being said, however, WWE and Randy Orton both proved that they have much more fuel in the tank when it comes to telling these type of stories, which is good news for fans in several ways.
#3 The Shield reunion
Its no secret that a Shield reunion was on the horizon in late 2018, but the amount of time and effort WWE put into the third installment of the faction was truly inspiring. Not only was that evident by how WWE surprised fans with the reunion during the main event of an episode of Raw, but also by the storylines they created for the hounds of justice.
Maybe some fans might be upset about the storyline, especially since it forced the company to turn Bruan Strowman heel, but the benefits still outweigh the negatives and Strowman looked even more vicious as a heel. He also joined up with Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler, which was an interesting pairing to watch and really helped protect Braun when it counted.
With that being said, maybe it was the nostalgic feeling fans got from seeing the group back together, or maybe it was just how great they booked The Hounds of Justice during that time, but it was truly something special to watch The Shield reunite. In fact, it was one of the biggest storylines of the year and something that will be remembered for a long time.
#2 Ronda Rousey's title run
Let's be honest here. Few things went as seamless as Ronda Rousey's title run in 2018 and it has no doubt proved that WWE knows how to protect a star when they want to. With that being said, the success of Ronda Rousey as a champion has been due to a variety of factors, all of which WWE has managed perfectly.
Think about it! While WWE may have jumped the gun and put her in the title picture a little too early, everything beyond that has worked perfectly. Her match against Nia Jax at Money in The Bank looked amazing for a woman who was in her first title match and WWE even protected her during the finish to set up her versus Alexa Bliss at Summerslam.
Sure, WWE hasn't gone back to The Stephanie McMahon versus Ronda Rousey storyline yet, but they have done so much else in the meantime. In fact, WWE even followed up on the screwy finish to Rousey's match against Jax at Money in The Bank and did another match between the two at TLC.
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#1 Turning Roman Reigns badass
There was something different about Roman Reigns in 2018. While Roman Reigns had never really been a master on the microphone, especially after his Jack and the Beanstock promo with The Big Show a few years ago, his character took a very sharp turn for the better right before SummerSlam. In fact, he started to look and sound more and more like a Stone Cold Steve Austin type, which the audience really started to take to.
Think about it; between him finally playing into how the fans hated him and acting badass in the process, it was hard not to get behind him. Beyond that, his microphone skills had finally reached a bearable level at this point, thus why even more fans started to get behind The Roman empire.
In the end, WWE did the right thing and actually had Roman Reigns address his detractors. They also had him play into why some fans didn't like him and that seemed to only make him a bigger and bigger star as time went on. If nothing else, WWE finally succeeded in getting fans behind Reigns in 2018 and all it took was not making him an outright babyface.
