WWE's Best and Worst Trends of 2018

Worst: The NXT women's division

Tedium ad infinitum

Sadly, one women's division in WWE fell far behind its counterparts, and it was the division that started the "revolution" in the first place. The NXT women's division has easily had its worst year in history, despite boasting a range of world-class talent.

The booking of Shayna Baszler is responsible for this. Pushed well beyond her abilities as a performer, the NXT Women's Championship has been degraded with her rise and reign. In everything from the underwhelming Ember Moon feud to a burial of the other babyfaces in the division, to a series of poor matches by TakeOver standards, tedium began to take hold in the division, until Kairi Sane came into the picture.

There, the yellow brand had an opportunity to come to the logical conclusion of the Baszler story, course correct, and open the division back up, but Sane dropped the title in screwy fashion without one successful defence, cheapening it further.

The division heads into 2019 with a Shayna Baszler vs. Bianca Belair match scheduled for TakeOver: Phoenix, one which is sure to underwhelm, as neither woman will hide the others' limitations well.

Whereas SmackDown is crackling with excitement, Raw is eagerly anticipating the opening salvos in a full Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey war, and the NXT UK division is off to a promising start, NXT's division feels boring in comparison. It will continue to be that way until Baszler is finally out of the title picture.