Ranking every WWE pay-per-view in 2018 from worst to best

2018 was a crazy year in the world of WWE, a whole lot happened. From the rare appearances of the Universal Champion and the widely frustrating booking surrounding it to the remarkable progress made by the women, this year saw many twists and turns. WWE started the year still with brand-specific pay-per-views, before scrapping them altogether after WrestleMania. Along with the now dual-branded B pay-per-views, the company booked a couple of international events.

The controversial deal WWE entered with Saudi Arabia gave us two pay-per-views emanating from the Kingdom. Both of them were basically glorified house shows put on to please the people in attendance. Super Show-Down from Melbourne, Australia would follow a similar suit, but it did have a bunch of superior moments. Aside from these shoehorned additions, WWE's pay-per-view calendar was pretty standard, with one show per month.

However, the one most positive change to the calendar was the first-ever all-women pay-per-view event, Evolution. With this show, 2018 was a groundbreaking year for the females. While 2019 looks to be filled with promise, last year has seen some really good pay-per-views. Aside from a couple here and there and those Saudi shows, WWE has been pretty consistent with their shows. 2018 will go down as a success and it is, in no small part, thanks to a couple of really excellent shows.

Here are all fifteen WWE pay-per-views from last year ranked, from worst to best

#15 Crown Jewel

Crown Jewel was one of the most controversial WWE pay-per-views of all time because of the political issues surrounding the host country, Saudi Arabia. With the refusals of John Cena and Daniel Bryan to work the show, Samoa Joe and Bobby Lashley filled in for some presumably heavy paydays. Nevertheless, the show went on as planned but was not any good at all. It was the worst pay-per-view in years, maybe decades. The undercard of Crown Jewel was alright, featuring some decent action from the WWE World Cup quarter and semi-finals. The show took a complete nosedive in the final few matches.

Brock Lesnar regained the Universal Championship in a painfully short match against Braun Strowman, but the worst was yet to come. Shane McMahon, who was not even a competitor in the tournament, somehow ended up winning the Best in the World trophy, turning it into an absolute joke. The main event saw DX take on the Brothers of Destruction, in what was Shawn Michaels' comeback match. It was just sad and difficult to watch, seeing four legends of the industry plodding through a long and needless main event at an extremely slow pace. Crown Jewel was one of the most damaging WWE shows in years. Oh, and Hulk Hogan was the host of the event.

#14 Backlash

Following WrestleMania, WWE reverted back to dual-branded pay-per-views throughout the calendar year and Backlash was the first normal one of it's kind. It is fair to say that WWE absolutely botched it in execution. It is easy to forget that Backlash opened with an excellent Intercontinental Championship match between Seth Rollins and The Miz. After that, it all went downhill. The rest of the show was littered with average matches with severely disappointing finishes.

The No Disqualification match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura was fine but ended in a very counterproductive Double KO. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn vs Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman was pretty boring, as were Carmella vs Charlotte Flair and the main event between Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe. That match was so unpopular, that the New Jersey crowd started leaving during the match with chants like "Beat the traffic" ringing through the arena. Luckily, WWE would not book a show as bad as this in the States again in 2018.

#13 Greatest Royal Rumble

This was the better Saudi show by a mile.

Greatest Royal Rumble was by far the better show emanating from Saudi Arabia in 2018, but that is not saying much. This show was so uneventful, that it was basically a glorified house show. Nothing of note happened, with the only title change being for the vacant Raw Tag Team titles. The action was sub-standard throughout the night in Jeddah, aside from a couple of matches. Cedric Alexander and Kalisto wrestled a fun match for the Cruiserweight Championship, while Seth Rollins retained his Intercontinental title in a four-way Ladder Match.

The biggest controversy from this show was the Steel Cage match between Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. Both men touched the floor at pretty much the same time, in what was a messy situation. The main event was, evidently from the name, a 50-man Royal Rumble match. In this match, we saw a record-breaking Royal Rumble stay from Daniel Bryan, a sumo wrestler, an entire roster of jobbers and a dominant Braun Strowman standing tall at the end. But the one man that everybody was talking about when this night was over was Titus O'Neil, who hilariously tripped and fell into the underside of the ring.

#12 Extreme Rules

This main event was done a major disservice.

The problem with Extreme Rules was that there were too many matches on the card and there was hardly any extreme. Matches like Finn Balor vs Baron Corbin and Deleters of Worlds vs B-Team made this card a lot more bloated than it should have been. This was the show which was main evented by the Intercontinental Championship, as Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler contested in a 30-minute iron man match. However, the match was ruined by the crowd, who decided to count down with the timer on-screen like it was the Royal Rumble match.

The rest of the show saw some decent action, in matches like AJ Styles vs Rusev and Roman Reigns vs Bobby Lashley. But the booking seemed disappointing. Kevin Owens ended up winning his Steel Cage match against Braun Strowman after being thrown off the top of the cage through the announce table. Elsewhere, Asuka was made to look like a fool as she lost to Carmella for the second time. All-in-all, Extreme Rules was a disappointment of an event that was anything but extreme.

#11 Elimination Chamber

This was the first-ever seven-man Chamber match.

Elimination Chamber was just a placeholder event for Raw on the long and winding road to WrestleMania. It did feature two first time ever Chamber matches though. The women's one was pretty good, as Alexa Bliss retained her Raw Women's Championship by last pinning Sasha Banks. We also saw a 7-man match, as Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Seth Rollins, John Cena, Elias, The Miz and Finn Balor all fought to face Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at 'Mania. The winner was obvious as Reigns pinned Strowman last, who eliminated every other man in the match.

The men's Chamber was a disappointment for that very reason, but the undercard of this show was quite forgettable. Aside from Ronda Rousey's WWE contract signing and a pretty competitive match between Nia Jax and Asuka, you would not be blamed for not remembering the rest of Elimination Chamber 2018. Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt clashed in a nothing singles match, while The Bar defended their tag titles against Titus Worldwide. Luckily for Raw, the buildup to the Show Of Shows saw a vast improvement in the product.

#10 Fastlane

While Raw was doing okay in February, Smackdown was pretty poor. A prolonged build to probably the most unexciting pay-per-view of any calendar year did not help the show in any way. However, Fastlane did a decent job in building to WrestleMania, certainly better than it's Raw counterpart a couple of weeks ago. Matches like Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rusev and Charlotte Flair vs Ruby Riott were perfectly serviceable, with the 2018 women's Royal Rumble winner Asuka coming out to challenge Charlotte at 'Mania, after her successful Women's title defence.

We also saw a title change, as Randy Orton defeated Bobby Roode to win the United States Championship for the first time in his career. Remember that? The biggest portion of the show, though, was the main event. AJ Styles defended his WWE Championship in a Six-Pack Challenge, featuring Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, John Cena, Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin. This match was entertaining and nail-biting, with the dream match between Styles and Nakamura hanging in the balance. After an extremely fun match filled with great wrestling, the Phenomenal One stood victorious, much to our collective relief.

#9 Super Showdown

WWE decided to hold a super-sized pay-per-view event in Australia this year, called Super Showdown. It would be somewhat of a glorified house show, but a lot better than the other international stadium shows WWE has done this year. There were some really cool moments, amidst the standard tag team matches involving John Cena and Ronda Rousey among others. The IIconics and Buddy Murphy picked up hometown victories in front of their people, with the latter winning the Cruiserweight Championship in a ten-minute show-stealer. Other cool moments saw Daniel Bryan stunning The Miz with a small package victory in two minutes and a standard but impressive six-man tag between The Shield and the short-lived Dogs Of War.

However, the night only belonged to one match and four performers, but not in the best way. Time was sacrificed from a couple of matches so that the crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground could sit through a half-an-hour "epic" between Triple H and The Undertaker. Shawn Michaels and Kane would be heavily involved in this unnecessarily slow and tiring main event. There were bells and whistles galore, as we saw four men with a combined age of over 200 beat each other up for a really long period of time. The match was just so dull and should have been shortened for everybody's sake. After the Game's victory, both 'Taker and Kane beat DX down to set up the dreaded tag team match for Crown Jewel. And the rest, as they say, is history.

#8 Money In The Bank

This year, the Money in the Bank concept was a mixed one. The women's briefcase was used perfectly, with Alexa Bliss winning it and cashing in on the same night. She interfered in a brutal and entertaining title match between Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey, before pinning Jax to win the Raw Women's Championship. The ladder match was really exciting, with the first glimpse of how much the crowd was behind Becky Lynch. The men's ladder match was also spectacular and spot-heavy. However, the choice of winner was probably the worst one. Out of all eight men in the match, Braun Strowman needed the briefcase the least. He did not even win the Universal Championship with it. More on that in a moment.

The rest of the card was extremely mixed. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura ended their low blow-induced rivalry with a stellar Last Man Standing match and Seth Rollins retained his Intercontinental Championship against Elias. But there were some really boring, and damaging, matches on this card that bumps it down to the middle of this list. Bobby Lashley vs Sami Zayn was the pay-off to an embarrassing feud and the return of James Ellsworth caused Asuka to lose by pinfall against Carmella, making her look silly. Oh, we also got Roman Reigns vs Jinder Mahal which was a fine match if you watched it on mute.

#7 Hell In A Cell

This show had a consistent string of good matches.

If this show ended even a little bit like how it started, it would have been an excellent show. Hell In A Cell 2018 was our first look at the demonic structure being painted red. The opener was an awesome and brutal encounter between Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy. It ended with Orton picking up the win when Hardy crashed through a table after hanging from the ceiling. What a spot it was. Following that opener, we saw Becky Lynch finally reach the top of the female mountain again as she defeated Charlotte Flair to win the Smackdown Women's Championship. After that, it was straight into a fast-paced and story-driven Raw Tag Team Championship match, with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre defending against Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.

The momentum continued with a hard-hitting WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. The finish may have been controversial, but the match was good enough. However, from then, this show took a complete nosedive into mediocrity with a couple of boring matches. The main event was a Cell match between Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman, who was cashing in his briefcase. The action was fine, but the ending was terrible and senseless. After their respective allies came out to fight around the cage, both Reigns and Strowman were knocked out when Brock Lesnar made his return and invaded the Cell. He attacked both men and the match was rendered a no contest. How can a Hell in a Cell match end without a winner? This farcical ending cost an otherwise solid pay-per-view a spot in the top three or four.

#6 WrestleMania 34

Last year's WrestleMania seemed like a very stacked card, with a little bit of everything for every viewer. The show did end up impressing to a certain extent, but fans were left wanting more. It was a mixed bag. The first half of the New Orleans extravaganza, as we got some fabulous matches and moments. Seth Rollins won the Intercontinental Championship in a triple threat match against The Miz and Finn Balor, while Asuka's winning streak was shattered by Charlotte Flair. One of the most positive surprises of 'Mania was Ronda Rousey and her show-stealers debut performance. The former UFC fighter teamed with Kurt Angle to take on power couple Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in what was a fantastic Mixed Tag Team Match.

We saw Daniel Bryan's return match and The Undertaker squashing John Cena as well, but the night would end on a downer. The final hour saw WrestleMania fall off the express train it was on. The much anticipated WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura was way below the lofty expectations this match carried since it was announced, while Braun Strowman teamed with a 10-year-old kid to win the Raw tag titles from The Bar. And then we got the main event. Nobody cared about this match, as Brock Lesnar seemed to finally drop the Universal Championship to Roman Reigns. But he didn't. WWE pulled a fast one on us, as Lesnar hit countless F5s on a bloody Big Dog to put him away. A disappointing end, and final hour as a whole, to an otherwise fun WrestleMania.

#5 SummerSlam

The Biggest Party of the Summer had quite the list of big moments in 2018. The buildup was drab for the most part, but the show was much better than WWE programming suggested. Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler clashed in a redemptive opener for the Intercontinental title, which saw Dean Ambrose take Seth's corner. Elsewhere on the Smackdown side, we saw some great matches that ended on murky notes. Samoa Joe used the word “daddy” a bit too much, but at least the action was world-class. However, The Miz vs Daniel Bryan was slightly disappointing for a match of such build and story. But as said earlier, this was quite the night for some big moments.

Roman Reigns finally defeated Brock Lesnar and rescued the Universal title from the gorilla hands of the Beast, even if it was temporary. This was also the only time we saw Finn Balor as the Demon in 2018, as he squashed Baron Corbin. Ronda Rousey did the same to Alexa Bliss to win the Raw Women's Championship, in a huge moment for the division as a whole. However, the biggest moment SummerSlam gave to us was the change in Becky Lynch. She lost her Smackdown Women's Championship match to Charlotte Flair and then proceeded to batter her afterwards, turning “heel”. Since then, nobody in WWE has been hotter than The Man. And we have SummerSlam to thank for that.

#4 Tables, Ladders and Chairs

The final WWE pay-per-view of the year was a good one. Despite being a really long show with a lot of matches on it, TLC felt like a big deal for the majority of it. The stipulation matches made sense and were pretty solid, giving us some good action. Matches like Finn Balor vs Drew McIntyre and The Bar vs The New Day vs The Usos were also good additions to this show. We got a decent payoff to an atrocious few weeks of Raw when an injured Braun Strowman enlisted the help of various babyface wrestlers to put away Baron Corbin. However, there was a disappointment as the Intercontinental Championship match between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose turned out to be a flat and uninspiring bore-fest.

Nevertheless, the event had a lot more high points. The best match on the card was Daniel Bryan's successful WWE Championship defence against AJ Styles. The two master craftsmen showed just how good their art is in this match, with the finish being decisive enough on the night but leaving us wanting more. Ronda Rousey wrestled a fantastic match against Nia Jax, who got wiped out by Becky Lynch backstage after her defeat. The Man would defend her Smackdown Women's Championship in the main event of the show against Charlotte Flair and Asuka, in the first-ever women's TLC match. It was entertaining and brutal, with many innovative spots throughout. The finish came when Rousey interfered, tipping over a ladder with Becky and Charlotte on it, to allow Asuka to win the title and close 2018 on top. It was a great way to end the year and build intrigue for 2019.

#3 Survivor Series

Despite the clean sweep, Survivor Series was great.

There was quite a lot of negative with Survivor Series in 2018. Smackdown got dismantled, losing every match on the main show. There have not even been any storyline repercussions from this landslide. The 5-on-5 elimination matches had decent action but seemed too one-sided. The Bar vs AOP may have been the strangest WWE match of the year for two simple reasons, Enzo Amore was in the crowd for this match and was escorted out after creating somewhat of a racket. The finish saw AOP's manager Drake Maverick wet his pants after being choked by the Big Show. Despite this trainwreck of a match, Survivor Series was largely positive. The Cruiserweight Championship match between Buddy Murphy and Mustafa Ali was an encouraging match for the fans of 205 Live.

But this show was all about the last two matches. They were both so good that they lifted a moderate pay-per-view to relative greatness. With Raw's victory already confirmed, brand supremacy took a backseat. Charlotte Flair, stepping in for the injured Becky Lynch, wrestled a barnburner with Ronda Rousey. It was a minor classic and built nicely to a future rematch between the pair of elite level athletes. The post-match beatdown from the Queen was prime stuff as well. After this match, it was time for a dream bout between Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar. It was one of the greatest matches of the year under the entire WWE roof. The beatdown from Lesnar to Bryan was so real, as we all feared for the WWE Champion. However, his comeback was compelling and captivating. Bryan very nearly toppled the Beast. While Lesnar would eventually win, this match was supreme pro wrestling storytelling at it's very best. It was Lesnar's only good performance last year.

#2 Royal Rumble

What a huge ending to a historic pay-per-view.

Last year's Royal Rumble was actually really good, but it is easy to forget that because of the aftermath of both the winners. Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka both ended up losing their WrestleMania title matches and endured sticky spells over the course of the year. But at the time, they were both excellent winners. For almost a decade WWE fans had been left frustrated over the winner of the Royal Rumble match, but here they got two great winners in the same night! The card for this show beyond the male and female 30-person staples was not exactly that strong. AJ Styles retained his WWE Championship in a handicap match against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, while Brock Lesnar kept his big red belt following a standard triple threat with Braun Strowman and Kane.

The night did belong to the two Rumble matches though. The men's Royal Rumble was one of the best in a while, as we saw Nakamura win the whole thing from the previously unlucky number 14. Surprise entrants included NXT stars Andrade 'Cien' Almas and Adam Cole, with the former NXT Champion having a particularly strong showing. The biggest surprise, however, was Rey Mysterio entering at number 27 and shocking everyone. He looked amazing and lasted until the final six. After such a great match on the undercard, the first ever all women's Royal Rumble had to deliver. And deliver it did. We saw a whole bunch of female legends making (not so) surprise appearances and mixing it up with the talent of today. Asuka won the match and stood tall, but the main talking point was the monumental debut that followed.

Ronda Rousey made her WWE debut to cap off a history-making night for the women of WWE. Honestly, there could have been no bigger way to end the Royal Rumble pay-per-view and that makes it so close to being the best show of 2018. It would take a greater achievement of the talented ladies of WWE to top what they did in Philadelphia on January 28th, and they ended up doing it.

#1 Evolution

One of the most feel-good WWE shows of all time.

Most WWE pay-per-views had at least one bad moment or match in them, no matter how good they were. SummerSlam had Strowman vs Owens, TLC had Rollins vs Ambrose and Survivor Series had The Bar vs AOP, but Evolution had none. Every match on this card delivered. Whether it was for nostalgia value, making good use of talent, building to the future or it was just an outright excellent match, all seven matches served a purpose. When Evolution was announced, there were doubts on whether WWE would be able to book a good pay-per-view only with the women. On October 28th of last year, they squashed all the doubts with an excellent effort.

Trish Stratus and Lita reunited for a fun tag team victory, while we saw an entertaining battle royal which felt like an extension to January's all-female Rumble match. Toni Storm vs Io Shirai in the Mae Young Classic Final and Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler for NXT Women's Championship were both excellent, showing the rich variety of female talent WWE has with them. The six-woman tag team match between the Riott Squad and the team of Natalya, Bayley and Sasha Banks seemed to be a Raw-standard bout, but they took it up a notch with a great effort. Everything felt bigger.

Ronda Rousey defeated Nikki Bella in a perfectly fine main event, but the show was absolutely stolen by Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. The two contested in a near-perfect Last Woman Standing match for the Smackdown Women's Championship, it was likely WWE's best main roster match in 2018. The Man survived a hellacious bout to stand victorious alongside Rousey at the pinnacle of women's wrestling, and WWE as a whole. This show was a celebration of women's wrestling in a history-making way and was the next great step in the rise of the WWE's female division. Amidst the Crown Jewel controversy, Evolution was the light that shone brightly. It truly was the best WWE main roster show of 2018.