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2018 was a year to remember - for both good and bad reasons. For a while, it looked like the bad would outnumber the good, but WWE managed to do a decent job in getting its act together as the year headed toward its end - for the most part, anyway.
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Some divisions in the company had a stunning surge in 2018 and some regressed. Some title reigns or pushes were excellent and some were drags on the programming, to put it kindly.
Without further ado, let's look at the trends that rocked the year and those that sucked it into quicksand.
Best: The main roster's women division
We might as well start with the obvious. On the main roster, 2018 was the Year of the Woman. Most of the highest points of the past 12 months involved them.
It started off strong with a very good women's Royal Rumble match in January. It was a proper mixture of a tribute to the past and a build to the future, with the right winner in Asuka. Though she wasn't in the match, Ronda Rousey made her maiden WWE appearance afterward. The Road to WrestleMania was thus on, and the ending of that Royal Rumble culminated in the Show of Shows' two best matches in Asuka vs. Charlotte and Ronda Rousey's thumping of the Authority.
From there, the division went into the typical WWE post-WrestleMania slump, and for a while, it looked like the good work to start the year would be erased, as it was suffering under the doldrums of Carmella, Nia Jax, and Alexa Bliss as champions.
The ship was righted at SummerSlam, with Ronda Rousey capturing Raw's title and the beginning of the Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch feud, with the latter ultimately rising to become "The Man." Evolution was a smash success, and then, to put a cherry on top, a resurgent Asuka finally cast aside her demons and captured the gold in another match of the year candidate at TLC, one in which Ronda Rousey again made herself felt.
The women are easily the biggest box office item on the last day of the year and have earned a main event at WrestleMania 35.
Worst: The tag team division
2017 was a tag team renaissance year, with the New Day vs. Usos feud leading the way. Unfortunately, 2018 saw a drastic decline in the quality of WWE's doubles division.
The Raw tag team titles have become the least prestigious in the company this year. In everything from being held by a 10-year-old at WrestleMania, to being carried by a team of comedy jobbers in the summer, to gravitating around urination jokes as the year entered its home stretch, they suffered horribly, under one set of underwhelming champions after another. The September-October resurgence, where they got involved in the Shield reunion, was all too brief.
As usual, SmackDown fared better, but its division still fell from its 2017 highs. The Bludgeon Brothers carried the titles in an underwhelming reign for most of the year. They're currently in good hands with The Bar, but the repetitive nature of the doubles feuds on the blue brand has finally gotten the attention of the higher-ups. Hopefully, they continue to build new teams like Gallows and Anderson and SAnitY.
Best: SmackDown Live
When 2018 began, Raw was the better of the two shows. SmackDown was suffering from the endless Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn feud that took up far too much air time. The rest of the show just felt underwhelming.
After the Superstar Shakeup, things changed in a big way. Jettisoning the likes of Jinder Mahal and the Riott Squad, the blue brand acquired an All-Star team from Raw, including Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, and Asuka. With the level of talent it had, it wasn't hard for the blue brand to exceed its red counterpart, and indeed, it quickly did.
Things got even better as the year came to a close, with the NEW Daniel Bryan becoming WWE Champion and a white-hot women's division with Charlotte, Becky, and Asuka in the lead. Even its midcard is currently rebuilding, with WWE finally giving the popular Rusev a push.
On the last day of the year, SmackDown is so far ahead that its already passed Raw around the racetrack several times.
Worst: Raw
The pitiful state of Monday Night Raw has finally been noticed by the higher-ups. It's long overdue. After celebrating its 25th anniversary in January, the show would go on to have arguably its worst year ever.
With a weak, injury-riddled cast being needed to fill out three hours, the show was behind the 8-ball from the beginning, but WWE made terrible decisions on top of that to stack the problems to the end of the universe. The tag team division was in a pitiful state and for most of the year, everything in the men's division on the show seemed to centre around getting Roman Reigns over, until his shocking cancer diagnosis left another black hole at the top of the card.
Even the highlights of the show, Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey, were ill-served. The former lost much of his momentum in another ill-advised Shield reunion, while the latter didn't have ideal opponents to work with to truly cement her reign as a standard-bearer. Good as she is, she's been outshined by Becky, Charlotte, and Asuka on SmackDown.
Best: Tommaso Ciampa
All hail the Greatest Sports Entertainer of All Time!
That's what Tommaso Ciampa calls himself, and as 2018 ends, it's actually hard to argue that his bluster isn't based on truth. He's had no less than four match of the year candidates - two with Johnny Gargano, one with Aleister Black, and one with Velveteen Dream.
But the matches aren't what makes him truly special. In an age where people often cheer heels, Tommaso Ciampa has managed to make himself so detestable, yet so entertaining, that he gets jeers wherever he goes that people enjoy giving to him. He's become the consensus best heel in the business in 2018, transforming the once lovable Johnny Gargano into a warped, deranged, and broken human being through his mind games.
Whenever Ciampa finally loses the NXT title, it's going to feel like a massive deal, and will give a babyface a huge rub. In performing this role, he's a far more effective "beast" than Brock Lesnar ever was.
Worst: The NXT women's division
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.
Best: Seth Rollins
For a long while, Seth Rollins was the sole reason to watch Raw. His open challenge Intercontinental Championship defenses were the highlight of the show.
It was all par for the course. Rollins had his best year ever in 2018, far exceeding his long WWE title run in 2015. Finally finding his footing as a babyface, Rollins became the hottest act in the company in the first half of 2018, lasting an hour in the famous gauntlet match in February and setting the world on fire from there.
His momentum sapped in the second half of the year, saddled by a tedious Shield reunion and then a disappointing feud with Dean Ambrose, but he remains the most popular male babyface on the red brand, and one feels like he just needs that big breakout moment to get his stride back.
That moment might well come on 27 January, where he's the favorite to win the men's Royal Rumble match. There's no better choice this year, and no better choice to finally begin rebuilding the main event of Monday Night Raw.
If the Intercontinental Championship was a test of how a main event run would go, as that title used to be, Seth Rollins passed easily. He's a much better performer now than he was in 2015.
Worst: The Universal Championship
The Universal Championship has been cursed from its inception.
It was jeered when it was unveiled, it has a silly name, and its champions have a knack for having something wrong with them. First, Finn Balor got injured. Then Kevin Owens had a tedious reign. Then Goldberg won it to be fed to Brock Lesnar, which has kept the championship off television for the better part of the last two years. The exception to that two years was Roman Reigns, who finally won the title in underwhelming fashion, only to then have a hum-drum reign and then have to leave to battle leukemia. Brock Lesnar won the title back.
Through it all, Raw's main event has suffered tremendously. Brock Lesnar's absentee title run has left a big black hole at the top of the card, and the show feels directionless as a result. There was something novel about the champion only showing up ever so often to have a big fight feel, but that point has long since passed.
If Raw is to rebuild, getting the title off Brock Lesnar is the first thing that needs to be done. There needs to be a focus for the stars of the brand. A title may be a prop, but that prop is the centerpiece of the stories that professional wrestling is based on.
Seth Rollins is currently in the best position to make the top title of the red brand meaningful. The goal should be to get it to him as soon as possible. If Lesnar retains to WrestleMania, he needs to finally be defeated decisively there. In the unlikely event Braun Strowman wins it, the time will have passed, and he should drop it to Rollins.
Best: Daniel Bryan's return
A year ago, we never expected Daniel Bryan to be cleared. But cleared he was, just in time for WrestleMania.
Bryan went on to be a frequent highlight of SmackDown, but his heel turn late in the year was the thing that really got people talking. Taking the WWE Championship in the process, Bryan has become far hotter in his "NEW" incarnation than he was as a returning babyface, where he was saddled with the likes of Big Cass and a Miz feud that, while good, was underwhelming compared to the hype.
The NEW Daniel Bryan is a whole different animal, and it's become the highlight of his return.
He's already outperformed Styles' reign as champion, and like Tommaso Ciampa, it will already feel like a big deal whenever he finally loses the title. With no one to replace him, though, that time still feels a ways off.
Worst: The Saudi Arabia shows
What did the Greatest Royal Rumble and Crown Jewel have in common? They both took place in Saudi Arabia. And they were both terrible.
Perhaps this was due to the eccentricities of the Saudi royal family, who bizarrely requested the presence of the Ultimate Warrior and Yokozuna, or perhaps it was something else (we'll get into that shortly). Either way, the shows were very bad. The red hot women weren't allowed to perform at either one, and unsurprisingly, Evolution crushed both the Greatest Royal Rumble and Crown Jewel in quality.
In fact, at this point, I think we'd all rather see another Evolution instead of another Crown Jewel or Greatest Royal Rumble.
Unfortunately, a couple of Saudi Arabian shows have already been booked for 2019. I'd recommend you do what I did for Crown Jewel - don't watch. Too bad we'll still have to suffer with them dragging the booking of the weekly shows down.
Best/Worst: AJ Styles' WWE title reign
AJ Styles has had a bizarre year.
He reigned as WWE Champion for most of it, but that title reign was underwhelming, even if it was good. He had a feud with Shinsuke Nakamura that was good, but lackluster at the same time. He had a better feud with Samoa Joe that also wound up being disappointing.
Styles' booking was far from bad, since he was the champion, but it wasn't good, either. He rarely main evented his own show every week. His matches were marred by screwy finish after screwy finish. He even tapped out to Samoa Joe before a pinfall but kept his title due to referee incompetence.
That kind of booking doesn't make one feel like a real champion.
Styles was always reliable, but the title felt stagnant at the same time.
Perhaps its unsurprising that Daniel Bryan's reign is already better after a month or so than Styles' was for a year. Simply put, Bryan hasn't been booked that way.
Best/Worst: The death of the part-timer
For the past decade, WWE has failed to create new stars. They were content to go to the well, relying on the part-time legend of the past. Father Time beats everybody, though, and everyone knew it was only a matter of time until that strategy would fail.
In 2018, it finally did. That's a great thing for the future of the company, but its death throes were agonizing to watch.
John Cena went from having one to both feet out the door, only returning sporadically. Brock Lesnar has long worn out his welcome. The Undertaker gets more pathetic with each appearance, and 2018 was the year most fans finally figured it out. Kane is much the same. Triple H is in a similar spot. His one great performance was in the match with Rousey at WrestleMania, but that was mostly due to Rousey. Shawn Michaels already looked like he regretted his return at Crown Jewel.
Batista might still be left. Goldberg could potentially make a return if he wanted to, but the opportunities are dwindling.
More tellingly, the part-timers didn't move the needle. The constant presence of The Undertaker, Triple H, Kane, and Shawn Michaels throughout the fall did nothing to improve Raw's rating. The well had finally been mined. Vince McMahon did move things, but it already appears like that well, too, has been mined.
The writing is finally on the wall. The company has no choice but to try and turn its current talent into bigger stars. With loud proclamations of a "new era" and seeming pushes to organically popular acts, they look like they realize it, too.
It will no doubt be a long time before we see any dividends, and mistakes will undoubtedly be made along the way, but the first step to fixing a problem is realizing you have one. 2018 was the year WWE was finally forced to realize it had an age problem. That's a good thing, even if it was horrible to watch.
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
