WWE faces a challenging, conflicted set of circumstances. On one hand, they have incredible resources at their disposal and a huge audience. With those considerable advantages comes the weight of responsibility. With so many fans with such diverse interests at hand, it is exceedingly difficult to make everyone happy.
For all the flack WWE tends to get, particularly from critics on the Internet, they have made some very good creative choices this year so far. That includes unexpected twists, creative booking, and making the best out of less than ideal circumstances. However, there are also still times when it’s hard to deny the company dropped the ball.
10 10. Great Decision: Ronda Rousey’s Heel Turn
Going into WrestleMania 35, WWE set to have faces Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey face heel Charlotte Flair. The trouble with this design was that while Rousey was the biggest mainstream celebrity involved in the match, WWE fans weren’t nearly as high on her. Both in terms of the story told and in terms of the quality of her work, Lynch was crowd favorite by a country mile.
Turning Rousey heel was gutsy, and particularly right before the biggest show of the year, and arguably the biggest women’s wrestling match of all time. The choice paid off, though as Rousey got to show off more personality as a heel, and create a less muddled picture for Lynch to arrive at the show as hero.
9 9. Blown Opportunity: The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection On Top
When WWE introduced its new Women’s Tag Team Championship, it seemed like a natural step to offer another prize for the increasingly deep women’s roster to pursue, not to mention honoring the number of pairs of allies that had emerged in the division.
The team of Sasha Banks and Bayley made a lot of sense as the first champions of the division. They’re real-life close friends pitched as friends for most of their main roster run together. More importantly, they’re both on the shortlist of the best female workers in WWE, setting up the new tag ranks for success with strong champions.
In moving the titles to The Iiconics quickly, WWE undermined the division’s in-ring quality, as well as Bayley and Banks themselves. While Banks, in particular, taking the news poorly may not have been an appropriate response, it’s nonetheless hard to argue The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection should have dropped the titles so quickly at all.
8 8. Great Decision: Going All The Way With Kofi Kingston
Kofi Kingston got over organically based on over a decade of strong work and a particularly great showing in a Gauntlet Match on SmackDown leading up to Elimination Chamber. WWE shrewdly took advantage of both the groundswell of support behind Kingston, and the fact that there was no other obvious contender for the WWE Championship who’d be close to as over as Kingston at WrestleMania 35. Kingston rightfully got the biggest match of the career and made the most of it not only delivering a great match, but a sensational feel-good moment when he won.
7 7. Blown Opportunity: Aleister Black And Ricochet Hit The Glass Ceiling
When the main roster, and especially Monday Night Raw, was struggling in the months leading up to WrestleMania, WWE pulled the trigger on a handful of early NXT call ups, most notably including Aleister Black and Ricochet. These were two of the most popular and talented acts from developmental, who just so happened to have been teaming for the Dusty Rhodes Classic Tournament at the time.
Debuting the pair as a team wasn’t without its merits, as they were protected coming in and could pick up some wins on the merits of their teamwork that the powers that be may not have wanted for them to have as singles wrestlers. However, this role, and failing to capture tag gold as a tandem set up these bright two stars as, at best, mid-card guys when they went solo. Neither has any clear direction now or clear indicator they’ll thrive on Raw or SmackDown.
6 6. Great Decision: Becky Lynch Wins The Royal Rumble
One thing was certain in WWE women’s wrestling on the back end of 2018. Becky Lynch was very, very over.
At the Royal Rumble, WWE told a compelling story of Lynch participating in a hard-fought match with Asuka, only to be defeated in the end and lose her SmackDown Women’s Championship opportunity. She’d return later in the night, though, to claim a spot in the women’s Royal Rumble. Her entry was an epic one and got paid off wit ha deeply satisfying victory as she last eliminated arch-rival Charlotte Flair to get going on the road to WrestleMania (and the main event no less).
5 5. Blown Opportunity: Kevin Owens’s Face Run
Kevin Owens has been a rock solid performer for WWE for years now as an upper card and even occasional main event heel. He did well when given the ball with the Universal Championship and has been consistently great on the mic.
Before Owens went out of action due to injury in 2018, he edged face, and it was refreshing to see him return to action in that role. After three years of playing a bad guy, Owens was fun to see wearing a white hat, and particularly using his gift for gab to antagonize faces on his talk show.
While Owens was a fair choice for Kofi Kingston’s first PPV challenger for the WWE Championship, and plays the heel well, his face run felt underexplored and over far too quickly to arrive at that end.
4 4. Great Decision: Not Rushing To Add Roman Reigns To Universal Championship Scene
Roman Reigns has spent most of his time as a singles wrestler in WWE orbiting one world title picture or another. When he returned sooner than expected from his battle with leukemia, and justly received a hero’s welcome, the temptation may well have been to immediately reinsert him into contention for the Universal title that he never lost, and especially to do so at WrestleMania 35.
WWE wisely held off, letting Seth Rollins see through his story with Brock Lesnar and also dodging the very real risk that fans would reject seeing Reigns over-pushed again. There’s little doubt Reigns will contend for the WWE or Universal Championship in the months ahead, but WWE was right to put some breathing room in between his return and him going for a top title.
3 3. Blown Opportunity: Brock Lesnar Wins Money In The Bank
Brock Lesnar won the men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match this year, making a surprise late entry to the match and stealing the briefcase to add yet another accolade to his impressive resume. While Lesnar’s return was a surprise and accordingly created an exciting moment, it nonetheless felt like the men’s Money in the Bank was squandered.
Lesnar used his title shot to set up a match for Super ShowDown. Given that Bayley cashed in her Money in the Bank opportunity the same night she won it, this meant WWE defused both Money in the Bank timebombs in quick fashion. While there’s something to be said for a year without the briefcase looming over any title, it also felt as though WWE was denying fans their anticipation and surefire electric moment down the road. On top of that, younger stars like Drew McIntyre or Ali could have used the win much more than Lesnar, who could have justifiably gotten his title shot anyway as a return match from WrestleMania or even just based on his name.
2 2. Great Decision: Firefly Funhouse
When Bray Wyatt went out of action in 2018, he felt played out. By that point, he was meandering as Matt Hardy’s sidekick in a thrown together tag team, and the bloom was well off the rose for his unconventional character that had once been so compelling.
WWE demonstrated unusually high patience in holding Wyatt off TV for a year, and the reintroducing him not with a surprise appearance in the ring or a traditional promo, but rather the Firefly Funhouse vignettes. These clips were so different and well produced that they created a buzz around the character WWE likely couldn’t have achieved by any other means.
1 1. Blown Opportunity: Killing Asuka’s Momentum
Asuka closed out 2018 by beating Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in an excellent match that closed the TLC PPV. She went on to beat Lynch cleanly and creatively at the Royal Rumble with a bridging variation on the Asuka Lock, shoring up the Empress’s claim as one of the tip-top female stars in WWE.
Leading into WrestleMania, Asuka didn’t have a clear match lined up, and wound up dropping her title to Flair shortly before the biggest PPV of the year. From there, she worked a forgettable spot in the Women’s Battle Royal at ‘Mania, en route to forming a tag team with Kairi Sane. The Kabuki Warriors have a lot of potential, but it nonetheless feels like WWE missed the boat on Asuka yet again when she was set up to be a major player.