10 most valuable WWE players of 2018

2018 was the ultimate hot and cold year in WWE. When it was good, it was really good. When it was bad, it wasn't good. See the current state of Raw compared to SmackDown. See the women's division from before SummerSlam compared to what happened after it. Look at the state of the tag team division before versus after WrestleMania. Compare the current NXT title scene to the NXT women's title scene.

WWE was in a tailspin in the months between WrestleMania and SummerSlam, but managed to bounce back nicely - on SmackDown, that is - in the months after it.

Now with the end of the year upon us, it's time to take a look back at those stars that made 2018 what it was and saved it from potentially being much worse.

#10 Kairi Sane

In an aberration of how things usually go, the NXT women's division fared worse than its main roster counterparts. The booking of Shayna Baszler is responsible for this. Baszler is very much like WWE itself.

In certain contexts, she's great. In others, she's underwhelming. The year didn't start off on a promising note. The feud with Ember Moon fell far short of NXT Women's Championship standards. The feud with Dakota Kai ultimately became disappointing. The match with Nikki Cross at NXT TakeOver: Chicago II was very poor, especially by TakeOver standards.

It was in this context that Kairi Sane entered the title picture and that proved to be its saving grace for most of the rest of the year.

Kairi's efforts weren't enough to save the NXT women's division from having its worst year in history. The bizarre booking of Baszler continued, culminating at TakeOver: War Games II, and the entrance of Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke into the picture, along with the setting up of a Baszler vs. Belair match, promise to make the division even worse, but Sane's efforts were enough to make it compelling in the back half of 2018.