10 top male WWE Superstars of 2018
2018 was a great year for several male superstars. Not all of these competitors won championships in 2018 but they still had a great year. Whether it was in terms of promos, rivalries, their win/loss record. or the pure quality of their matches, these superstars shone in 2018.
This list includes male members of the main roster of both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. A few superstars from 205 Live were also able to make the cut due to 2018's rejuvenation of 205 Live as a show only based on Cruiserweight wrestling.
Many superstars including Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Rey Mysterio, & Sami Zayn will be unable to make the cut because they spent a decent portion of the year on the shelf (or competing in other promotions). Before we start the list, there are a few honorable mentions.
Rusev had a decent year. He turned face after spending his entire career as a heel, challenged for the United States Championship, the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, & the WWE Championship (for the first time in his career), competed in his first ever Money in the Bank ladder match, lasted for more than 30 minutes in the Royal Rumble, won a gauntlet match, and defeated the likes of Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Daniel Bryan, & The Miz.
However, he has not been booked strong enough on pay per view and has shockingly not won a pay per view match since 2016 and also disappeared from SmackDown Live for a decent amount of time.
Baron Corbin surprisingly had a breakout year in 2018. He has made considerable improvements in the ring and had several good matches with the likes of Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, & Roman Reigns.
He was in the main event of Fastlane and that match was one of the best matches of the year. Baron Corbin also was great as Constable of Monday Night Raw. However, he started to become a nuisance as general manager of Monday Night Raw and still has improvements to make in the ring.
Bobby Lashley made his return on the Raw after WrestleMania 34. While he looked dominant throughout the year, he had poor promos throughout the year as several segments involving Bobby Lashley are some of the worst segments of the year. This problem was fixed when he turned heel and was paired with Lio Rush. However, except for his series with Roman Reigns, Bobby Lashley has not had a truly great match which is what really messes him up.
#10 Shinsuke Nakamura
Shinsuke Nakamura started off the year extremely strong. He won the 2018 Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Roman Reigns (he also eliminated Sami Zayn) and defeated the likes of Shelton Benjamin, Baron Corbin, Aiden English, & Rusev on his Road to WrestleMania before facing AJ Styles.
While he was defeated by AJ Styles, he turned heel and two nights later he delivered the best promo of his career. He feuded with AJ Styles until Money in the Bank where he was finally defeated in one of the best matches of the year.
Shinsuke Nakamura then quickly became the United States Champion afterwards by defeating Jeff Hardy and then successfully retained the United States Championship by defeating wrestlers like Jeff Hardy, R-Truth and Rusev.
While he did sort of disappear from SmackDown Live, he is in the middle of a feud with Rusev and is likely to have a strong performance in the Royal Rumble match.