3 mistakes WWE made in 2018
2018 has drawn to a close, and it has been another memorable year for WWE. From the 2018 Royal Rumble, which included the first ever Women's Royal Rumble Match, all the way to the first-ever all-women's pay-per-view, Evolution, and, of course, a first last Woman Standing Match - it has been a year of firsts in the WWE. There was the acquisition of Ronda Rousey as a new WWE Superstar which further elevated the increasingly popular Women’s division.
The men's side of things was not short of drama. Shinsuke Nakamura won a highly entertaining Men's Royal Rumble Match to start the year with a bang, but that almost felt like his own downfall. From contesting the WWE Championship on the blue brand, the enigmatic Japanese Superstar lost United States Championship in the most recent episode of Smackdown Live to Rusev.
There was the in-ring return of Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns departing from WWE to fight leukaemia, and a few other notable moments in 2018 in WWE.
But in spite of the remarkable successes which were majorly due to impressive script writing, there were also some eyebrow-raising and bizarre decisions along the way. Here, we look at three mistakes that stood out in 2018:
#1 The WWE World Cup tournament
The WWE World Cup tournament at Crown Jewel was one of those tournaments, which at the end, left us all wondering - ‘what were the WWE thinking?’ This was a good idea to have a tournament scheduled with a series of matches on both RAW and Smackdown Live competing to have contestants in the main tournament which the WWE termed as the World Cup.
So the main tournament was part of the Crown Jewel pay-per-view that was a massive letdown by WWE standards. The final was contested by Dolph Ziggler and The Miz, both heels at the time, but Shane McMahon ended up winning the tournament when The Miz suffered an ‘injury’ and was subsequently replaced by the Smackdown commissioner.
On the next episode of Smackdown Live, Shane McMahon would ultimately declare that trophy was for everyone on Smackdown Live, making the whole ‘World Cup’ entirely pointless.
#2 Bayley-Sasha Banks feud
Both Bayley and Sasha Banks are former RAW Women's Champions, and it is beyond belief at just how much their stock has reduced over the last 12 months. Sasha, in particular, was part of an amazing feud with Charlotte Flair when the Queen was on RAW, and they put on some epic matches for the championship.
The Bayley and Sasha Banks feud felt like an effective storyline for a while until WWE decided to pretty much repeat it every week for several months. Banks had twice eliminated Bayley, first in the Women's Royal Rumble match, and then at the Elimination Chamber.
Bayley hit back when she viciously attacked Sasha in an episode of RAW in June and the crowd popped huge knowing things had taken a turn, at last. Instead, they attended meetings with a counsellor to sort out their differences.
And now, the two women are best friends once again.
#3 Braun Strowman not winning the Universal Championship
One of the biggest disappointments, which I think most WWE fans would agree, is Brawn Strowman not winning WWE Universal Championship. That is one of the strangest decisions of 2018, considering the fact that Roman Reigns was forced to vacate the championship due to his unfortunate battle with Leukemia. The WWE Universe was left confused as to why the WWE creative team had not booked The Monster Among Men to win his first Universal title.
In all honesty, Strowman should have won the title as early as 2017 when his increasing popularity and famous catchphrase was at its peak. Instead, the WWE seems to have missed on their opportunity to crown Strowman with the title, once again.
According to pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, Brock Lesnar, the current Universal Champion, is contracted to WWE until April 2019, all the way to Wrestlemania 35. That in all likelihood means that Strowman’s chances of wrestling the title away from Lesnar at Royal Rumble in 2019 is very slim.