5 WWE superstars who will have a breakout 2019

2018 was a year that certainly had its downs, but it gave us a memorable list of breakout stars. No one would have expected Ronda Rousey to be as good as she's been. Buddy Murphy had a renaissance year that no one, except perhaps him, saw coming, moving from NXT afterthought to the star of 205 Live. Seth Rollins rode a gauntlet match in February to emerge from tepid babyface stuck in the tag team division to the most beloved star on Raw. Though it came at the expense of the rest of the NXT women's division, Shayna Baszler got the attention of far more people than she did a year ago. Ricochet exploded onto the WWE stage, living up to the hype and then some. Rhea Ripley went from Mae Young Classic semi-finalist to inaugural NXT UK Women's Champion in about a month. And obviously, Becky Lynch had her own breakout year, going from irrelevant to the hottest star in the company.

As eyes now turn to 2019, we wonder who will have breakout years of their own. It's impossible to know for sure - who could have predicted the years that Buddy Murphy and Becky Lynch had? However, given the trajectory some superstars are on late in 2018, a breakout in 2019 is likely.

#1 Elias

Elias is unlikely to ever become a main event player, but there's far more that he could be doing than the random segments we've gotten used to for the past couple of years. His babyface turn has gone off without a hitch and having proven himself valuable in many roles, it's only a matter of time before he gets featured more prominently.

That time might be coming sooner rather than later. Rumors already have begun to swirl that Elias was set to take the Intercontinental Championship. If Dean Ambrose wins at TLC next week, Elias emerges as a possible contender to take the championship from him.

Either way, he'll be Intercontinental Champion (or US Champion if he moves to SmackDown) at some point in 2019 and become even more popular.