10 WWE Wrestlers Poised To Break Out In 2018
Climbing the ladder.
Though much has been made of the kind of wrestlers WWE choose to push to their product's forefront (the average age of a Survivor Series 2017 main event competitor was 40.5 years, lest we forget), there's no denying that their talent pool is currently stuffed with potential.
WWE's inability to build new stars comes not from a lack of options. There are literally dozens of potential headliners throughout Raw, SmackDown, and NXT, and many more locked away in the Performance Center. Seats are the top table are limited, of course, and plenty prospects will fall away in time, but if their employers' star-making machine wasn't so damaged, each would have a legitimate shot of surging all the way to the top.
2017 saw the likes of Braun Strowman, Alexa Bliss, and Andrade 'Cien' Almas break out. Success came with varying levels of difficulty, but each took the foundations laid in 2016 and used them as the first building blocks towards what turned out to be a career-defining year. They have arrived, and their accomplishments show it's still possible to spring up WWE's broken ladder.
In 2018, it's this group's turn...
10. Bianca Belair
Going into the Mae Young Classic, much of the hype understandably revolved around the likes of Kairi Sane, Toni Storm, and Candice, who'd already built sizeable reputations on wrestling's smaller stages, but were yet to compete under WWE's lens.
Even the likes of UK standouts Kay Lee Ray and Piper Niven, UFC veteran Shayna Baslzer, and ex-TNA Knockouts Champion Mia Yim attracted considerable attention, leaving the bulk of the company's existing developmental prospects in the shadows. They were only there to fill out the numbers, it was assumed.
Bianca Belair made everyone who passed this judgement look like a fool, emerging not only as the MMC's biggest breakout star, but one of WWE's hottest young prospects. Carrying herself with poise and just the right amount of cockiness, she performed with a finesse that belied her relative inexperience. Belair's second-round bout against Sane was one of the tournament's finest, and while her in-ring skills still need sharpening, her signature hair-whip is an immediate audience hook, and her charisma is already through the roof.
NXT's crowded women's scene means she'll have to bide her time, but Belair is set to make major developmental waves in 2017.