10 Best Wrestling Matches Of 2018

10. Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle Vs. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H - WWE WrestleMania 34

Comfortably the greatest debut performance of all time, Ronda Rousey's first ever wrestling match was among the best of arguably the greatest ever year for the in-ring component of the craft.

That is some praise, but then, this was some bloody match.

Great wrestling matches telegraph something in the wider build, provide it after obscuring it, and then deliver something you didn't know you wanted even more. Stephanie McMahon, who comes in for much, deserved criticism on this site, performed incredibly here. Using her entitled, irritating 1% smugness as a platform for actual comeuppance, she was especially irritating on the night. Doing everything possible to avoid Rousey, but at the same time carrying herself as she didn't need to, this was the very best version of a performer who would be outstanding, if her ego did not get in the way.

It did not get in the way here.

When Ronda eventually stepped through those ropes - after great chickensh*t work from Steph and unheralded, earnest toil from Kurt Angle - she lit up the Superdome with the intensity of a legit combat athlete and the timing and instincts of a pro wrestling prodigy. We expected a genius, smoke-and-mirrors layout to obscure Ronda's inexperience. We got that and an unexpectedly outstanding match in itself, one that reached an amazing crescendo as Ronda pulverised Triple H in a rare, organic 'WrestleMania Moment'.

Inspiringly, Ronda is a Triple H 'Guy'. Possibly not a ***** match per se, this was a ******* spectacle that proved Trips' WWE, in its own, different way, may one day become something as incredible as his NXT.

This is what WWE talks about when WWE talks about sports entertainment.