10 Best Wrestling Pay-Per-Views Of 2018

6. WWE Evolution

Omega Okada IV
WWE.com

An event that promised a celebration of women's wrestling delivered it.

Celebration is right; a very welcome departure from the heat-seeking missile that is the WWE product at large, Evolution was inspiring. Even a match as on-paper underwhelming as Bayley, Sasha Banks and Natalya Vs. The Riott Squad over-delivered - crucially, because it yielded a rare, conclusive moment of babyface triumph. Much like the nostalgia-driven, nuclear-heated opener, this was a WWE fan getting nice things - in 2018!

Things turned nasty as Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, over the course of 29 seminal minutes, rendered their real-life friendship a virtual impossibility. They beat the piss out of each other, with an unhinged and motivated relish, in arguably the greatest-ever Last Man Standing match. And, again, WWE delivered the right result: on a show pitched under the most cynical circumstances imaginable, WWE put over an organic fan favourite, inspiring an overdue optimism in the process.

The NXT component of the show delivered, too; while neither Io Shirai Vs. Toni Storm nor Kairi Sane Vs. Shayna Baszler was the best version of itself, we saw just enough of Storm's star potential, Sane's unreal babyface fire, Shirai's subtle and spectacular character work, and Baszler's bastardry - and the truncated run-times resulted in a legit show, as opposed to a collection of great matches.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!