10 Biggest WWE Creative Mistakes Of 2018

9. EVERY. SINGLE. MAIN ROSTER. CALL-UP.

Sasha Banks Bayley
WWE.com

This has to end in 2019.

You can't just debut a raft of new names, undermining the very point of a new, eye-catching attraction, in front of a hardcore audience and expect the casuals to simply infer that they are stars. It doesn't work. 2018 was the worst year yet for this bullsh*t.

In NXT, No Way Jose was agreeable enough opening match fare. On RAW, he doesn't even make it that far.

In NXT, Ember Moon, in her matches with Asuka, arguably enhanced the rich legacy forged by the Four Horsewomen. On RAW, she drifts aimlessly from one 50/50 TV programme to the next. Once so close to Asuka's throne that the Empress was compelled to cheat to stay there, she is now roughly synonymous with Tamina.

In NXT, #DIY and the Revival had to submerge their shared hatred and unite just to stand a chance against the Authors of Pain. On RAW, Akam and Rezar rely on the interference of their water sports fetishist of a manager to beat makeshift tandems who can't even tag one another in correctly.

In NXT, The Iconic Duo used purposefully obnoxious spiel as pretext to wrestle nothing matches. On SmackDown, nothing has changed other than the name of the act Dave Meltzer.

In NXT, SAnitY existed, and starred in the first WarGames match. On SmackDown, they worked fewer dates in 2018 than James Ellsworth.

In NXT, after a misjudged start, Andrade 'Cien' Almas announced himself as one of the best wrestlers on the planet - a cocksure super-worker with a temple-drilling spinning back elbow. On SmackDown, he may still be one of the best wrestlers on the planet.

We wouldn't f*cking know.

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 surefire Undisputed WWE Universal 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!