10 Biggest WWE Creative Success Stories Of 2018
1. Ronda Rousey
It was, for better and worse, a year of complete subversion for Ronda Rousey.
Ronda subverted everything about what it means to be an outstanding professional wrestler in 2018. You're only meant to grasp psychology once the fundamentals are down pat. Only then, learned through muscle memory, does a performer build on them. Not so with Rousey, who tore Stephanie McMahon's hairs out, and casually removed them from her fingers with a shrug, in a debut match absolutely unreal in its quality. Ronda entered a kinetic performance as intense as all hell in NOLA, and for a time, we put it down to the months of minutiae practised at the Performance Center. Then she tore the house down with Nia Jax (!) at Money In The Bank, before clashing with Charlotte Flair in a definite contender for best WWE women's match ever at Survivor Series. It was certainly the best fight.
At times, Vince McMahon must hate his audience. Here, he has some justification. WWE presented Ronda Rousey with a focus group precision. She was humble, and she wanted to be there. She was the anti-Brock Lesnar who nonetheless brought a similar star power and legitimacy to the squared circle. She also won, every time, because wins and losses matter, and 50/50 booking is a disease. Despite all this, in another subversion, Ronda faltered when cutting her own, alienating, anti-millennial promos.
Regardless, beyond a baffling decision to have her sell for Alexa Bliss, WWE portrayed Ronda Rousey perfectly in 2018.