10 Times WWE Was Legitimately The Best Wrestling On The Planet

WWE could not have started this year any stronger. They pulled a masterful coup on New Japan Pro Wrestling which was beginning to steal some of the federation's native fans. Taking Gallows and Anderson, one of the few good tag teams in NJPW, would have been enough, but they went even further, nabbing one of NJPW's four pillars in their perennial intercontinental champion, Shinsuke Nakamura, along with the leader of wrestling's hottest faction, AJ Styles.

While Styles, flanked by his Bullet Club brethren, fulfilled dreams by earning clean wins against John Cena, Nakamura ran through a litany of indie darlings like Austin Aries and Sami Zayn in NXT. The brand extension produced two distinctive flavors of WWE, with Raw featuring the big stars like Lesnar and Goldberg, and SmackDown Live giving pushes to unsung heroes like Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler. The Network made everything even better, letting talent enhance the storylines in shows like Raw Talk and Talking Smack.

Even with Finn Balor getting injured, it truly felt like a new era with Kevin Owens holding the Universal title for so long and the cruiserweights showing some action on Raw. Women's wrestling took a huge step forward, with both shows having their own women's title, and each member of the four horsewomen of NXT getting to show their talents to the casual audience.