10 Ways 2018 Was WWE's Craziest Year EVER
5. Greatest Royal Stumble
2018 was a long and ludicrous enough year that WWE's ugly dealings with Saudi Arabia were once a source of mere consternation rather than abject condemnation. The announcement of a Greatest Royal Rumble show in April - headlined, fittingly, by the biggest incarnation of WWE's most-treasured gimmick match - came with the news that this was the first of two Saudi shows a year for the next 10.
Vince McMahon may have sold shares to free up cash for the XFL reboot, but he was mortgaging what remained of his soul to take the show on this road. "Vision 2030" was the half-baked strategy the country's Sports Authority linked arms with WWE over - a marketing initiative concocted to try and reimagine the nation as a more diversified state than the oil-dependent and politically fragile stereotype.
It remains to be seen if it works, but just about everything to do with this show's sequel suggests it'll be quite the uphill struggle (more on that later). Greatest Royal Rumble, meanwhile, hid in plain sight as the year's biggest polished turd. John Cena had his second stupidest match of the year against Triple H back when he was still willing to appear in the country. Daniel Bryan went 76 minutes in the 50-man eponymous main event.
Oh, and Titus O'Neil fell on his f*cking face and we all laughed. Then Vince laughed and Kevin Dunn laughed and Michael Cole laughed and Corey Graves laughed we all watched it again and again and again and again and again and it's a gif forever and he'll never be taken seriously for the rest of his life. How can WWE and Vision 2030 look towards any kind of collaborative future, when this broken company exists almost entirely in the cynical, abusive past?