10 Worst Years To Be A WWE Fan
2. 2018
The booking of any given year in WWE - even the subjective best ones - can be scrutinised enough to find faults. But 2018 was the year that saw the coolest elements of their product marginalised by the ugliest deal the company ever struck.
2018 was the best year in WWE women's wrestling history, whilst WWE trousered millions from shows they weren't even welcome to work.
Asuka won a quality Royal Rumble. Charlotte Flair grew into the role she'd long been pushed as as the company's best all-ropunder. Ronda Rousey arrived and kicked f*cking a*se and you're wrong if you disagree. Becky Lynch rose from the dying embers of her own babyface failings to become 'The Man'. Evolution - the first all-female pay-per-view by the company - was one of the best shows of the decade. One of the best ever, taste depending.
If you invested in any of that though, f*ck you pal, because WWE were about to care less about your cash than they ever had before. Eye-watering television deals were piled atop a ten-year agreement with the Saudi Arabian Sports Authority to help with a "sportswashing" initiative that continues to this day, mostly because they got a show on despite the controversy surrounding the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
WWE weren't allies of the women - they were arm-in-arm with a regime that had and will continue to suppress them.