12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2018

8. Michaels Cashes In, Sells Out

Let’s state this upfront: Nearly every wrestler who announces his or her retirement comes back at some point. We saw a bunch of “retired” WWE superstars compete in 2018. So this isn’t an indictment on Shawn Michaels coming out of retirement after eight years.

But HBK came out of retirement for a meaningless tag match on a throwaway show that meant next to nothing. And then it got horribly worse, with Crown Jewel being marred by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It went from a questionable decision to unretire to a blatant cash grab devoid of morals.

For someone like Michaels, whose faith is a big part of who he is today, making his first WWE match in eight-plus years a nothing tag match (which wasn’t very good anyway) at a show that was facing huge public criticism, said more about his character than anything else.

Funny thing is, had this been a truly special match or something meaningful, it would have muted some of the criticism. But top this with John Cena and Daniel Bryan exercising their judgement in pulling out of the show, and it casts a bigger shadow on someone like Michaels who easily had the power to say “no,” but chose not to.