12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2018

5. AJ’s Phenomenal Year

AJ Styles Daniel Bryan
WWE.com

What can you say about AJ Styles’ 2018 other than using his nickname? It quite simply was a phenomenal one.

Styles came into the year as the reigning WWE Champion, and proceeded to defend that title and live up to his moniker, “The Champ that runs the camp,” for more than 10 months of the year. That included title defenses against Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan.

He continued to lead SmackDown on Tuesday nights with his rivalries with Nakamura and Joe dominating the top of the card and allowing AJ to show some range and depth in dealing with both opponents.

And when it came down to Bryan’s heel turn in November, Styles was a great protagonist for it. AJ truly has elevated himself as one of the few bona fide main-eventers who is believable beating anybody or losing to someone, all while eliciting a huge reaction from the fans.

If he’s dialing back his schedule to part-time in 2019, it will be a loss for WWE. But hopefully, that means he’s still on TV frequently, because Styles is a top guy for the company, and 2018 proved it.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.