16 Best WWE Debuts And Returns Of 2018

1. Ronda Rousey

Charlotte Ronda Rousey
WWE.com

Easily the biggest surprise of 2018 has to be how successful Ronda Rousey has been in making the transition from MMA to WWE.

Rousey debuted at Royal Rumble, closing the PPV by showing up and pointing at the WrestleMania sign. She then had her first match, a mixed tag with Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. From there, she would vie for the Raw Women’s Championship in her second televised match and win it in her fourth.

You can understand WWE wanting to cash in on her notoriety immediately, so they protected her while elevating her to the top of the division.

But then a funny thing happened: Rousey got good. Real good. Real fast.

Rousey has showed a tremendous aptitude for wrestling for someone who has had fewer than 20 matches since her debut. While she still has plenty to learn and a lot to prove, she has been more than credible and helped elevate women’s wrestling in 2018.

Considering all that, her star power and closing the year as Raw Women’s Champion, there’s little doubt that she’s the biggest new face in WWE in 2018.

Contributor
Contributor

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.