Who REALLY Carried WWE Every Year (1985-2026)
9. 2018 (AJ Styles)
Fun fact: AJ Styles would've taken the prize for 2016 had it not been for Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks. On the men's side, few had a better debut year than AJ. He was fittingly 'Phenomenal', then things only got better for him the longer he stayed in WWE.
Styles kicked off his 2018 with a handicap match win over Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at Royal Rumble. Then, his match vs. Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania 34 felt legitimately fresh, and it led to rematches at Greatest Royal Rumble, Backlash and a 'Last Man Standing' bout come Money In The Bank.
From there, AJ beat Rusev at Extreme Rules, then feuded with Samoa Joe for the next run of PPVs before eventually dropping the WWE Title to Daniel Bryan on the 13 November SmackDown. Styles set the bar in-ring for WWE in 2018. It was super obvious to anyone tuning into weekly programming that he couldn't be touched episode to episode.
Arguably, the Nakamura feud never hit the heights expected by those who had watched their clash at Wrestle Kingdom 10 a couple of years prior, but it was still a great watch and facilitated Shinsuke's heel turn. That was a shocking moment at the time.
AJ was one of WWE's go to workhorses all year, and he shone on the microphone during the whole Joe issues too. Not only that, but Styles had to carry the bulk of that build towards PPV matches vs. Naka. He'd levelled up since 2016, which is saying something special.