10 Things You Won't Believe Actually Happened In WWE In 2018
I know, I can't believe it either...
Dec 28, 2018
Deep into the future when we're all old and wrinkly, we'll look back at WWE's 2018 and talk to our grandchildren about a funny year where the headlines were dominated by the likes of Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and WWE's dealings with some very naughty people indeed.
It does feel rather strange to be sat here writing an article talking about things that actually happened this year that you've probably forgotten about, considering we have a WWE Raw show that airs each week where - aside from the odd backstage segment plucked from 2000 WCW - the same Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin and Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre matches have been played out more than Mariah Carey down your local supermarket at this time of year.
But believe it or not, there have been things that you will read during the course of this article that will make you say "bloody hell, where the hell was I when that happened?!"
And then you'll remember that, yeah, you did see it, with any memory of the things discussed here being pushed into the repressive part of your memory to make room for the LATEST DOLPH ZIGGLER VS. SETH ROLLINS MATCH! There have been
so many
of those matches somebody needs to invent an external hard drive for our brains so we can remember them all...
10. Bobby Roode Was United States Champion
Can you remember when Bobby Roode was moved to the main roster in the summer of 2017 after a stellar run as NXT Champion? All the dirtysheets claimed we had a new main eventer on our hands. Apparently, Vince McMahon himself was deeply impressed with The Glorious One and was set to make him one of his leading guys...
LOL, jk.
Before Bobby wound up in a tag team on Raw that didn't make any sense to begin with - why the hell was Chad Gable so besotted by a man that had done absolutely nothing for months? - he won the United States Championship on the 16 January episode of SmackDown Live.
Bobby won a tournament set up after Dolph Ziggler, rather bewilderingly, vacated the championship around a month prior, defeating Baron Corbin, Mojo Rawley, and then Jinder Mahal in the final.
Bobby would hold the title for almost TWO MONTHS, dropping it to Randy Orton at March's Fastlane pay-per-view and I swear none of what I've just typed happened... but it did.
9. Jason Jordan Thought He Was In The Shield
And this version of The Shield feuded with Finn Balor, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows of THE CLUB, no less... what a bloody mess they made of that, eh?
Before injury took him out of action indefinitely, I thought WWE were doing some good things with Jason Jordan by making him just as nerdy and oblivious to his nerdiness that his
father
Kurt Angle was back in the early 2000s.
Part of this uninformed behaviour saw Jason basically declare himself a member of The Shield following an injury to Dean Ambrose. Seth was kind of allowing it since he and Jason won the Raw Tag Team Championships in December, while Roman Reigns wasn't having it whatsoever. Then, after losing the titles at the Royal Rumble to The Bar, Jason just became that friend we all have who just can't stop putting his foot in 'it' - 'it' being something proverbial like dog poo or something. Jordan would cost Seth and Roman matches by interfering when he shouldn't have been.
This then led to Kurt Angle telling Jodan to go home - advice that he certainly took to heart as we haven't seen him in a WWE ring since.
8. John Cena's '6th Move Of Doom'
Shoulder Tackle, Shoulder Tackle, Backdrop thing, Five-Knuckle Shuffle, Attitude Adjustment. 1000 times John Cena has used those moves together in that order, and just about every single time it has worked.
It still really confuses me that as we got past 2009-ish that nobody on WWE's roster worked out a way to counter the Five Moves of Doom - but that's wrestling for you.
Earlier this year Cena moved himself to China to film a movie and while he was over there, Chinese culture made him realise that after so long of doing the same five moves, he needed to add a new one to his arsenal. “So not only is this a new manoeuvre that has a true foundation in the Chinese culture which I am very proud of because I would love to pay respect to my experience here but it’s also extremely powerful,” he said, and I'm sure that none of you reading this article guessed what was to come.
John promised to unleash the sixth move of doom at a Live Event in China at the start of September before he used it to see off the team of Elias and Kevin Owens at WWE Super Show-Down in October.
He's definitely taking the piss now, isn't he? Middle-aged, lovely hair, don't care - I think that might be his next t-shirt slogan, you know.
7. Shinsuke Nakamura Forgot How To Speak English
Oh yeah, you remember Shinsuke Nakamura, don't you? He's the fella who lost the United States Championship recently, but before that, is the man who built a wonderful reputation over in Japan - so great that not even WWE could ignore it - became
the
must-see thing in NXT, WON THE BLOODY ROYAL RUMBLE (I know, I can't believe he did either) before he hid under a cloak of invisibility or something for a really long time...
Nakamura turned heel at WrestleMania 34 following a defeat to AJ Styles. It was the jolt in the arm that was so desperately needed, as, despite that Rumble win, his main roster run wasn't pulling up the trees his NXT one did.
A lovely character quirk was developed on the 10 April episode of SmackDown Live while Renee Young conducted a short interview with The King Of Strong Style. After answering a question or two, Nakamura was asked why he attacked Styles following that WrestleMania match. Nakamura, quite brilliantly, replied: "Sorry, no speak English."
This carried on for a little while until the glorious bastard that was the Nakamura we had grown to love went missing.
6. The Colons Were In The Survivor Series Tag Team Match
WWE backed themselves into a massive corner when they booked a 10-on-10 Survivor Series tag team match involving the entire tag team divisions from Raw and SmackDown Live. Given The Blugeon Brothers were both out injured, and The Bar were already booked in a match against AOP, The Colons were the only team left to pick from on the blue brand.
Just to show you how much of a corner WWE backed themselves into by booking a match where The Colons were actually needed, here's how many televised appearance both Primo and Epico have had throughout this year:
Primo televised matches in 2018:
- 3 April SmackDown Live eight-man tag
- WrestleMania 34 Andre The Giant Battle Royal
- Greatest Royal Rumble
- 28 August triple threat tag against The Bar & The Good Brothers
- Survivor Series 2018
Epico televised matches in 2018:
- 28 August triple threat tag against The Bar & The Good Brothers
- Survivor Series 2018
Needless to say, The Colons were the first out of the Survivor Series match, with Primo being pinned following a Shatter Machine from The Revival. What a year The Colons have had.
5. The Revival Pinned Roman Reigns
This Revival's time on the main roster has been an utter shambles. We all know this, but 2018 at least saw them get a pinfall victory over the biggest dog in WWE's yard, Roman Reigns.
In the weeks before The Big Dog took on Bobby Lashley at Extreme Rules, they were paired together in a number of tag matches because, you know, "HOW WILL THESE TWO FOES COINCIDE?! OMG!"
During this time, they took on The Revival, who despite a torrid time on Raw to date, are an actual tag team - and a bloody good one at that.
In this particular match, which took place on the 25 June episode, Reigns and Lashley were in a tag match against Dash and Dawson where the former ECW Champion tried to tag himself into the match. Roman dodged the attempt, threw Scott Dawson into his partner, hit a Spear on the bald half of The Revival, before Dash Wilder rolled him up for the one, two, three.
The Revival pinned Roman Reigns. Limbs everywhere.
Obviously, this is what should happen given the fact that The Revival are a bonafide team, while Roman and Bob are just two singles guys paired together. Still, saying Dash Wilder pinned Roman Reigns live on Raw in 2018 is really strange. You'd have thought WWE would have capitalised on something like that...
4. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens Could Have Been Dual WWE Champions
Could you imagine how great that would have been? Never mind AJ Styles breaking all kinds of records before losing his WWE title to Daniel Bryan on SmackDown Live just as the winter was kicking off - Kevin and Sami holding the WWE title surely gives you several years worth of prime material, no? Oh, what could have been...
Towards the end of 2017 at Clash of Champions, Kevin and Sami faced Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura with Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan acting as special guest referees of the piece. If Owens and Zayn lost, they would have been fired from WWE. Then, on the final SmackDown of the year, Daniel booked KO in a match against Syles, a decision Shane didn't agree with. KO would defeat Styles thanks to an interference from Sami, and then Sami would defeat Styles thanks to Owens. Irate with what had gone down, Styles sarcastically said that WWE might as well book him in a handicap match against the pair of buddies with the WWE Championship on the line.
Daniel Bryan took him literally, so the Rumble meeting was made.
Styles would end up retaining his title, pinning Kevin Owens, who wasn't the legal man.
3. Kane 'Main-Evented' One Of WWE's Big Five Pay-Per-Views In 2018
I know the ladies went on last, but if you watch the build-up to this year's Royal Rumble event, it was definitely the triple threat WWE Universal title match between Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman and KANE that was receiving top billing.
After 10 months away from TV, Kane returned in October of 2017 to help Braun Strowman defeat Roman Reigns inside a steel cage. This caused The Big Red Machine to be added to Braun's team for TLC. However, during that match, Kane whacked Strowman upside the head with a chair, causing friction between them - then, at the end of the match, Kane turned on Braun and helped to MURDER the Monster Among Men in the back of a garbage truck.
The big sweaty monsters then feuded over the next few weeks, leading to a number one contender's match with the winner facing Brock Lesnar at the Rumble. That match ended in a double count out, Kurt Angle decided that both men would go to the Rumble to face The Beast, and then Braun tried to kill his opponents with a big metal structure and a grappling hook on Raw.
Kane in (what was billed heading into the event) the main event of a 2018 Big Five pay-per-view. Mental.
2. That Sumo Fella
Hiroki Sumi, a sumo wrestler, was a participant in the Greatest Royal Rumble because the people paying WWE a lot of money to stage the show wanted Yokozuna, allegedly. Obviously, with Yoko passing away in 2000, he couldn't make it so the natural thing to do was ring up
Sumos 'R' Us
and request a massive one to take his place and act like nothing's the matter.
Yeah, in the midst of Crown Jewel and the controversies surrounding that event, you forgot this man wrestled for WWE this year, didn't you?
On top of that, The Greatest Royal Rumble also saw household names like Tucker Knight, Babatunde, Dan Matha (billed as a WWE Trainer during a promo package attached to the event for some reason), Hornswoggle, The Great Khali, Tony Nese and Chris Jericho appear on a main roster pay-per-view in 2018. Madness.
1. Chris Jericho Appeared On NJPW & WWE Events A Couple Of Weeks Apart
And not only that, but somehow he managed to wear his NJPW merch on a WWE show proving that anything is indeed possible.
As we all know, Jericho kicked off his year with a five-star classic against Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12. The next night, he attacked Tetsuya Naito at New Year Dash!! 2018, signalling that his NJPW run was going to be more than one match long. Of course, we'd have to wait till May to see him back on a New Japan event, so his appearance at Raw 25 on 22 January was a little more surprising. Y2J called Elias out for wearing scarves, sang a song about The Drifter, and then put him on the list.
In the space of two weeks, for the two biggest companies in the world today, we saw why Chris Jericho is not only one of the GOATs, but one of, if not the most versatile performers in the history of the business.
