Best Of 2018: Angle Of The Year
IMG Credit: WWE
It’s the beginning of a new year and that means it’s time for one thing: me to take way too long to put up my Best Of 2018 awards. This year the plan is to put up two a day for the next ten days (or less if I change my mind about some of the categories). Note that the options here are based on what I’ve seen, so if I left off something the likelihood is that I didn’t see it or didn’t see enough of it to have a strong opinion (read as: most New Japan/indy stuff). As usual, I’ll list off the runners up in no particular order and then the winner. Hopefully these are a bit better than my previous efforts so let’s get to it.
Now this is something that is always interesting because they’re the things that make wrestling go round. Without the storylines that make things work, the wrestling is just a bunch of people having matches for the sake of action. A story doesn’t have to be big, but without a good one the shows don’t work all that well. The big stories were kind of lacking in 2018, but there were some awesome options.
She’s The Man
We’ll start with the hottest thing in the company at the moment: the rise of Becky Lynch. This isn’t something that WWE seemed to have planned but it wound up being one of the best things to happen to the company in a very long time. The fans have gotten behind her and all roads seem to lead to a major match, if not the main event, of Wrestlemania 35. If that’s the case, it won’t only be historic, but it could also be a huge deal just as a regular story.
Above all else, Lynch has been nailing the character work. She’s channeled this entire idea that she’s the best to perfection and it comes off like she believes every word. You don’t get that in wrestling often enough and she’s doing it as well as anyone I’ve ever seen. She’s not the next Austin (because there can’t be another Austin) or the next Punk (because there can’t be another Punk). Instead she’s being herself, and it’s working very well.
Full Circle
Anyone who has followed me for any reasonable amount of time knows that I’m a Miz fan. He’s one of the best villains WWE has had in a long time and the fact that they keep coming back to him should tell you all you need to know about how great he really is. His lifelong nemesis is Daniel Bryan, both due to their history and the two of them being polar opposites. It was the dream match we never got due to Bryan’s injuries….but those are long gone.
The two of them picked their feud up again and had a really good match at Summerslam, but it didn’t quite feel complete. The next step, in a story we’ll be revisiting later, saw Bryan turn heel with Miz almost drooling at the idea of Bryan admitting that he was right all along. It was the teacher becoming the teacher all over again and Miz sold it to perfection. Bryan’s heel turn has been awesome, but his stuff with Miz was as good as it got.
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