In a very mixed year overall for the WWE, their pay-per-view
offerings at least provided some great moments for viewers of the WWE Network
along with the fans in attendance, and WWE’s latest collection, “Best
Pay-Per-View Matches 2018” brings together 17 of last year’s best big show
bouts. As with prior collections in the series, matches from end of year PPVs
such as Survivor Series and TLC aren’t included for timing reasons, but there
is enough variety over the course of the three disc set to keep fans happy.
Disc One kicks off in a huge way with the Men’s Royal Rumble
Match from the 2018 edition of the Royal Rumble PPV. Although it sat in the
middle of the card while the first ever female edition headlined the show, it
was the best Royal Rumble match in many years, with Finn Balor anchoring the
match as the Iron Man, some surprises from both the past and from NXT, and a
dramatic finish between Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura. Another of WWE’s
tentpole matches is next, as Reigns, John Cena, The Miz, Seth Rollins, Elias,
Balor and Braun Strowman entered the Elimination Chamber to claim a shot at the
WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34. With an extra body involved, the
match was more chaotic than usual, and had a key storyline in Cena being
desperate to win the match in order to secure a big WrestleMania match.
Fastlane 2018’s contribution is a polarising bout for the WWE
United States Championship between champion Bobby Roode and Randy Orton, which
is definitely slow-paced, but showed that Roode when on his game could fit the
in-house WWE style, a match very much suited to Orton’s taste. The last bout on
the disc is the main show opener from WrestleMania 34, as The Miz defended the
WWE Intercontinental Championship in a Triple Threat Match against Finn Balor
and Seth Rollins. The Kingslayer had gained momentum following a gauntlet match
on RAW where he lasted over an hour, and this match showcased why Rollins ended
up being the WWE’s male workhorse of 2018 – though Miz and Balor hold up their
ends of the bargain as well in a very good match.
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| Roode vs Orton (Fastlane) |
Disc Two remains at the Showcase of the Immortals with the
in-ring debut of “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, as she teamed with Kurt Angle against
Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. The former UFC Champion delivered beyond
expectations in her first ever public wrestling match, judo throwing McMahon
from hither to yon, and also outclassing The Game on a few occasions, while
Angle threw back the years with his own great performance. One of the more
underrated PPV matches of the year is next, as Seth Rollins defends the
Intercontinental Championship against The Miz at Backlash 2018. The first
non-Big 4 PPV where both RAW and SmackDown Live would host matches (due largely
to the single brand PPVs not performing well on the WWE Network) saw Miz try
and take the title over to his new home of SmackDown, with Rollins fighting
tooth and nail to keep it on RAW, resulting in a great contest that ranks at
the top of Miz’s long career.
Both matches featured from Money in the Bank 2018 are from
the women’s division, the first being the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder
Match, where RAW stars Sasha Banks, Ember Moon, Alexa Bliss and Natalya faced
off with SmackDown’s Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Naomi and Lana, producing a
pretty violent match that showed the levels WWE’s female talent were prepared
to take things going forward, and one which two of the competitors went on to
replicate later in the year. The winner of the match also proved to be a key
factor in Nia Jax’s RAW Women’s Championship defence against Ronda Rousey,
where the Rowdy One stunned fans with how good her selling was for someone so
inexperienced at the profession, making Jax look super intimidating.
A strange inclusion in the set is Braun Strowman’s steel cage
bout with Kevin Owens at Extreme Rules 2018, although it includes Owens taking
an insane bump off the top of the cage through a table, the spot was rendered
meaningless by the subsequent booking on TV. A better bout from the same show
saw Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley go one-on-one, a rare time where WWE booked
the former ECW and Impact Championship effectively, although once again, the
next night’s TV booking overruled it. SummerSlam 2018 featured two old TNA
rivals going at it over the WWE Championship, with AJ Styles defending against
Samoa Joe. A slower-paced match than their past bouts, the drama of their
storyline more than makes up for it, although the finish is a bit of a
let-down.
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| AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe (SummerSlam) |
Hell in a Cell 2018 is represented by three matches, the
first of which is Jeff Hardy’s very first match inside the demonic structure
against Randy Orton. Although the Cell presented its obvious dangers, the most
memorable spot sees Orton jam a screwdriver into Hardy’s pierced earlobe in one
of the most squeamish spots in WWE history. Following a heel turn at SummerSlam
that instead helped make her the most popular Superstar in WWE, Becky Lynch got
her one-on-one shot at Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship,
and shows why she’s such a problem for the Queen as the Lass Kicker had a
counter to nearly everything thrown at her. The last bout is another Cell
match, as Braun Strowman cashes in his Money in the Bank briefcase against new
Universal Champion Roman Reigns. It’s a brutal bout with an ugly conclusion,
but sadly one that proved to be Reigns’ last singles PPV match for the time
being, as he would vacate the title in October following the reoccurrence of
leukaemia.
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| Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair (Evolution) |
The final match of the set was the one voted on WWE.com as
the best main roster match of 2018, as Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair met once
again in a Last Woman Standing Match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at
Evolution, the first ever WWE all-women’s PPV, this time with Lynch defending
the title. The two rivals went all over the building, using many weapons,
stealing the show on one of the most important nights in recent WWE history.
This is also the match where Lynch moved on from being just the Lass Kicker,
and ended up becoming The Man, and the person hotly tipped to have WrestleMania
35 built around her.
'Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2018' is a mixed bag in terms of
quality, but the majority of the great PPV bouts from 2018 have made it into
the collection, ranging from world title bouts, to some of the big marquee
gimmick matches, to the further emergence of the women’s division. The DVD set
is a good snapshot of the highs and lows of WWE’s year, with plenty to learn
from heading into 2019 and you can buy it from https://www.wwedvd.co.uk.
