The Year In Wrestling: WWE Crown Jewel, Becky Lynch becomes ‘The Man’

By Josh Nason
Published: 6 Jan 2019, 14:07

As you well know, a lot happens in a year especially in sports and entertainment. When I do my year-end MMA review shows, I am always amazed looking at all the little things that happened in a given month that ended up being bigger things later on.

But, we had never really done a comprehensive month-by-month look at the year that was in pro wrestling, so here we are. I tasked website contributor Josh Molina to help me out and that’s exactly what he did.

There was so much that happened that I had to split this up into four separate posts, the first of which covered January-March, then April-June, and then, July-September.

As we truly get into WWE’s new year with Monday’s Raw, we finish up with October through December.

October

Roman Reigns was diagnosed with leukemia and vacated the WWE Universal title
WWE holds their first all-women’s PPV, Evolution with Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte in a Last Woman Standing match as a highlight
Mercedes Martinez defeated Tessa Blanchard for the Rise Women’s Championship in a 75-minute iron woman match, the longest women’s match in history
The death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi put pressure on WWE to pull out of their November Crown Jewel show in Saudi Arabia
“Rebel” Dick Slater passed away from heart complications at 67
Don Leo Jonathan passed away at 87
Johnny Impact defeated Austin Aries for the Impact world title, but Aries no sold the finish and walked away from the ring
Charlotte Flair’s ex-husband Riki Paul Johnson filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against Charlotte, Ric Flair, and WWE over her book “Second Nature”.
Impact moved from 8 PM EST time slot to 10 PM EST on Pop TV
Sami Callihan signed a contract with Impact wrestling
Kevin Owens had surgery on both knees, putting him out until early-2019
Rey Mysterio signed a deal to return to WWE and returns to SmackDown
WWE backstage interviewer Charly Caruso signed a deal with ESPN while also remaining with WWE
Pete Dunne hit 500 days as WWE UK champion, the longest WWE title reign since Hulk Hogan’s world title reign from 1985 to 1988
WWE held Super Showdown in Australia, a stadum show where HHH faced the Undertaker to set up the November return of Shawn Michaels
Ted Turner, one of the most influential people in professional wrestling television history, announced he was suffering from Lewy body dementia
Alberto Del Rio said he plans to compete in MMA again for Combate Americas
Pac, formerly Neville in WWE, returned to wrestling at a Dragon Gate show
SmackDown had their 1000th episode
Chris Jericho stages Rock ‘N Rager Wrestling Cruise featuring the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and more

November

At WWE Crown Jewel, Brock Lesnar regained the WWE Universal title by defeating Braun Strowman while HHH and Shawn Michaels were victorious over the Undertaker and Kane
AAA signed a deal with Facebook to promote a live 10-week tournament on Facebook Live
Hangman Page turned down an offer to re-sign with Ring of Honor
Becky Lynch was removed from her highly anticipated Survivor Series match with Ronda Rousey after Nia Jax gave her a concussion during a show-closing angle on Raw
Leading into Survivor Series, Daniel Bryan upset AJ Styles for the WWE Championship on SmackDown, setting up a match between he and Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at SS
At SS, Lesnar defeated Bryan while Ronda Rousey defeated Charlotte Flair by DQ after Flair savagely beat up Rousey with a kendo stick
IWGP Champion Kenny Omega and AAA Champion Fenix drew 2700 fans and a $100,000 gate in Poughkeepsie, NY
Cody Runnels tore his meniscus during a match in Buffalo for ROH
Louisiana’s governor said WrestleMania generated $175 million for the city of New Orleans
Steve Austin announced on his podcast that he no longer drinks alcohol
WWE told its UK contracted wrestlers that they were getting raises, but could no longer wrestle for rival independent promotions
Larry Matysik, longtime St. Louis pro wrestling commentator and booker, passed away at 72
Jose Lothario, longtime Texas wrestler and trainer of Shawn Michaels, passed away at 83
Former judo champion, pro wrestler and mixed martial artist Gene Lebell retired as an MMA judge
Kairi Sane suffered from hand, foot and mouth disease
All Elite Wrestling, a group thought to be led by Tony Khan, Cody, and the Young Bucks got trademarked in Jacksonville, FL, along with other trademarks like ‘Double or Nothing’

December

Dynamite Kid (Tom Billington) passed away on his 60th birthday
Vince McMahon’s XFL announced eight teams and cities for their 2020 return
Jack Swagger announced his MMA debut for Bellator in January 2019
Ring of Honor signed PCO and Brody King
John Cena was honored with the Muhammad Ali Sportsperson of the Year Award by Sports Illustrated
Aleister Black (Thomas Budgen) and Zelina Vega (Thea Trinidad) were married
Larry “The Axe” Hennig passed away at 82
Women of Wrestling announced their show on AXS would debut in January 2019
A judge threw out Colt Cabana’s lawsuit against CM Punk over legal fees
Big Cass collapsed and experienced a seizure at an independent show
L.A. Park, Jerry Jarrett, Jimmy Hart, Bill Apter, Howard Finkel, Gary Hart and Yuji Nagata were voted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame
Vince McMahon announced that the McMahon family was returning taking over Raw and SmackDown as part of a shakeup
Asuka beat champion Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair to win the Smackdown women’s title in a TLC match at TLC
Entertainment Weekly named “Mother of All Matches”, an episode of GLOW featuring Awesome Kong, as the best episode of a television show in 2018
Hiroshi Tanahashi, 42, captured the Tokyo Sports pro wrestling MVP award for the fourth time in his career

News

Josh Nason

Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.