Top 10 Women Wrestlers Of 2018 (Honorable Mentions)

Man 2018 was a good year for wrestling. We had amazing tournaments, breakout stars, and great matches left, right, and center. Coming up with a list of just 10 standout wrestlers was completely impossible. Even in doing this honorable mentions article, I feel like I’m leaving out so many wrestlers that are worthy of a spot on here. I left out Nia Jax, for obvious reasons, but also due to her not having any good match outside of Wrestlemania. And there were so many more wrestlers that you could make cases for, but I think that the 10 I settled on are the right choices. That list is a few days away, but what wrestlers just missed the cut?

Please keep in mind that I am just one person. I have college and work, so I can only watch so much wrestling. You may not agree with it, but I can only do so much with the given time in the day.

For the Top 10 of 2018, I had a few criterias. One, they have to have competed for the full year. Some wrestlers have missed time, which isn’t there fault, but it is what happened. Also, Kayfabe plays a small roll in these rankings. Championship runs and match quality are very important. There is also the aspect of how the wrestlers have been portrayed as some have more free reign than others. Most of the wrestlers on this list didn’t meet at least one of these criteria.

23) Alexa Bliss

Alexa Bliss is the only one to my knowledge that has been out for a long period of time. Which is why she is so low here, and it is such a shame. Alexa had a great year in the ring. She was a 2 time Raw Women’s Champion, she won the Women’s Money in the Bank, and had high profile matches at both Wrestlemania and Summerslam. Hopefully she is in the ring soon, as she has shown some signs of improvement, maybe a little slow according to some fans on the internet, she could be a legitimate pick for the Women’s Royal Rumble.

22) Bianca Belair

So these next few had a good in ring year, not great, but worth talking about. Bianca made the transition from college sports to professional wrestling seamlessly. She is so smooth, but her issue is that she doesn’t have many opportunities to show just how good she is. Bianca is great in the ring, and she is currently sporting an undefeated streak in NXT. I think that the WWE could have a star on their hands with Bianca, and many others seem to agree.

21) Ruby Riott

If you have learned anything from our live coverages on Twitter, you will learn that I am a huge fan of Ruby Riott. And can you blame me? She is so good in the ring, and so vastly underutilized. She is someone that seems to have the total package. Look at her work in the Women’s Royal Rumble, or even the Wrestlemania Battle Royal. But if you want to be really impressed, look at her portion in the gauntlet match to determine the final person in the Money in th Bank match. Her portion of that match with Sasha Banks I think showed the world just how good she can be when she is used right.

20) Charlie Morgan

This year was Charlie Morgan’s coming out party. She was given the opportunity to show what she could do. Jim Smallman took a chance on her and put her in a match with Toni Storm for the Progress Women’s Championship, she has been on a roll ever since. She had a lengthy reign of EVE Champion, and even got to perform in a WWE ring for NXT UK. She is someone to watch out for and someone that has a bright future in professional wrestling.

19) Rhea Ripley

This is where the list got tough. Entries 19 through 8 were in a close group due to how well of a year they had. Rhea had a great year in televised matches for WWE. She was a semifinalist in the Mae Young Classic, won the NXT UK Women’s Championship, and she was able to compete at Evolution in the dark match. She has so much potential and has all the ability in the world to be the next great women’s wrestler. She is someone cut from the same cloth of Beth Phoenix and Natalya, and hopefully WWE invests in her as much as they did in Phoenix.

18) Bayley

How can you have one of these lists and not have all of the Four Horsewomen? Bayley almost won the Women’s Battle Royal at Wrestlemania. The issue with Bayley is that she never seemed to have a story for her to fully sink her teeth into. The feud with Sasha? Scrapped. The matches against Riott Squad? Not as good as they could’ve been (see Evolution for their potential). Sasha & Bayley as a team? Currently no direction without a real championship at the end of the tunnel, yet at least. Bayley is great, but she just needs direction.

17) Sasha Banks

It is tempting to copy and paste what I said for Bayley at the spot above, but one thing helped Sasha stand out just a little more that her best friend, the Royal Rumble and her match with Asuka the following night. She had a great showing in the Women’s Royal Rumble. She had 3 eliminations, one of them being Trish Stratus, and racking up almost 55:00 in match time. Her showing there plus her showing when she went up against Asuka on Raw the night after she went nearly an hour long was an incredible 14 minute match. But the issue for Sasha is just the same as Bayley, as she has nothing to sink her teeth into.

16) Ember Moon

If I was doing this list in the first half of 2018, Ember would have definitely been in the discussion for a top 10 spot. She had an amazing first half of the year, defending the NXT Women’s Championship twice in really good matches, beating former multi time women’s champions in Mickie James and Alexa Bliss, and having a great showing in the Women’s Money in the Bank Match. After that match however, she kind of cooled off. Being put into a small feud with Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan and then that was dropped. Hopefully she can get back to where she was in the first half of this year.

15) Asuka

She won the inaugural women’s rumble, had a really good match at Wrestlemania against Charlotte, went away for a little bit, and then the feud with Carmella happened. Honestly if that feud would have been better, Asuka would’ve been in the top 10. She has all the tools and she has actually ended 2018 with a high by becoming Smackdown Women’s Champion. I think Asuka should have won the title at Wrestlemania, and she seemed to have lost some direction since the lose. Hopefully she can right the ship in 2019.

14) Su Yung

Now where it got really tough. I felt bad that I left Su Yung out of the poll for the final spot on Twitter, but they only allow you to have 4 options and she was the last one I was considering for the final spot. She is the current ICW Women’s Champion (Independent Championship Wrestling) and QOC Champion (Queen of Combat). Those are just 2 of 6 championships she has held for over 1 year. There was also her reign as Knockouts champion in which she looked unstoppable. She is someone who is trending upward and I am very curious to see where her character will go in 2019.

13) Nicole Savoy

Ever since the Mae Young Classic last year, Nicole Savoy has been a name on my radar. She is great in the ring and she has relied on these skills for her entire career. She has defended the Shimmer Championship 10 times this year in both Stardom and Shimmer. She has been cited as one of the women who helped regain the interest in women’s wrestling, and her skill shows that. Hopefully next year she can perform even better, maybe even break MsChef’s record for longest Shimmer Championship reign of 715. She is guaranteed to hold the championship until March 30th (according to Cagematch.com), and it will be fun to watch how she continues to improve and impress as a champion and a competitor.

12) Mayu Iwatani

This is one of the women who I knew very little about. I can only watch so much wrestling in a week. I think that Mayu is one of the best female technical wrestlers that I’ve seen not working in WWE. She has some of the most unique offense as well. She is someone who has worked with the likes of Io Shirai, Toni Storm, and Deonna Purrazzo and has looked good in doing so. I think that the only issue I have with her is that she can oversell just a little bit. She has also had a great year when it came to championships, winning both the Artist of Stardom and Goddesses of Stardom Championships as well as 4 different semi-finals appearances in 4 different tournaments, and winning the 5STAR Grand Prix in Stardom. She is the future of the business and could be the next big star in professional wrestling.

11) Jinny

Of the women on this list, Jinny had the most championship wins of anyone. She won the Rev Pro British Women’s Championship in January, defended her Maiden of Chaos championship against some high caliber competition, and she ended Toni Storm’s year long reign as Progress Women’s Champion at Chapter 69: Be Here Now. Jinny has become one of the best women’s characters as well. Her promo work is amazing, and if you don’t believe me, just go listen to any of her promos before she challenged Toni for the championship. She has become one of the best heels in the business, and she has only been doing this for 3 years. She also has developed quite a right hand. Now under WWE’s roof, Jinny will only continue to improve and look better and better. Even though fellow heel Rhea Ripley is the current champion. It is only a matter of time until Jinny takes that championship as well.