WWE 2018: The year the women rose to the top and Roman Reigns bid a sad farewell

2018 will go down in history as the year WWE's women's division was propelled to the forefront of the company and one of the biggest male stars in the business made a sad departure from the spotlight.

Roman Reigns vacated the Universal title in October after announcing he was suffering from leukaemia in a moment which broke the hearts of WWE fans and ensured nothing, either this year or any other from this point onwards, would ever be the same again.

Everyone who follows WWE stands united in the hope that Reigns' absence from sports entertainment is only a temporary one.

It was also a year which saw WWE stage two controversial events in Saudi Arabia, welcome back Daniel Bryan to action after two years in retirement and bid farewell to some of its biggest former stars of all time in Bruno Sammartino, Jim Neidhart, Vader and Dynamite Kid.

Shawn Michaels, having been retired for eight years, also found himself back in a WWE ring.

The women's evolution was already in a high gear when Becky Lynch launched it into the stratosphere with a series of captivating moments in late summer which turned her into the hottest property WWE currently has to offer.

The females had started the year in grand style with a new "first-ever" - a Royal Rumble which captured the imagination of WWE fans everywhere with its spot-on blend of rose-tinted nostalgia and the best the modern era has to offer.

Asuka prevailed on that occasion and claimed a WrestleMania match with Charlotte Flair as her reward, but there was also another notable moment at the Rumble with former UFC star Ronda Rousey making her on-screen debut.

Rousey would have her own WrestleMania moment, teaming up with Kurt Angle to defeat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a contest many rated as the match of the night. It may yet be voted the best WWE match of 2018.

In the main event, Reigns came up short in his ongoing bid to take the Universal title from Brock Lesnar and make the championship something more regularly seen on Raw.

The booking of Lesnar as an absent champion was a dominant theme throughout 2018 - the year began with it in place as a strategy and will end with the same strategy in place, albeit for reasons out of control of the company.

Reigns would end Lesnar's 504 days with the belt at SummerSlam, a pivotal night for so many WWE superstars and in many ways the most significant event of the year for sports entertainment.

As well as the rise of Reigns and Rousey to the respective top singles titles on Raw, the course of women's wrestling was irrevocably changed when Lynch attacked Flair after their triple threat match.

The rumour is WWE expected Lynch to be booed for her actions but instead she was cheered to the rafters and an edgy, ethical line-blurring star was born. 'The Man' has since gone from strength to Stone Cold strength.

Against Flair two months later the women's division took another major step forward with an ultra-violent last-woman-standing match which crowned an all-female Box Office event, the first in the company's history.

But while the women were breaking new ground, the male side of the roster received a debilitating blow in October with the loss of their top star - and Universal champion - Reigns to leukaemia.

If there is one wish everyone connected with wrestling has for 2019 it is surely that Joe Anoa'i beats his illness and that we one day see Roman Reigns again.

His vacant title was recaptured by Lesnar, with an assist from Baron Corbin, at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia.

It was at Crown Jewel that Michaels made his return to action, re-uniting D-Generation X to face the Brothers of Destruction, Kane and The Undertaker after several weeks of build-up between the veteran quartet.

Triple H tore a pectoral muscle in a match which had more than its fair share of critics but was undoubtedly a big WWE moment in 2018, featuring as it did the return of the Heartbreak Kid.

But the final few months of the year belonged not to stars of the past but to the exciting women of the company who became the hottest thing in sports entertainment with a series of imagination-capturing angles and matches.

Lynch ended the year dethroned as SmackDown champion, her title being taken by Asuka after a Rousey-influenced tables, ladders and chairs match at TLC.

And it speaks volumes about the current status of the division that all of the talk going into 2019's first big event - the Royal Rumble - is about the women.

Everything is pointing towards this being the year that the females get the ultimate spotlight - the WrestleMania main event.