10 WWE storylines in 2017 that made wrestling better

8. New female factions

The WWE women’s roster may be stronger than it’s been in a long time when it comes to overall talent. However, outside of the true rise of Alexa Bliss, who’s been absolutely brilliant over the past year, I honestly can’t remember being truly excited about anything this year. Well, I take that back. I was very pleased that they implemented a women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match at the MITB pay-per-view this year. But what happened there? A man — sort of — was the one to climb up and grab the briefcase. Sure, they held another one a few days later and Carmella still walked away with it but the damage had been done in my eyes.

There were two women’s title matches at WrestleMania this year, both of them being multi-woman bouts, but neither one of them really stuck out. Bayley winning the title was a bit anticlimactic and she’s seen her relevance drop significantly since then. I still think there’s magic to be had with her and Sasha Banks and hopefully we’ll get that in 2018. Becky Lynch hasn’t had much to get excited about this year and was out of the big Survivor Series match in about two minutes and while Charlotte Flair is still the best wrestler in the division, she spent some time out of action. I will say that I did enjoy Natalya finally getting a chance with the title and the return of Mickie James was great as well. However, there was just some intensity missing in the division but that’s now been fixed.

Up until recently, it had been more than a year since we’d seen Paige on WWE television. Dealing with a neck injury, her name was still in the news but for all the wrong reasons. A few certain videos of her surfaced and her relationship with Alberto Del Rio was met with plenty of criticism and included some altercations with the police. However, there’s no denying that Paige has always been a talented performer and her return after Survivor Series was a welcome addition to the division. However, as she so greatly put it, she wasn’t alone. Joining her were NXT stars Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville and they put the women’s roster on notice. Now named Absolution, they’ve put beatdowns on women on both shows and it’s brought a must-see element to the division. What a great redemption story this could be for Paige.

In the same manner, although perhaps not quite as intense, another trio known as The Riott Squad, which consists of Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan, are starting to make their presence known on the blue brand and just adds more depth and another interesting twist to the women’s division as a whole. Adding all of these talented women to the main roster might just be enough to justify a women’s Royal Rumble, which I’ve been calling for for years and needs to happen in 2018.