1. CM Punk
CM Punk was just about the only star on ECW and with the roster lacking competition he went virtually undefeated. To know one's surprise he claimed the ECW title for the majority of the year beating John Morrison for it. Despite losing the title to Chavo Guerrero he continued his dominance on ECW.
2. Batista
Batista benefited from the top stars getting injured which resulted in him regaining the World title and defending it successfully against The Undertaker. From that point on things went downhill getting screwed out of the title by the returning Edge and ultimately falling out of the title picture to an anticlimactic ending at Wrestlemania 24 booked to win (in a pointless match) against Umaga.
3. Randy Orton
Orton had a slow start to the year. Similar to Batista, Orton benefited from the top stars getting injured, in his case John Cena. In Cena's absence he won the WWE title screwing Triple H time and again. He went on to defend the title against Chris Jericho and Jeff Hardy. Unlike Batista, however, upon Cena's return he still retained his title at No Way Out and at Wrestlemania 24 beating Triple H and Cena.
4. John Cena
Cena picked up where he left off last calendar year. He continued to win and retain his WWE title against every superstar thrown at him. It turned out the only one who can beat him was himself when he got injured in a match against Orton. In typical Cena fashion he returned with a bang winning the 2008 Royal Rumble. But the WWE threw us a curve ball when he did not regain the title, getting booked to lose to Orton at Wrestlemania 24.
5. Edge
Edge was in a good position being linked with Smackdown general manager Vickie Guerrero easing his way into winning the World title. But like Cena, the unfortunate injury bug bit him too causing him to vacate his title. Upon his return he screwed then champion Batista by regaining his title with the help of Vickie Guerrero and his Edgeheads. He'd go on to defend is title against Rey Mysterio a number of times ultimately losing it to The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 24.
6. Kane
Kane had a solid year and unlike the other top stars, he stayed healthy throughout it. Kane had a similar year winning squash matches and against mid-carders, while occasionally putting stars like Edge and Batista over. As a consolation prize WWE booked him to win the ECW title at Wrestlemania 24.
7. Triple H
Triple H started the year off injured, not returning until Summerslam. Not to worry though, 'cause within a month he was back in the title picture and with Cena injured he was a shoe in to regain the WWE title, which he did but it was short lived when Orton screwed him. He was then left out of the title picture until Wrestlemania 24 in a losing effort against Cena and Orton.
8. Jeff Hardy
With Matt Hardy injured Jeff went on a successful singles run ultimately regaining the Intercontinental title and picking up wins over former world champions Triple H and Shawn Michaels. The success got him a WWE title shot against Orton at The Royal Rumble in a losing effort.
9. The Undertaker
Once again, The Undertaker's routine sabbatical results in a lower ranking. Upon losing his World title, he went on a sabbatical not returning for a number of months. Upon his return he picked up where he left off trying to regain his World title held by Batista at the time. He was close to regaining it until a healthy Edge returned and screwed him out of the World title. But he would have the last laugh earning a title shot in the Elimination Chamber match and regaining the World title from Edge at Wrestlemania 24.
10. Umaga
Umaga started the year off as Intercontinental Champion squashing everyone put in front of him. With the exception of Santino Marella, who got booked to win the IC title. He quickly regained it back only to lose it to a peaking Jeff Hardy. He continued to win squash matches and got booked (in a pointless match) to represent Raw in a losing effort to Batista at Wrestlemania 24.
