Every WWE PPV Of 2019 Ranked

Financially, 2019 was a positive year for WWE as the organisation was making more money than ever before due to new United States media rights deals that took effect in October, bringing SmackDown to FOX and keeping Monday Night Raw on the USA Network. 

Creatively, it was another matter entirely, as the final years of Vince McMahon’s time as the head of creative continued to weigh down a lethargic product to create one of the worst years of WWE TV in company history, with this all happening amid falling attendances because of how bad the shows actually were. 

This creative bankruptcy extended to WWE’s pay-per-views and the company presented some atrocious supercards. They weren’t all duds, and some shows actually ended up being enjoyable, but there was no shortage of mediocre to sleep through amidst the limited good and plenty bad. 

This is every WWE pay-per-view of 2019 ranked from worst to best. 

14. Super ShowDown

A show so bad it’s difficult to know where to begin. The main event was an easy candidate for worst WWE match of the decade, never mind the year.

What would have been a dream match in 1999 was a nightmare in 2019 as Goldberg and The Undertaker had a howler that managed to sink below even the low expectations most fans had placed on the contest going in. 

There was considerable intrigue about two icons of the business going head-to-head for the first time ever in a major setting, but things fell apart almost immediately when Goldberg knocked himself loopy while colliding with the ring post. Soon after, in a genuinely scary moment, the two made a complete mess of what was supposed to be a jackhammer but ended with Goldberg planting his opponent right on his head with a brainbuster that could have ended with a broken neck for the Dead Man. 

Outside of the horrendous headliner, fans were treated to a 51-man battle royal predictably won by Saudi superhero Mansoor, a long and dull Randy Orton vs. Triple H match in what actually ended up being The Game’s final televised match, Shane McMahon defeating Roman Reigns, a dull Baron Corbin vs. Seth Rollins match for the Universal Championship, Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley, Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Title, and the bungled main roster debut of Lars Sullivan. 

Throw in a failed Money in the Bank cash-in from Brock Lesnar and you had a show that didn’t offer a single great match, but did offer plenty of dodgy booking and heatless action. 

The closest thing to a good match was Andrade and Finn Balor’s Intercontinental Title bout. A planned match between Alexa Bliss and Natalya was also rejected by the Saudi government. 

13. Crown Jewel

The other Saudi Arabia pay-per-view in 2019 was also awful and could have been even more frighteningly bad than its predecessor. Thankfully, this was a much better show and there were actually a couple of genuinely good matches. 

The biggest surprise of the night was Mansoor’s match with Cesaro as the hometown hero looked great against Claudio Castagnoli. Team Flair vs. Team Hogan was also a lot of fun once it got going, and the Tag Team Turmoil Match for the WWE Tag Team World Cup was long but worth investing 30 minutes into. 

This show still had plenty of bad moments, though, notably Brock Lesnar’s squash win over Cain Velasquez for the WWE Title which reeked of being on the card simply so Lesnar could get his win back from their past UFC fight. Braun Strowman vs. boxing world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was also rubbish, only compounded by the terrible count-out finish.

The Fiend’s Universal Title triumph over Seth Rollins was newsworthy but came at the end of a really bad match that was structured like a comedic slasher film thanks to the cartoonish hyperviolence being bathed in a distracting red light. 

History was made when Natalya was finally allowed to wrestle in KSA, this time going up against Lacey Evans. The quality of the match, really, was irrelevant.

One of the biggest stories of the night came not from the in-ring action but the travel delays after the event, forcing many WWE wrestlers and staff to be stranded in the country and miss SmackDown the next day due to a dispute between Vince McMahon and the Saudi crown prince. 

12. Hell In A Cell

Hell in a Cell 2019 had a promising start but quickly went downhill on its way to falling off a cliff. 

The Raw Women’s Title Hell in a Cell match opener between Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks was a great way to start the show and the two had a long, physical match with plenty of inventive spots that incorporated various weapons. 

Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns’ Tornado Tag Team Match with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan was also fine and a perfectly decent way to spend 15 minutes, as was Randy Orton vs. Mustafa Ali, and The Kabuki Warriors’ WWE Women’s Tag Team Title triumph over Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. 

The show began to go downhill from the fourth match of the evening as The Viking Raiders and Braun Strowman’s clash with The OC was undercooked and pointless. Baron Corbin and Shorty G then had another below-average match that summed up the quality of their awful feud, and Bayley vs. Charlotte Flair was a match that really should have been better.

The show turned into an absolute disaster for the main event, however, as Universal Champion Seth Rollins defended against The Fiend inside Hell in a Cell. The Fiend had such a positive debut at SummerSlam 2019 but his next pay-per-view outing was truly horrific and it was difficult to even see what was going due to a combination of a red cell and red lighting. 

The finish then saw the match end in a referee stoppage, inside Hell in a Cell, the same match that continued after Mick Foley was thrown off and then through the cell. Seth Rollins has noted his own fury over how the match was booked by Vince McMahon, and the fans shared his anger in the moment as they loudly booed the result and chanted for All Elite Wrestling. 

An awful ending to a so-so show, the sheer audacity of WWE to pull that during the final moments sends this show towards the bottom of the list. 

11. TLC

Following the formula of the rotten Hell in a Cell was TLC, one more gimmick-laden supercard that was another of WWE’s worst of the year. 

WWE’s last pay-per-view of the year started off well enough, meandered in the middle, and then descended sharply into farce territory. It capped off a rather rotten year for WWE on pay-per-view, but there was still some good stuff to be found on the show. 

Once again, the opening match was the standout, as the dependable New Day and The Revival constructed a gutsy Ladder Match over the SmackDown Tag Team Titles. Following that was a tough job, but Buddy Murphy and Aleister Black gave it a good shot and beat the hell out of each other in a solid back-and-forth contest. 

That was all the genuine positives for the night, however, because the rest of the card was pretty awful. This included the TLC Match between King Corbin and Roman Reigns that saw Dolph Ziggler and The Revival interfere so Corbin could pin Reigns in what would end up being the final time The Big Dog was pinned until Money in the Bank 2023. The fact it happened in a feud centred around dog food made it all the worse. 

That was followed by The Fiend continuing his shockingly booked run as Universal Champion in a non-title match with The Miz. Appearing without the mask, Bray acted as the enthusiastic sweater-wearing presenter of the Firefly Fun House, which was an intriguing twist, and the match was smartly laid out, but it was also short and lacked the real intensity that the storyline going into the match had hinted at. The only real highlight was Daniel Bryan’s post-match attack which provided a wonderful visual of him holding a big hammer. 

The less said about the whole Rusev vs. Bobby Lashley feud the better, but fans were robbed of any sort of enjoyment when Lana interfered, allowing Lashley to put Rusev through the table for the win. There was also a Raw Tag Team Title match between the Viking Raiders and The Good Brothers that was dominated by the contest being sponsored by KFC, with four fans eating Kentucky fried chicken at ringside during the match (including a young Julia Hart). The match went to a double count-out and saw Karl Anderson go through a KFC table after the match. 

The Kabuki Warriors beat Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in the TLC main event to remain WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Everyone tried and there were some good ideas, but it was a bit messy overall with missed spots and a distinct lack of story or psychology. The effort couldn’t be faulted, but the execution could have been better.

10. Stomping Grounds

The latest entry in lame WWE pay-per-view names, Stomping Grounds joined the likes of Great Balls of Fire, Capitol Punishment, and The Bash. 

A generic name for a bland show, Stomping Grounds was something that nobody asked for and featured a main event no one wanted to see in Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin with Lacey Evans as special guest referee. The match was not good and only existed to set up Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans at the next pay-per-view. 

Other happenings included a good Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre match and a so-so Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler WWE Title Steel Cage Match. 

Ricochet and Samoa Joe had a good United States Title match, the result of which made Ricochet look like a star on the night, Bayley and Alexa Bliss had a match for the SmackDown Women’s Title that was enjoyable enough, as was Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan vs. Heavy Machinery for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, and The New Day vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens. Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans was less good, however. 

The main issue with Stomping Grounds was the show felt like it was completely on autopilot, and if you replaced the Stomping Grounds set and ring design with that from any other show in 2019, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference, as it was the same matches with the same bumbling booking. 

9. Fastlane

In the 2010s, the road to WrestleMania often featured a number of arbitrary stops where, typically, nothing of consequence happened. This was exactly the case with Fastlane, a truly pointless addition to the WWE events calendar but one that at least produced mostly good wrestling, if not a great deal of thrilling storyline advancement. 

The Revival’s defence of the Raw Tag Team Titles over the teams of Aleister Black & Ricochet and Chad Gable & Bobby Roode was the match of the night and showed the genius behind putting six talented guys in the ring together with few restrictions and telling them to have a good match.  

Also fun was the US Title four-way between Samoa Joe, R-Truth, Andrade and Rey Mysterio. A bonus match, this was also another breezy 10 minutes full of fast-paced action and a good addition to the card. 

Daniel Bryan’s defence of the WWE Title over Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali was also really good but, again, there was never any doubt as to who the winner was going to be. 

In the main event, The Shield teamed up for what was billed as the last time ever as they downed Bobby Lashley, Baron Corbin, and Drew McIntyre. It was a good match as The Shield played the greatest hits but it was not unlike every single other Shield six-man match fans had seen. 

Elsewhere, Shane McMahon and The Miz set the stage for their WrestleMania outing after they failed to regain the SmackDown Tag Team Titles from The Usos, with Shane turning heel on Miz after the match. Asuka also quickly dispatched Mandy Rose, Kofi Kingston was defeated by The Bar in a Handicap Match as WWE dragged out him being added to the WWE Title match at WrestleMania, and Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair had another match in their long-running feud, with Ronda Rousey interfering and causing Lynch to win by DQ to have Big Time Becks added back to the Raw Women’s Title match at WrestleMania. 

A good show with some really entertaining matches, the show was very skippable regardless. 

8. Clash Of Champions

This was another pretty bog-standard show with a few good matches, a little bit of storyline advancement, and a whole load of stuff that wouldn’t look out of place on an episode of Raw or SmackDown. 

For the good, Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton entered another chapter into their storied rivalry with a solid match for the WWE Title. Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman was good while it lasted, even if it was marred by Strowman choking yet again and failing to win the Universal Title. Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks was another good match with a flat finish, and fans seemed to love The Miz and Shinsuke Nakamura’s IC Title effort even if, as a match, it didn’t set the world on fire. 

Main event foes Strowman and Rollins teamed up in the opener to lose the Raw Tag Team Titles to Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler. Bayley and Charlotte Flair’s SmackDown Women’s Title match was a huge disappointment and felt more like a TV angle than a big PPV match. New Day vs. The Revival and Erick Rowan vs. Roman Reigns were both fine. 

This whole show was fine, really, but there were better ways to spend three hours. 

7. Elimination Chamber

The thing about Elimination Chamber is that, even if the rest of the card is rotten, at least the titular match or matches will be good. That was essentially the case here as an otherwise weak show was bookended by two entertaining bouts taking place inside the steel structure. 

The first of these was to crown the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions and saw six teams fighting it out for the honour. With so many moving parts and potentially 12 bodies in the ring at one time, this had the potential to get messy. Thankfully, it was enjoyable as everyone involved worked incredibly hard to make the match somewhat memorable. 

The six men competing for the WWE Title in the main event brought their A-game and created one of the better Elimination Chamber matches. As well as being a display of great wrestling and dangerous stunts, the match also had a gripping story running throughout. The last 10 minutes between Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston produced some of the best drama seen in a WWE ring all year. 

The crowd desperately wanted Kofi to win and punch his ticket for WrestleMania and bought into every near-fall. Bryan’s eventual win was a downer but, in hindsight and considering what was to come at WrestleMania, it was just another part of Kofi’s incredible journey. 

Elsewhere, Ronda Rousey beat Ruby Riott in seconds, Baron Corbin beat Braun Strowman in a match that was too long, Finn Balor won the IC Title in a Handicap Match with Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush, and The Usos won the SmackDown Tag Team Titles from Shane McMahon and The Miz.

6. Money In The Bank

The sixth best WWE pay-per-view of 2019, Money in the Bank just edged Elimination Chamber because it had one extra stellar bout despite being similarly opened and closed by two strong gimmick matches. 

The Money in the Bank Ladder matches are usually thrilling and that was the case in 2019 with matches that produced no shortage of thrills and spills. The women’s MITB Ladder match was action-packed and saw Naomi and Ember Moon be determined to steal the show or die trying, with everyone playing their part and getting the show off to a good start as Bayley captured the briefcase. 

The next match wasn’t so great. Rey Mysterio and Samoa Joe should have been able to conjure up a classic but this was another effort from them that went awry, ending in a minute after Joe sustained an injury and the referee counting the pin despite The Samoan Submission Machine’s shoulders being well off the mat. 

It didn’t get better with Shane McMahon and The Miz’s Steel Cage Match as McMahon, once again, inexplicably won. Becky Lynch then pulled double duty as she successfully defended the Raw Women’s Title against Lacey Evans, but failed to hold on to the SmackDown belt against Charlotte Flair in a match immediately after the Evans contest. 

Kofi Kingston’s WWE Title defence over Kevin Owens was another decent showing from Kofi, even though he was never able to have a true barnburner during his title reign. Much better was AJ Styles and Seth Rollins’ Universal Title match. 

The men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match was a great spectacle that maybe featured a few too many dangerous stunts. In a sensational troll job ending, Brock Lesnar sauntered out after everyone had practically killed each other for 20 minutes, swatted away Mustafa Ali and took the briefcase for himself. 

5. WrestleMania 35

WrestleMania 35 may not have had a plethora of classic matches, but it had enough good ones and plenty of feel-good moments. 

The undisputed highlight of the show was KofiMania running wild, as Kofi Kingston finally overcame Daniel Bryan to win the WWE Title. A great wrestling match with the right result, this proved that WWE still knew how to pull the trigger on someone and create an amazing moment when they wanted to. 

The other men’s world title changed hands in the opener as Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins opened the show and it was great, with Rollins winning after an electric few minutes to begin the show on the right note. 

Other bright spots on the undercard were Randy Orton and AJ Styles having a dependably good match, a fun four-way for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles, and Roman Reigns squaring off with Drew McIntyre. 

Two retirements also took place at WrestleMania 35, with Batista having one last epic with Triple H, albeit a forced epic as it was far too long. Trying to take Triple H seriously as a babyface after years as a heel also didn’t help matters. 

Kurt Angle ended his in-ring career with a whimper in a quick loss to Baron Corbin, which generated shock as most expected John Cena to actually be Angle’s final match, something the Olympic gold medallist himself wanted but was turned down by Vince McMahon. Angle had deteriorated inside the squared circle by 2019, and Baron Corbin was simply not the right man to end the Wrestling Machine’s career despite their long-running storyline. 

The historic Winner Takes All main event between Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair also underwhelmed and would have been better as a straight singles match between Rousey and Lynch. The most memorable moment of the match, unfortunately, is the botched winning pinfall

The rest of the card and the pre-show are a mixed bag and, at a legitimate seven-and-a-half hours, it was a tall task to sit through. 

4. SummerSlam

SummerSlam 2019 was another in a series of great shows full of mostly good wrestling and little nonsense. The pace was set with Becky Lynch and Natalya, who had a match full of non-stop action over the Raw Women’s Title. 

The Bill Goldberg redemption tour rolled into town and rolled over Dolph Ziggler, not once but three times, earning Da Man a lot of goodwill after the horror show with The Undertaker. AJ Styles vs. Ricochet and Bayley vs. Ember Moon weren’t as good as expected but, pleasantly, Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens was better than it could have been thanks to a hot crowd and some smoke and mirrors.

Also on the SmackDown side, Randy Orton and Kofi Kingston continued their rivalry with another fine match with a terrible double count-out finish. Trish Stratus got another shot at a career storybook ending, coming out of retirement for a match with her modern-day avatar, Charlotte Flair. Showing no signs of ring rust and hanging with one of the best women on the roster, Trish gave it everything to help put on a match that was her last…for four years when she came out of retirement again. 

The highlight of the night was the in-ring debut of The Fiend as he had a memorable entrance and a squash victory over Finn Balor, providing instant intrigue for a product sorely in need of a shot to the arm. 

Fittingly, the last match of the night was also the best as Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar combined to produce a trainwreck in the best sense of the term, with Rollins emerging as the winner after a chaotic contest. 

3. Extreme Rules

Extreme Rules actually became a surprisingly good show in 2019 despite what looked to be a so-so event heading into the evening, which took place one day after AEW Fight for the Fallen. 

There was arguably no bigger surprise than the main event of Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans actually being pretty good, with the memorable moment of Corbin hitting Lynch with the End of Days still being talked about several years later. Brock Lesnar’s Money in the Bank cash-in post-match to win the Universal Title from Seth Rollins took away some of the shine, but it was entertaining all the same. 

Of the matches with an extreme theme, The Undertaker & Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre in a No Holds Barred Match was great fun, while Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley under Last Man Standing rules was reasonable and had its bright spots. 

The rest of the matches were contested under standard rules and ranged in quality, but were mostly worth watching.

Cesaro vs. Aleister Black was as snug and energetic as you would expect it to be. The Revival and The Usos could have a good tag team match in their sleep. Ricochet vs. AJ Styles, while disappointing at SummerSlam, was fantastic here, and Kofi Kingston vs. Samoa Joe was yet another solid WWE Title defence for Kofi. Dolph Ziggler was also defeated in seconds by Kevin Owens, which was fun. 

2. Royal Rumble

WWE’s women’s division stole the show at one of the most anticipated events of the year. Becky Lynch, so often depended upon to kick off WWE pay-per-views in style, did so again in a rousing SmackDown Women’s Title match with Asuka. Lynch lost, but that wouldn’t be the last time we saw her on the night.

Another great match was for the Raw Women’s Title, a submission-based affair between Sasha Banks and Ronda Rousey. The two managed to create some real, genuine drama despite the result never really being in question. 

The Women’s Royal Rumble didn’t have the surprises the 2018 version had, but it did have a lot of action and really got going by the end. Highlights included Kairi Sane getting an opportunity to shine, the yearly Naomi elimination escape act, and Charlotte Flair getting to look like a killer. Surprise entrant Becky Lynch was a popular winner.  

On the men’s side of things, Finn Balor and Brock Lesnar had a good match for the Universal Title that was fun and fast.  

Not as fun or fast but still pretty decent was AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan’s WWE Title match. More methodical in pace, this was a strong effort that had a more deliberate psychology to it as well as some big bumps as Bryan retained with the help of Erick Rowan, of all people, as he and Bryan began a new alliance.  

The Bar dropped the tag straps to The Miz and Shane McMahon in a match memorable for Shane hitting a Shooting Star Press for the win. 

As for the men’s Royal Rumble match, it was another solid effort with multiple threads running through it, and some moments that WWE can replay on highlight reels for years to come, like Nia Jax stealing R-Truth’s number 30 spot and eliminating Mustafa Ali before taking a super kick, RKO and 619. In the end, Seth Rollins won the match to punch his ticket to WrestleMania. 

1. Survivor Series

WWE decided to freshen things up with Survivor Series 2019, adding NXT to the mix and making it a tri-branded battle for supremacy. The inclusion of stars from WWE’s third brand created an air of unpredictability and resulted in some match combinations that fans would have not otherwise seen. 

Kicking off the main show was a task once again given to the talented women of the three brands. With three teams of five women, this was always going to be a marathon, not a sprint, and the competitors put on a phenomenal 30-minute match capped off with a star-making performance from eventual survivor Rhea Ripley. 

NXT continued their roll as Roderick Strong bested AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura in the next match, a predictably stiff one that, again, was all-action. 

The following contest was an all-NXT affair, with Pete Dunne and Adam Cole fighting it out over the NXT Title. This was another winner with a lot of great exchanges and a great story told throughout, with both men doing a grand job of selling the beating from WarGames at TakeOver the night before. 

The Fiend’s Universal Title triumph over Daniel Bryan was good, but not great, and felt like it had the potential to go into another gear before it ended. 

The men of Raw, SmackDown and NXT collided in a smartly-booked and expertly executed match that once again made a star out of an NXT competitor. This time it was Keith Lee who came out looking like gold, lasting until the end and threatening to best WWE golden boy Roman Reigns in a nail-biting finishing sequence, before succumbing to the Big Dog. 

Rey Mysterio and Brock Lesnar’s WWE Title match could have been longer in different circumstances, but it was good while it lasted, which included Rey and Dominik Mysterio memorably hitting a double 619 to Lesnar before Brock crushed them both for the successful title defence. 

After a night of amazing action, surprises and breakout performances, the Triple Threat between the three women’s champions – Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Shayna Baszler – was a letdown. You couldn’t fault the effort but there was no real flow and the crowd, likely burned out after such an exhausting evening, weren’t invested. 

Still, despite ending on a bit of a damp squib, Survivor Series 2019 did enough to be named WWE’s best pay-per-view of the year.