10 Best Wrestling Pay-Per-Views Of 2019 (So Far)
Pro wrestling is awesome. Sometimes, sports entertainment is too.
WrestleMania 35 is probably the most divisive omission here.
Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston assembled a fusion of technicality and emotion almost on the peerless level of Bret Vs. Owen Hart from WrestleMania X. Kofi's tear-jerking celebration marked it as the most organic, earned WrestleMania Moment in years. Seth Rollins Vs. Brock Lesnar proved there remains vitality in the company's distinctive sports entertainment storytelling mechanisms. The Fatal 4-Way SmackDown Tag Team Title bout packed much breathless entertainment. The Miz Vs. Shane McMahon was fun daft sh*te. AJ Styles Vs. Randy Orton was deliberate in pace and accidentally abysmal in production. Triple H and Batista created a great, meme-able image but very little else beyond some impressively brutal big spots to which the audience barely responded. The tedious build didn't condition the reaction.
The Winner Takes All main event was uneven in quality and received by an exhausted audience that may not have reacted much more enthusiastically to it, even if it were awesome.
Elsewhere, the lack of heat and and draining run-time rendered 'Mania a weird, best watched on-demand show presented in a punishing live setting. We are well beyond the era in which 'Mania was the most-anticipated pay-per-view on the calendar.
The paradigm has been shifted...
10. WWE Royal Rumble
Long and uneven and counterproductive to performers who deserve more than the silence of exhausted crowds, this is the fate of every WWE Big 4 show now.
It is impossible to effectively sequence a consistently engaging seven-hour event of any medium, much less WWE, but in the refreshed light of day, the 2019 Royal Rumble produced several bangers - and, in defiance of its rotten modern history, two popular results in the titular attractions.
Asuka's win over Becky Lynch hasn't been revisited in storylines, strangely, but as a standalone spectacle, it was an excellent character-driven showcase for Becky's undying swagger in the face of a genuine threat. Their RAW counterparts Ronda Rousey and Sasha Banks assembled a frantic and uniquely-told, beautifully ugly fight. Broadly comedic and farcically-worked in its first half, the Women's Royal Rumble match just about recovered in the second to anoint Becky as The Man. The crowd, exhausted by the rare, emotional high, were too spent to react to AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan's gruelling, intimate scrap. It was worked excellently for what it was, but what it was wasn't remotely stadium-sized fare.
Finn Bálor showed glimpses of the old super-worker in his focused, intelligent and believable early onslaught of Brock Lesnar in a cracking sprint, and the Men's Rumble, if patchy, did effectively showcase Pete Dunne, Aleister Black and Rey Mysterio.
Uneven as hell, but it ruled when it ruled.