10 Best Wrestling PPVs Of 2019
The Grandaddies of them All.
2019 maintained the incredible form of this wondrous generation of pro wrestling talent.
To illustrate just how good we have it, All Elite Wrestling created the mildest strain of anxiety, post-Double Or Nothing and ahead of the TNT debut, by having the temerity to produce two merely very good shows. Fyter Fest was overwhelmed by the controversy of its drastically misjudged, comedy-heavy pre-show, and the worked-but-botched chair shot Shawn Spears levelled at Cody. But the in-ring action was largely eclectic, excellent and forward-thinking: AEW got Darby Allin over and built Riho's emotional connection with the crowd in Daytona Beach. The exhilarating six-man semi-main was played down by many because it was familiar.
Fyter Fest was AEW's second show.
Their third, Fight For The Fallen, was also well above average, if over-long and counter-productive. Kenny Omega and CIMA used move-spam as both crowd-popping content and advanced storytelling, in that the latter's meteora undid him. The Brotherhood Vs. The Young Bucks, excessive but not ineffective as a winding story match, suffered through an exhausted, overheated crowd.
Wrestling is so good, now, that good has somehow become disappointing...
10. WWE Money In The Bank
WWE's pay-per-view record in 2019 was very mixed, and much of that mixing happened over the course of a single show...on most if not all shows.
Being a WWE pay-per-view, Money In The Bank wasn't perfect, but it was as close as WWE managed all year. The titular Women's match was a tight, engrossing affair in which Ember Moon starred and Bayley emerged triumphant. Triumphant is the word; over the course of an inspired show-long storyline, WWE booked an effective babyface, and what's more, that babyface was Bayley.
The men's match was a strong contender for the upper echelon of the wider, MITB canon: all seven men damn near ended their careers in a brutal, dramatic spectacle designed as such for storytelling purposes: their toil contrasted grimly with Brock Lesnar's scavenging, for a little bit of the "F*ck off" heat. Pointless, but brilliantly so.
AJ Styles and Seth Rollins reversed their respective perceptions, as fading talents and babyface busts, by constructing a real banger pitched wonderfully between dream match and unvarnished fight. The Stomp-to-Styles Clash reversal here was as inspired as it was physically impossible - a low-key contender for spot of the year. And, to highlight just how great he is, Kevin Owens gave Kofi Kingston his best WWE Championship defence.
Elsewhere, the springtime chaos was, at least, perversely entertaining. Shane McMahon won a match via sweating, which, in fairness, was as in-character as Kazuchika Okada winning via Rainmaker.