10 Best WWE Matches Of 2019

2019 was another poor year overall from WWE, primarily due to whatever the hell Vince McMahon was trying to book on the company’s programming. There was also a seven-hour WrestleMania 35 that was so long WWE moved their biggest show of the year to two nights permanently following the COVID-19 pandemic.

What about the actual in-ring wrestling? How did that fare in this most unremarkable of unremarkable years?

These are the 10 best WWE matches of 2019.

10. Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Money in the Bank

The Money in the Bank Ladder Match is a lot like a pizza - the match itself is the base, and all WWE need to do to make it tasty is add some great toppings.

For the 2019 men’s edition of the match, the chosen toppings were very good. Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Mustafa Ali, Randy Orton, Finn Balor, Andrade, and Ricochet were all told to go out and have some fun, and when wrestlers of this calibre are enjoying themselves, so is everybody else.

Highlights from this glorious spot fest included Orton RKO-ing McIntyre off a ladder, Ricochet getting chucked about like he was made of rubber, and Andrade powerbombing Finn Balor so hard into a ladder he momentarily turned back into Prince Devitt.

There’s every chance this match would have ranked higher were it not for its utterly idiotic ending. Instead of any of the names we just mentioned, Brock Lesnar won this match, after taking out Sami Zayn beforehand and swooping in at the last minute to win the briefcase.

A truly awful finish to a really fun contest.

9. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins - SummerSlam

The Beast would hold the briefcase until Extreme Rules, where he would cash in on a knackered Seth Rollins to become Universal Champion for the third time.

“Oh great,” everyone thought, “another never-ending Lesnar reign.” Fortunately, that isn’t what happened.

Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar had their rematch in the main event of SummerSlam, with Seth’s injured ribs playing a big part in the story.

The former champion went into the bout heavily taped up, which Lesnar took advantage of by throwing him around like Miss Trunchbull threw that girl with the pigtails in Matilda.

Injury storylines can sometimes get in the way of good wrestling, but Rollins was able to work his kayfabe issues into the match and put on a gutsy babyface performance. He overcame his opponent’s relentless attacks with grit and courage, surviving multiple big moves to land several of his own, finally flooring Brock with a third Stomp to get the surprisingly clean win.

8. Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan vs. Heavy Machinery vs. New Day - Extreme Rules

Remember when Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan were the SmackDown Tag Team Champions? That sure was a thing that happened, wasn’t it?

The unlikely duo, who were united by a love of the planet and flannel shirts, picked up the titles after The Hardy Boyz had to vacate them. They defended them at the Stomping Grounds pay-per-view (another thing that happened) before putting them on the line in a Triple Threat match at Extreme Rules, also featuring The New Day and Heavy Machinery.

Bryan, Rowan, Big E, Xavier Woods, Tucker, and Otis is about as mixed a line-up as you’re going to get in a single wrestling match, which made for a really interesting contest featuring plenty of great combinations.

There was high-flying, technical wizardry, strength-based wonderment, and enough meat to put a local butcher’s shop out of business.

Big E caught a backflipping Bryan on his shoulders to set up Woods for the Midnight Hour, giving New Day a record-setting fourth reign with the blue tag straps.

The truth is that everyone was a winner here, as the match showed off exactly what they were all capable of in a beautiful display of choreographed violence.

7. The Shield vs. Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre & Baron Corbin - Fastlane

2019 was the year Roman Reigns made his return to the ring after recovering from leukaemia. It was also the year Dean Ambrose left WWE, so the company desperately crammed in as many Shield reunions as possible while they still could.

For Roman’s first match back in six months, he, Ambrose, and Seth Rollins were put against the completely random combination of Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, and Baron Corbin. The build may have been baffling, but there was still plenty of hype around this match, and it did not disappoint.

The chemistry between the Hounds of Justice was still very much there and their opponents were of a very high standard, which resulted in plenty of slick action in this 25-minute affair.

All three good guys hit their finishers on Corbin and executed a Triple Powerbomb to win the match and end the show on a high note. This would be the last time these men ever wrestled together… until WWE put on a live event called “The Shield’s Final Chapter” two months later.

6. Adam Cole vs. Daniel Bryan - November 1 episode of SmackDown

We’re not counting any matches from NXT, as it still felt like a separate property in 2019, but NXT matches that happened on main roster shows? They’re completely fair game.

As most of WWE’s roster was stuck in Saudi Arabia after Crown Jewel due to international relations issues, Triple H took the opportunity to show off his collection of talents by booking a black and gold invasion on the November 11 edition SmackDown.

Because Vince was dealing with the Saudi problem, Trips decided to book a dream match while he could, pitting NXT Champion Adam Cole against challenger Daniel Bryan in a 20-minute clash.

This was everything you’d expect from two ex-Ring of Honor world champions; crisp, clean action; realistic selling; sensational drama; all from a contest that only had a couple of hours’ worth of build.

Even Triple H wasn’t mad enough to give Bryan the belt, but a predictable result did nothing to harm this delightful surprise treat, which helped set in motion NXT’s addition to Survivor Series later in the month.

5. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks - Hell In A Cell

There were two Hell in a Cell matches on the 2019 edition of the titular pay-per-view. One was the utterly disastrous Rollins vs. Fiend match. The other was a total barnburner.

Becky Lynch, who had won the Raw Women’s Championship in the main event of WrestleMania, had lost to Sasha Banks at Clash of Champions via disqualification. The Boss, who had recently returned to TV and turned heel, demanded a rematch, which The Man was all too happy to accept.

Though Banks had been in the Cell before, this was Lynch’s debut inside the big red cage. You couldn’t tell, though, because these two worked together beautifully to weave their storied history into a vicious, violent fight.

The pair were fighting before the match even started and things only got more extreme once the Cell door was closed. Meteoras on chairs, kendo stick-assisted Bank Statements, suplexes into chair piles, this match had it all, with Becky forcing Sasha to submit to the Dis-Arm-Her to finally bring this epic encounter to an end.

4. Men's Survivor Series Match - Survivor Series

As a result of Triple H’s Saudi-assisted NXT uprising, Survivor Series became a three-way dance, pitting Raw against SmackDown against the invading developmental brand.

Most of the matches had some interbrand theme, including two 5-on-5-on-5 traditional elimination tags. The women’s version was pretty good, but the blokes absolutely knocked it out of the park.

The level of talent on display among these 15 individuals was just staggering. Walter (the future Gunther) was the first man out, which is really saying something about how stacked this match was.

Over half an hour of action the numbers were whittled down, until it came down to Roman Reigns for SmackDown and Keith Lee for NXT. Mr. Limitless put on a fantastic showing, taking Reigns to his absolute limit and damn-near beating him, only for The Big Dog to land a Spear and win it for Team Blue.

Although the underdogs didn’t win, this was still a perfectly structured match full of great spots, plenty of twists and turns, and star-making performances from the NXT side.

3. WWE Championship Elimination Chamber - Elimination Chamber

Were it not for a poorly timed injury, Mustafa Ali would have taken part in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at the 2019 event. Instead, he was replaced by a member of the New Day - some lad called Kofi Kingston.

After impressing in a gauntlet match on SmackDown, Kingston started to receive a groundswell of support from the fans, who all suddenly seemed to realise that he’d been at the top of his game for over a decade.

This support continued inside the Chamber, where Kingston was joined by Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, and defending WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. Kofi valiantly fought his way to the final two, even eliminating old enemy Randy Orton in the process, but fell just short of the mark when Bryan pinned him to retain the gold.

Even without all the Kofi stuff, this was a fantastic Chamber match full of talented stars who made good on the environment. But there’s no denying that Kingston was the driving force here; his story had captivated the WWE audience, who had become so invested in seeing him win and were absolutely crushed when he didn’t.

2. Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles - Money In The Bank

Prior to besting Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, Seth Rollins also unseated The Beast at WrestleMania 35, winning the Universal Championship from him in the night’s brief, but highly entertaining opener.

His first pay-per-view defence was set for Money in the Bank and his opponent was definitely not going to cut their match short so he could beat the traffic.

AJ Styles earned the right to face Rollins, beginning a slow heel turn in the process. He was still mostly a babyface going into the match, but was certainly acting more aggressively, which gave their encounter just that bit more intrigue.

Two generational talents going head-to-head over a world title rarely disappoints and this example did not buck that trend.

This hyper-athletic display of speed, skill, and coordination blew everyone away, with the apex coming when Styles somehow reversed a Stomp into a picture-perfect Styles Clash.

Rollins managed to retain, but the result could have easily been different on another day.

1. Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston - WrestleMania 35

Fans who feared that Kofi Kingston’s spike in popularity would peter out before WrestleMania 35 needn’t have worried, because it was still going strong by the time the show rolled around.

After overcoming numerous obstacles - some of which made sense, others not so much - the long-time midcarder finally had his chance to shine when he squared off with Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at The Showcase of the Immortals.

In terms of in-ring action, this was good, don’t get me wrong, but it was hardly the best ever. The thing is that it simply didn’t matter. This was about the story; a hero fighting to prove himself against a villain who, just five years earlier, had been in the exact same spot, yet offered no sympathy. The stars had aligned to create this perfect moment, and fans lapped it up.

When Kingston pinned Bryan after a Trouble in Paradise, it was the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of passion, graft, and tenacity. In terms of feel-good ‘Mania moments, they don’t come much better than watching Kofi celebrate in the ring with his newly won title and his kids.

KofiMania was finally here, and it tasted even better than pancakes.