The Shield’s last hurrah.
Women main-eventing WrestleMania.
Kofi Kingston becoming the first African-American superstar to win the WWE Championship.
Yes, there’s been a litany of memorable moments and landmark achievements thus far in 2019; but how as the year shaped up as a whole? As we pass the halfway point of the calendar, with fans now looking ahead to SummerSlam and beyond, I thought it worthwhile to analyse some of the high and low points of the first six months.
The Man Comes Around
There was no hotter commodity in the WWE – male or female – at the beginning of 2019 than ‘The Man’ Becky Lynch. Following her attack of Charlotte at SummerSlam of last year, Lynch found herself on a sharp ascension to the top, a trajectory which saw no signs of slowing down going into the New Year. After she eliminated her aforementioned blonde rival in the 2019 Royal Rumble to win the match, and the WrestleMania Championship opportunity that duly came with the spoils of victory, it appeared as though the Irish native would create even more history for herself – and the whole women’s division – as rumors began circling that her and whichever champion she chose to face at WrestleMania (which no one doubted was going to be RAW Champion Ronda Rousey) would clash in the main event slot of the show. Eventually, this was confirmed, and not only did the WWE have a readymade match worthy of headlining their biggest show of the year, but also a golden opportunity to crown Becky Lynch as one of their true franchise players.
Somehow, the WWE weren’t able to pull this off without getting in their own way.
On the road to WrestleMania, Vince McMahon inexplicably suspended Lynch for sixty days, inserted Charlotte into the main event in her place, and turned what should have been the hottest storyline in the company into a convoluted mess.
And so once again the WWE, in particular it’s ‘visionary genius’ Vince McMahon, exemplified in clear fashion what is perhaps their biggest problem at the moment; not letting things – be it superstars, storylines or most other portions of its program – progress naturally. In this instance, rather than simply let Becky ride her wave of momentum and popularity to ‘Mania and a title victory, they thought it necessary to provide fans a concrete reason to ‘care’; in doing so halting much of the momentum she had built for herself over the previous six months.
In the time since WrestleMania, it could be argued that Becky Lynch has been unable to sustain the momentum which led her to the biggest moment of her career. From day one of her title reign, she found herself a victim of circumstance, as her biggest rival Ronda Rousey left for an extended period of absence. So, without any viable challengers on the main roster, it was decided that the next contender for her title would be Lacey Evans, a call-up from NXT who achieved very little in the developmental system, and had done nothing in her brief time on the main roster other than walk down the ramp at random times, radiate the charisma of a cardboard cutout, before turning and walking to the back. It’s safe to say that this wasn’t exactly a feud which whet the appetite of WWE fans.
Their rivalry, which wasn’t particularly memorable in or out of the ring, eventually culminated at Extreme Rules, where Becky joined forces with her real-life partner Seth Rollins to turn back the duo of Lacey and her cohort Baron Corbin in a mixed tag team match where both the RAW Women’s and Universal Championship (held by Rollins) were on the line. While Lynch walked out of Philadelphia with her RAW Women’s Championship intact, Rollins was unable to fight back the post-match challenge of Brock Lesnar, who controversially cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to retain the title her had lost at WrestleMania.
While she has been hampered by a lack of fresh – or intriguing – rivals, Becky Lynch has nonetheless had a very memorable 2019 thus far, forging a path littered with historical milestones and achievements. With her appearance at Extreme Rules she became the first woman to main event two Pay-Per-Views in a calendar year. Furthermore, after her win over RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte at WrestleMania, she became the first woman to hold both titles simultaneously. Although the outlook for the remainder of her RAW Women’s Championship reign (she dropped the SmackDown gold back to Charlotte in controversial fashion at Money In The Bank) looks uncertain, it can safely be said that Becky Lynch has already done enough in the first six months of 2019 to cement her status as one of the top players in the WWE today.
Burn it Down
Seth Rollins found himself in a remarkably similar position to Becky Lynch as WrestleMania season came to an end. With his conquered foe Brock Lesnar not appearing as a regular on the main roster, Rollins was left without a definitive challenger to his throne. However, unlike Lynch, there were no shortage of viable contender’s for Rollins’ newly won gold.
Coming off a red-hot 2018 in which he’d cemented as status as a true main event player in WWE (without even winning the Universal Championship), it was important for Rollins to sustain this momentum as he kicked off his title reign. Fans were delighted as his first challenge came from AJ Styles, and a clash many had dubbed a ‘dream match’ took place at Money In The Bank. Following a classic duel which managed to live up to the hype, the reigning champion walked out of Hartford, Connecticut with his gold still intact.
While his in-ring performances were undoubtedly of an excellent standard, Seth Rollins’ championship reign was nonetheless overshadowed in its infancy by decisions that were not of his choosing. During the post-RAW WrestleMania, Rollins was joined by SmackDown superstar and New Day member Kofi Kingston, who had won his first WWE Championship the night before by defeating Daniel Bryan – becoming the first African-American superstar to do so. While this was indeed a historical achievement that deserved to be celebrated, perhaps it would have been better to wait until the following night’s SmackDown to honor Kingston’s victory. Instead, his appearance on RAW took much of the luster off of Rollins’ own title victory, and he was overshadowed on the brand he was supposed to represent.
Unfortunately for the self-proclaimed ‘Beastslayer’, Kingston’s appearance on RAW wasn’t a one-off. As television ratings continued their hasty decline, and WWE became more desperate to stop this trend, Vince McMahon officially introduced the ‘Wild Card’ rule on the May 6 episode of RAW. This new ruling allowed superstars from both RAW and SmackDown to jump between shows, thus putting into immediate question the relevance of the draft. Although the ruling had a domino effect across the entire WWE product, its impact on Seth Rollins and his title reign was apparent. Unlike previous Universal Champions, who had stood at the top of the heap on the RAW brand during their reigns, Rollins’ role as champion, which is usually one of definitive supremacy, was blurred as he suddenly found himself sharing television real estate with an ever-increasing number of superstars and storylines from the blue brand, including the likes of Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens and of course the WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, whose presence on Monday nights put Rollins’ status as the ‘top guy’ on RAW into question.
After his feud with AJ Styles came to a premature end following Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins found himself embroiled in a feud with Baron Corbin. In addition to the wild card ruling imposed by McMahon, this was yet another facet of Rollins’ title reign which did more harm. That is, the lack of intriguing storylines. While Baron Corbin isn’t exactly a scrub, his elevation to the main event above the other talent on RAW left a sour taste in the mouths of most fans, and the longer the feud continued, those same fans were given little reason to care about it on a week to week basis. Moreover, after Brock Lesnar’s victory at Money in the Bank, it seemed as though Lesnar’s intentions with the briefcase became more of a focus than Rollins’ own title defenses. This became evident at the Super ShowDown event, where the champion was slated to defend his title against Corbin. The match – which opened the show, another questionable move – ended with Rollins pinning his foe, before being taken out afterward by Corbin. Following the match, Lesnar emerged with briefcase in hand – and although he didn’t cash in his title opportunity, the ‘Beast Incarnate’ garnered more of a response than either Rollins or Corbin, as well as the match itself.
The involvement of Becky Lynch in Seth Rollins’ ongoing rivalry with Baron Corbin did little to salvage his title reign. Much like his previous WWE Championship run in 2015, where he was merely a puppet in the Authority’s regime, Rollins was unable to focus the spotlight solely on himself. Following two successful defenses at both Stomping Grounds and Extreme Rules, Rollins ultimately succumbed to Brock Lesnar as the latter successfully cashed in his money in the bank briefcase to win back his Universal Championship.
And so, the end is where we begin. Again. After winning a battle royal on RAW, Seth Rollins received another Universal Championship opportunity – once again facing Brock Lesnar – at SummerSlam. Unlike the road to WrestleMania, fans aren’t exactly jumping out of their seats to see these two men collide once again. Following a lackluster title reign, Seth Rollins has found himself adrift in a sea of indifference. While there is no shortage of fan support for the former Shield member, his return to the main event scene this year did little to entice new or disinterested viewers to engage with the product, which should be the goal of each superstar in that position.
Lost in the Shuffle
Ironically, the WWE has found itself losing viewers at an alarming rate whilst also having an extremely talent-laden roster. It’s almost as though Vince McMahon, and those close to him who have influence in the creative decisions, have too many toys at their disposal, and don’t know what to play with, so they just jump from one to another without having an idea where they’re going, and don’t really care because they know there’s another one ready to pick up at any second. In professional wrestling, this is always a dangerous game.
A great example of the WWE’s hesitance to pull the trigger at the right time is Braun Strowman, who has been languishing in the upper-midcard since 2017, with a few cameos in the main event position. Following his breakthrough feud with Roman Reigns two years ago, it seemed as though Strowman was a lock to ‘Get These Hands’ on the gold (sorry, I had to). However, his 2018 saw Braun achieve a lot in the way of memorable moments, but little in the way of actual achievements. The same could be said of his 2019 thus far – despite the company still considering him a valuable asset, as evidenced by his recent four year deal. In WWE’s defense, it is rather difficult in today’s media climate to book a ‘monster’ in a main event position, particularly in the role of baby face, due to overexposure and the ‘wow’ factor wearing thin. Thus, for Strowman his overwhelming size has been both a blessing and curse. Nonetheless, having him lose to Brock Lesnar on several occasions did little to help his chances.
Although WWE could have a slight excuse for their hesitance to fully get behind Braun Strowman as a top-tier star, their treatment of the ‘Monster Among Men’ was not a singular occurrence, to the frustration of many fans. And when superstars do reach the top, as was the case with Seth Rollins, they are given very little to work with, and thus are almost worse off for having been put in that position.
Perhaps the most apparent victim of what I like to call the ‘Strowman treatment’ (although it was a trend that existed long before his stop-start pushes) was Finn Balor. Balor began his 2019 campaign in memorable fashion, facing Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble for the Universal Championship. Although Balor came up short in his quest for the gold, his valiant effort in defeat was memorable and was the best possible start to the year for the Irishman (other than winning the title of course). At WrestleMania, Finn Balor made his way into Brooklyn clad in the Demon attire, defeating Bobby Lashley to win the Intercontinental Championship for the second time. Although it was a step down from the Universal Championship, many superstars in recent times have had memorable reigns with the Intercontinental gold – such as Seth Rollins, who himself won the championship at last year’s WrestleMania.
Undoubtedly, fans thought, Finn Balor would use his run with the Intercontinental Championship to become a prominent player in the WWE landscape. Imagine all the Pay-Per-View classics with opponents such as Almas, Shinsuke Nakamura, Daniel Bryan et al, not to mention the memorable portfolio he’d be able to put together on a week to week basis on SmackDown. Right?
Wrong.
Finn Balor went on to defend the title just once before losing it at Extreme Rules. The number of times he appeared on television during his reign was just two more than that.
On the bright side, we did get that title defense against Shinsuke Nakamura. On the kickoff show, in a match which was only announced on social media the week of the Pay-Per-View.
Ironically, Balor – having lost the belt, remember – now goes into SummerSlam preparing for a bigger match than he ever had during his reign with the Intercontinental Championship, against the returning Bray Wyatt. Meanwhile, Shinsuke Nakamura – the man who defeated Balor for the title just last month – has no opponent for the company’s second biggest show of the year, and will likely defend the title on the kickoff show once again, if he’s on the card at all.
I have no words.
It’s one thing to have a roster full of superstar talent, but something else entirely to use them properly – as WWE have no doubt proven thus far in 2019.
Light in the Tunnel
I’ve just spent two thousand words focusing on the more negative aspects of WWE, and how they’ve hurt the company and its product thus far in 2019. Of course, I wouldn’t be writing this article if I didn’t at least care about what was going on. And in order to care, there has to be some good stuff.
As previously stated, there is a lot of good talent in WWE. A lot. And the thing about talent is it’ll find a way to shine through no matter how small of an opportunity it’s given.
A portion of this talent were made familiar, or reestablished with, the fans through their impressive performances on NXT – Almas, Ricochet, Aleister Black and Drew McIntyre being prime examples. The aforementioned trio have managed to rise above the ceiling that has seemingly been given to other call-ups – looking at you EC3 (though it isn’t exactly his fault) – and have actually found themselves in prominent positions on both RAW and SmackDown. Although the use of the word ‘prominent’ may seem a stretch in the case of Almas, whose NXT Championship run ranks among the all-time greatest such was the body of work he put together during his time with the gold, he has still been given time to showcase his talents on television. And at the very least, he’s a step above spending the whole show chasing people around backstage trying to win a green belt.
Another rematch taking place at SummerSlam will see AJ Styles and Ricochet battling for the United States Championship. Ricochet, whose maintained a steady rise during his time on the main roster thus far, earned the title shot this past Monday on RAW after winning a gauntlet match (which also happened to feature Almas). After he was called up during ‘Mania season alongside Aleister Black as his tag team partner, with the two making their WrestleMania debut challenging for the RAW titles, Ricochet ventured down the singles path and found almost immediate success, with the former Lucha Underground star competing in the money in the bank ladder match, before getting his first taste of main roster gold at Stomping Grounds as he defeated Samoa Joe for the United States Championship. Since then, Ricochet has been embroiled in a rivalry with the recently villainous AJ Styles, who took the gold from him at Extreme Rules. Ricochet has an opportunity to steal the show at SummerSlam with Styles, and there’s no doubting he will make the most of it, as he has done with his entire run on the main roster thus far.
As it pertains to the case of Drew McIntyre, 2019 has truly been his breakout year in the WWE, despite him not having achieved any monumental victories or title wins. In fact, McIntyre has yet to taste victory on Pay-Per-View this year. I can already ask yourself “Well then, what has been so special about ol’ Drew this year then?” Well, actually, if you had watched McIntyre thus far in 2019, and took at least 14 seconds to think about it, you wouldn’t have to ask that question. Since his split from Dolph Ziggler, with whom he’d been aligned with since his main-roster call-up last year, McIntyre has seemingly been the go-to bad guy for the top WWE stars (one name in particular). After defeating the departing Dean Ambrose multiple times on RAW, and facing The Shield in their ‘last-ever Pay-Per-View’ match at Fast Lane, McIntyre faced Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, in what was the Samoan’s first singles match on PPV since his hiatus due to leukemia. While their clash didn’t blow anyone out of the water (which would’ve been nigh impossible toward the end of a seven hour show), it was a clear sign that WWE had a lot of faith in the Scottish superstar. While some found his alliance with Shane McMahon unnecessary and detrimental to McIntyre’s progression, at least it kept him involved in an important storyline. “Why wouldn’t WWE just have Roman and McIntyre continue their feud without outside involvement, and beat the crap out of each other in increasingly violent ways a la Strowman and Reigns?” Again, WWE have a habit of getting in their own way. But we’re trying to focus on the positives, dammit! At Extreme Rules, McIntyre added yet another milestone to his 2019 – and career- highlight reel, as he found himself a participant in a tag match which also featured the legendary Undertaker. Anytime a superstar is placed in a pay-per-view clash with ‘The Deadman’, it is a sign they are of importance to the company and its decision-makers.
While the next logical step coming out of Extreme Rules would have been a singles match between Drew McIntyre and The Undertaker at the WWE’s second biggest show of the year – SummerSlam – the former NXT Champion finds himself without a spot on the card less than two weeks on the show. Much of this can be chalked up to the fact that ‘Taker was never a lock to appear on the show, but they still should have had a readymade program for McIntyre in order to capitalize on his momentum. While he’s found himself in a bit of a dispute with Cedric Alexander over recent weeks, it’s a noticeable drop-off in opponents from the likes of Roman Reigns and The Undertaker. This isn’t a slight on Alexander, but after doing almost nothing of importance for the last year or so, to have him reappear and placed as an equal with McIntyre is a little absurd. I understand the thinking is that by feuding with McIntyre, Cedric will come out a bigger star. However, in order to cement his main roster status, Drew is in desperate need of a victory against another wrestler on equal standing, or even a step above where he is. Remember the Strowman effect? Throw in Drew McIntyre as another potential victim.
I swear I was trying to be positive in that last paragraph.
Of course there is a litany of talent other than recent (i.e. the last two years) NXT call-ups on the show. Names like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura (who has tremendous presence despite his at times lackluster in-ring performances), Ali, Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens – the list goes on. The reason I focus on guys like Ricochet, McIntyre and Almas is that they are a litmus test for how this company is able to produce future stars, or at least noteworthy main-event talent.
Speaking of Daniel Bryan, he was one of just two wrestlers to hold the WWE Championship this year in what has been a truly historic year for the company’s oldest title. First, the title went environmentally friendly. Secondly, and this is a little bit (read: a lot) more memorable a triumph in the belt’s history, it was held by an African-American for the first time in its history.
Not only that, but that same man was actually booked like a champion in the weeks and months afterward.
Imagine that.
After achieving his career highlight at WrestleMania by defeating Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston has been portrayed on television as almost unbeatable. He’s stood up, and knocked down, every challenger who has dared step up to the plate. Names like Dolph Ziggler, Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens have all fallen by the wayside during Kingston’s memorable reign as champion. Going into SummerSlam, Kofi faces what is undoubtedly his greatest challenge in Randy Orton, with the two referencing their previous rivalry a decade ago in a feud which has blurred the lines of reality. Regardless of the result at SummerSlam, Kingston has etched his name in the record books, and emerged as one of the truly great champions in the history WWE.
While there are numerous other facets of WWE I could pick apart and analyse, especially given how much product they churn out each week, I have chosen in this article to focus on the notable programs and talent at or toward the top of the pile. Overall it’s been an interesting year for the company thus far, one which has in recent weeks undoubtedly taken a turn for the better. If their momentum of late continues, we should be in for a more entertaining finish to the year than what we were given during the opening six months of 2019.
Oh year, I forgot another positive:
Bray Wyatt.
Thanks for reading.