WWE Stomping Grounds 2019 final rating: Rollins and Lynch burn it down
WWE Stomping Grounds 2019 wasn’t a show that featured much hype or anticipation heading into it, but from top to bottom, the show managed to exceed expectations with a consistent night of solid matches.
Despite it not being expected to do much by the majority of fans, WWE Stomping Grounds 2019 wound up being way better than most thought, and from top to bottom, it exceeded the recent Super ShowDown event and Money In The Bank last month.
The main card kicked off with the Raw Women’s Championship match between Becky Lynch and Lacey Evans.
These two put on a good opening match that definitely exceeded their Money In The Bank encounter last month. Evans looked solid throughout, and even with a couple of sloppy moments along the way, this match turned out well before ‘The Man’ got the tap out victory to retain her title.
Tag team action took center stage next when Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn battled Big E and Xavier Woods of The New Day, but despite being a random match that felt a bit out of place, this was a very good wrestling match.
Both teams put forth great efforts and the action was very good from the beginning all the way towards the end before KO got the pinfall victory for his team by taking out Woods.
The United States Championship was on the line next when Samoa Joe defended against Ricochet in what would turn out to be a career-changing match for Ricochet.
This was another stellar match in the opening hour of the show, and it featured plenty of standout moments. Just when it looked like Joe was in control, Ricochet’s high-flying offense took control and after a 630 splash, Ricochet shocked Joe to win the U.S. Championship and his first main roster title.
Daniel Bryan and Rowan defended the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Heavy Machinery up next, and this was an entertaining match thanks, in large part, to the Bryan-favored crowd in his home state of Washington.
This turned out to be a much better match than most probably expected, but even though Heavy Machinery pushed the champs to their limit, it wasn’t quite enough and Bryan got the win for his team to retain the tag team titles.
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss for the SmackDown Women’s Championship followed and this match felt a bit like a letdown, at times, but it was still pretty good.
It just felt like a recycled match that has happened too many times heading into it, but it still did a good enough job before Bayley successfully retained her title in a big win for her title reign and career.
A WrestleMania 35 rematch was up next when Roman Reigns took on Drew McIntyre, who was of course flanked by Shane McMahon.
This match was pretty slow for the first few minutes, but it picked up towards the end before Shane O’Mac interference turned everything upside down. He was eventually taken care of by Reigns and that led ‘The Big Dog’ to finally put away McIntyre with a spear for the win.
It was disappointing to see McIntyre lose another big match, however.
The WWE Championship was at stake next when Kofi Kingston defended against Dolph Ziggler inside of a steel cage. This match started a bit slow as well, but there were enough impressive moments along the way to make up for that slow start.
The finish was particularly good when it looked as if Ziggler was about to escape the cage through the door, only for Kofi to do a suicide dive to the outside just in the nick of time to retain his title.
It was then main event time when Seth Rollins defended the Universal Championship against Baron Corbin, who recruited the services of Lacey Evans as the special guest referee. And of course, Evans greatly favored Corbin to the point where it looked like Rollins had no hope.
That was until real-life girlfriend Becky Lynch got involved and took out Evans, leading to a real referee taking her place just in time for Rollins to hit Corbin with a stomp to retain his title.
In all honesty, this was a good show. It was better than most thought it would be and there really wasn’t anything bad on the entire show.
Was it an all-time great pay-per-view? Of course not. However, it should be viewed in a positive light by the WWE universe. There was a lot of quality throughout this show, and the first half of it really shined brightly.
A new and exciting U.S. Champion was crowned, there were two solid tag team matches, and the main event was over-booked just enough to make it an entertaining and enjoyable encounter.
Don’t rule out a possible mixed tag team match in the near future as well with Rollins and Lynch potentially battling Corbin and Evans. It should be interesting to see the fallout on Raw and SmackDown this week.
It lacked hype and anticipation, but Stomping Grounds proved to be a pleasant surprise that won’t be remembered as a pay-per-view you can’t afford to miss, but rather a solid show that exceeded expectations.
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