WWE: 5 best matches of 2019

Sasha Banks vs. Ronda Rousey – Royal Rumble 2019

Why, how bout that? Sasha Banks is on this list twice, almost back to back. It’s almost like she’s the best wrestler on the roster or something.

As the Best in the World candidate that she is (yes, move over, CM Punk), she used her skills to give Ronda Rousey the best match of her career thus far.

Coming into WWE, within a year’s time, the former UFC Bantamweight Champion managed to be the fastest rising and fastest improving WWE Superstar to join the roster since Brock Lesnar in 2002.

She continued to mow through her opponents left and right since making her in-ring debut, but The Rowdy One’s first real threat to both her undefeated streak and her Raw Women’s Championship was none other than The Boss herself.

The Boss in question, tasked with giving Rousey her best match yet, did just that by crafting a technical masterclass in which Banks targeted Rousey’s arm throughout the match before The Baddest Woman on the Planet could target Banks’ arm, rendering many of her arm-based submission holds nearly useless and forcing Rousey to think outside of the box in the ring.

The match provided some refreshingly smart psychology and a bitter intensity that offered a high stakes, big fight feel in the arena that practically overshadowed the Rumble match itself.