8. Fastlane
Fastlane is usually a ho-hum Pay Per View on the Road to WrestleMania, since WWE rarely pulls a swerve of their hat. But they did it this year, in a way, as Vince McMahon had The Bar take out Kofi Kingston to rob him of a WWE Championship match against Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan. Mustafa Ali replaced him in a sink-or-swim situation, winning over the Cleveland crowd, who were desperate for Kofi to win that title. Kofi eventually did at WrestleMania 35, but the events at Fastlane kicked KofiMania up to an 11.
The other major highlights were Shane McMahon’s brilliant heel turn – if only everything after WrestleMania didn’t suck – on The Miz in front of his father in his hometown, as well as The Shield’s final PPV main event together before Dean Ambrose’s departure to AEW.
7. Extreme Rules
Counting the pre-show, Extreme Rules had 13 matches. WWE went all out for this one, as Extreme Rules was sandwiched in between Stomping Grounds and “Smackville”, which was a house show WWE put up on the Network.
So this was the biggest party of the summer BEFORE SummerSlam, and it included an appearance from Brock Lesnar in the main event prior to his second loss to Seth Rollins at SummerSlam. Lesnar beat Rollins here, but he couldn’t get the better of the Beastslayer in Toronto.
The real show-stealers here, though, were Aleister Black vs. Cesaro and Bayley’s handicap match against Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. Yeah, those five superstars had fantastic 2019’s.