7 things we saw in WWE in February 2019 that prove Vince McMahon is a man of his word

Back in December 2018, on the RAW after the TLC PPV, Vince McMahon appeared on the show along with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon to promise the WWE Universe a fresher WWE product in the coming days.

2 months have passed since that announcement, and observing the current situation on WWE TV, all we can say is that Vince McMahon has been a man of his word.

The Creative team gave a lot of surprises to the WWE Universe. From the rise of Kofi Kingston to the shocking NXT call-ups, Vince McMahon did a lot of new things in February 2019 and here’s a summary of all of them.

#7 The build to WWE Fastlane

Who on earth expected this!

The WWE Universe often regard Fastlane as the worst pay-per-view in WWE history. The pay-per-view unnecessarily drags storylines before the company's grandest pay-per-view WrestleMania. Many fans believe that WWE should scrap the Fastlane because of its repeated failures.

However, this time around Vince McMahon and co. have changed the game. This year, we cannot wait for the Fastlane pay-per-view. The bombshell that Vince dropped last week on SmackDown Live has played a major role in the sudden generation of interest for the Fastlane show.

The WWE Championship match between the returning Kevin Owens and The New Daniel Bryan will be the most unpredictable match of the night.

On the RAW side, it seems like we will get a final Shield reunion at Fastlane as the rumor mill is abuzz with the rumor that Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose will team up with the Monster Among Men, Braun Strowman to battle the team of Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, Baron Corbin and Elias.

All in all, the 2019 edition of Fastlane seems to be the most exciting one in the pay-per-view’s history.

#6 The use of NXT Superstars

NXT superstars have officially taken over!

After Elimination Chamber, we saw Triple H announcing the call-ups of the top 4 Superstars from WWE’s developmental territory, NXT. Tommaso Ciampa, Aleister Black, Ricochet and Johnny Gargano all made their main roster debuts on the same night and even registered huge victories.

The team of #DIY reunited once again as Ciampa and Gargano not only defeated the RAW tag team champions the Revival but they also conquered the tag team of Sheamus and Cesaro on SmackDown Live.

Black and Ricochet too have been very impressive as suddenly these NXT Superstars have changed the entire structure of RAW and SmackDown Live. The NXT stars are making their presence felt on both of WWE’s premier brands and the only letdown has been the cancellation of the singles match between Gargano and Cesaro which WWE had announced earlier.

#5 A common title between WWE's top 3 brands

The Women's tag team championships are not exclusive to RAW and SmackDown Live!

This week on NXT, we saw the first ever WWE Women’s tag team champions Sasha Banks and Bayley invade the yellow brand and announce that the female tag teams of NXT can also challenge for the gold which the WWE Universe originally supposed to be exclusive to the main roster only.

The WWE Universe had been wanting a common championship between RAW, SmackDown Live and NXT for a long time. Finally, the WWE gave the fans what they wanted. Frankly speaking, the WWE needed the support of NXT in this particular division as the number of female tag teams in WWE are very low and it would not have been possible to keep the division fresh with these few tag teams.

Thus, for the first time, we saw a common championship between WWE’s top 3 shows.

#4 The perfect set of champions

This title victory was long due!

If we look at the set of champions currently in WWE, except Brock Lesnar everyone seems to be in the right position. The new Daniel Bryan has changed the landscape of SmackDown Live, The Usos as SmackDown tag team champions look perfect while R-Truth and Asuka can have a good title reign as champions, they have not received proper booking.

On the red brand, Finn Balor has been doing well since becoming the Intercontinental Champion, Ronda Rousey has continued her phenomenal run as the RAW Women's Champion whereas the Revival finally captured the RAW tag team championships. Buddy Murphy also is enjoying a stellar run as the champion on 205 Live.

All in all, the fans are very happy with the set of champions in WWE currently, something that had not happened in perhaps the last few years.

#3 Huge announcements at the end of the show

The endings of the weekly episodes have been impressive

There used to be a time when the weekly episodes of WWE TV used to run based on a specific formula. The heels and faces would have a confrontation at the beginning of the show leading to a meaningless main event at the end of the night.

While, this formula can be used sometimes, but it really tests the patience of the WWE fans when it is repeated again and again. However, this month we saw matches like Ruby Riott vs Ronda Rousey main event RAW with Vince McMahon coming out at the end of the show to name Charlotte Flair as Becky Lynch’s replacement.

On SmackDown Live we saw Shane McMahon reveal Daniel Bryan’s Fastlane opponent at the end of the show. Also, the Batista vs Triple H storyline kicked off in an epic manner at the end of RAW last week.

This indicates that WWE has been working hard to retain its viewers for the entire show.

#2 The rise of Kofi Kingston

Who would have expected the crowd to go mad behind Kofi Kingston in 2019!

The way WWE has built the meteoric rise of Kofi Kingston has been commendable. WWE had earlier messed up with the careers of Jinder Mahal, Jack Swagger among others by giving them monster pushes with little realistic storyline development.

However, Kofi Kingston’s case has proved different. First, WWE surprised everyone by announcing Kofi as the replacement of Mustafa Ali in the Elimination Chamber match and then they booked him to pin 3 of the top superstars of SmackDown Live in the same night.

Kofi Kingston transformed into the biggest babyface in WWE overnight with his performance on SmackDown Live and then at Elimination Chamber.

We had not seen this type of character development in the WWE in the last few years. Also, this shows that Vince McMahon has now changed his vision as the big, muscular Superstars are no longer pushed and the real talent is preferred in WWE.

#1 Unexpected returns

No one knew Kevin Owens would show up on SmackDown Live

The Internet Wrestling Community always knows about the big returns before the Superstars return, through the rumor mills. However, this month we saw several returns of which the IWC did not know about.

The returns of Kevin Owens and Batista were kept really secret as nobody knew that they would show up on this week’s SmackDown and RAW, respectively. Also, the WWE Creative built Roman Reigns’ return to in-ring action really well.

The WWE Creative enhanced the product by making sure that the returns do not leak before they happen, to take the WWE Universe by surprise.

WWE did away with the Attitude Era segments and inter-gender wrestling by the end of February as it looks like Vince McMahon has shifted his focus on wrestling more than entertainment.