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We are just a few weeks away from 2020. 2019 has been a mixed year for WWE and the promotion's fans. WWE programming has undergone a lot of changes during 2019. SmackDown moved to FOX Network in October and WWE began airing NXT live on USA Network. We also saw the emergence of The Fiend Bray Wyatt, the unlikely return of CM Punk to a WWE "space", women headlining WrestleMania and many other incredible moments.
Before we step into 2020, let us take a look into this year and rank the top 5 WWE Superstars of 2019. This list will not be based solely on in-ring performance, but will also consider performance on the mic, the on-screen execution of their characters and impact on mainstream media. So without further ado, let us begin.
#5 Seth Rollins
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WWE fans have been very hard on Seth Rollins since WrestleMania 35. Even though Rollins had an outstanding 2018 and a brilliant first quarter of 2019, a string of bad booking between WrestleMania 35 and SummerSlam 2019 and some rough comments on Twitter ensured that Rollins lost a significant amount of his crowd support.
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Rollins began 2019 by winning the Royal Rumble after eliminating Braun Strowman. The Architect then defeated Brock Lesnar to become only the fifth WWE Superstar to capture the Universal Championship. His clash against AJ Styles at Money in the Bank was nothing short of phenomenal as well.
However, the fans did not like Rollins' feud against Baron Corbin (and Lacey Evans). WWE made a mess out of Rollins' first reign as the Universal Champion. He lost the title to Brock Lesnar, who cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, but regained it from The Beast at SummerSlam. Rollins' feud against The Fiend was brilliant at the start and the end, but a scrawny finish at Hell in a Cell did not help Rollins' second Universal Title reign.
On the RAW after Survivor Series, Rollins seemingly confirmed his heel turn by attacking Kevin Owens after a beatdown from the Authors of Pain, thus reigniting the fire in him.
Overall, Rollins had a brilliant year - his matches were solid and his promos were good. Rollins would have been a bit higher on this list if his maiden Universal Champioship reign was decent.
#4 Brock Lesnar
Love him or hate him, 2019 may have been the best year for Brock Lesnar since his return to WWE in 2012. Lesnar showcased his versatility, ability to tell a story in the ring, and brutal aggression during 2019. Lesnar began the year as the Universal Champion and will probably end it as the WWE Champion.
As mentioned earlier, Lesnar lost his Universal Championship against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 35. However, Lesnar made a surprise appearance during the men's Money in the Bank and captured the briefcase.
We then saw a more cheerful Lesnar in the following weeks. "Brock Party" was surprisingly brilliant and garnered a lot of goodwill for The Beast. After teasing it many times, Lesnar cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules to regain his Universal Championship.
Lesnar lost his Universal Title to Seth Rollins again - in the main event of SummerSlam - in a brilliant match. Brock didn't show up for a while after that, but when he returned, it was to challenge Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship on the premiere episode of WWE on Fox. Lesnar defeated Kingston to capture the WWE Championship and embarked on a rivalry against Cain Velasquez and Rey Mysterio.
Throughout 2019, Lesnar has showcased some of the best "selling" we have ever seen in WWE. Lesnar made us believe that guys like Finn Balor and Rey Mysterio could beat him.
Thus, we can say Lesnar earned his spot in this list.
#3 Becky Lynch
Becky Lynch kicked off 2019 as the hottest Superstar in WWE and maintained her momentum throughout the year. Lynch has broken many records in 2019 and made history by becoming the first-ever woman to win the main event of WrestleMania. Lynch is also the first-ever woman to headline three WWE PPVs in the same year.
In 2019, The Man headlined WrestleMania 35, Extreme Rules and most recently, Survivor Series. Lynch has also overtaken Charlotte Flair in the list of women with most PPV main events.
Becky kicked off this year by failing to capture the SmackDown Women's Championship against Asuka at Royal Rumble 2019. However, on the same night, Lynch replaced Lana in the Women's Royal Rumble match and won it. Lynch did not hesitate to choose the RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey as her opponent for WrestleMania 35.
However, in the following weeks, we saw a lot of unnecessary drama surrounding the RAW Women's title match. Ultimately, Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey and the SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair to clinch both the Women's belts to close the night at WrestleMania 35.
Post WrestleMania, Lynch's best feuds came against Natalya and Sasha Banks. Her Hell in a Cell clash against Banks was received very well by the fans.
The impact made by Lynch, along with Rousey and Flair, on mainstream media was humongous. Women headlining WrestleMania was a huge talking point for major media outlets, and she became the first woman to be the featured Superstar on a WWE video game cover.
Overall, Becky Lynch is, without question, one of the biggest stars of 2019.
#2 Adam Cole
Adam Cole wrestled in a ladder match, an 8 man tag team bout, a Wargames match and finally a straight one-on-one match for his NXT Championship in the span of five days. It is incredible how someone can put his body on the line at a pace like that and still fourish as one of the best in the business today.
Ever since it was announced at Crown Jewel that the 2019 edition of Survivor Series would feature the theme of RAW vs. SmackDown vs. NXT, Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era made their mark on every episode of RAW, SmackDown and NXT. Adam Cole is undoubtedly the "Workhorse" of WWE and he deserves every bit of the push and recognition he has seen this year.
It would not be an exaggeration if one says what the leader of the Undisputed Era accomplished in November 2019 alone outweighs what the majority of the WWE roster accomplished in 2019 as a whole.
Now let's take a look at an even bigger picture. In 2019, Adam Cole became the NXT Champion, have two 5-star rated bouts to his name, defeated a former World Champion (Daniel Bryan) clean, and wrestled over 65 times on televised events.
These accomplishments, Cole's insane work ethic and consistency easily earn Cole a well-deserved spot in this list.
#1 Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan is one of the modern-day greats in professional wrestling. Bryan has done it all in WWE. He headlined WrestleMania, won the Money in the Bank briefcase, and he is a grand slam winner.
So when WWE cleared Bryan to wrestle again in 2018, some fans worried that he would just become another guy in the roster. With the stacked list of talent under contract with the company, nobody thought Bryan would be able have another run as good as what we saw from him in 2013-14.
However, Bryan shattered all those expectations and hit a home run. When it seemed like he was losing momentum as a babyface at the end of 2019, Bryan turned heel. He became the WWE Champion in November and entered 2019 with the title around his waist. Bryan ditched the YES movement and became the Planet's Champion.
In a matter of a few weeks, Bryan made the WWE fans absolutely despise him - quite an achievement after the connection he made with the WWE Universe from 2012 all the way through what everyone thought was his retirement. After putting Kofi Kingston and various others over, Bryan slowly began turning babyface again.
In the weeks leading up to Survivor Series 2019, we saw how good Bryan was at controlling the WWE Universe. Even though he was pitted against one of the biggest fan favourites in WWE at the moment - The Fiend - Bryan somehow managed to revitalize the YES movement. Every arena Bryan stepped into chanted "YES" in unison once again.
Add this to the array of brilliant matches Bryan had this year and we can easily see why Bryan deserves to be the Superstar of the Year 2019.
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