WWE Fastlane 2019: The biggest winners and losers of the PPV

Winner: Asuka

Thankfully, common sense prevailed and Asuka retained the SmackDown Women's Championship. It was beyond clear that Mandy Rose wasn't ready for a title, and indeed, the champ visibly needed to slow down beyond her usual pace to work with her opponent. Contrast the excellent match at the Royal Rumble with Becky Lynch with this one.

Asuka will now walk into WrestleMania with the title around her waist, the very one she failed to capture last year, which sent her fortunes tumbling down. She's recovered nicely.

For all the talk and mostly justified fears about WWE misusing Asuka, the company has the confidence in putting the title on her for their biggest show despite the language barrier, which should ease a few concerns. Asuka is in a mostly good place, though a purported WrestleMania match with Lacey Evans is far from endearing.

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Winner: Kofi Kingston

This match was made on the fly, but it was done for a good purpose. It got people even more behind Kofi Kingston as he now no doubt heads into a WrestleMania 35 match against Daniel Bryan.

For somebody like Kingston, this rise has been astounding. Not even scheduled to be in the original gauntlet match, Kingston has taken the ball and run as hard and fast with it as anybody ever has.

The WWE Championship match at WrestleMania originally felt like an afterthought. Now it will be one of the most anticipated matches on the card.