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As we enter the last month of the year, it's time to put our Christmas shopping aside for a moment and reflect on the 12 months we've just witnessed in professional wrestling.
To say it was unpredictable would probably be an understatement, with several landmarks taking place across the scene that would have been unthinkable at this point in 2018.
2019 will certainly be a year wrestling fans will remember, both for the wrong and right reasons.
With so much to talk about, it was hard to get this list down to ten. But hopefully I've picked out the big talking points here as we highlight our top wrestling moments (in no particular order) of 2019.
#10 AEW is born
We will start with the long-rumored news that was confirmed on the very first day of 2019.
Following the success of the All In event in September 2018, speculation began mounting that the members of the wrestling group The Elite - in particular Cody and The Young Bucks - could create a promotion of their own off the back of it.
As 2018 drew to a close, trademarks were filed for All Elite Wrestling and several other variations as members of The Elite left New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor, giving them the freedom to start this venture.
With the clocks striking midnight Pacific Time on January 1st, the rumors became official when a new episode of Being The Elite dropped, confirming the formation of AEW.
Whilst this formation wasn't a great surprise, a lot of the associated factors came as a shock to many. Long time wrestling fan Tony Khan - along with his father Shahid - were revealed as the company backers with former WWE Champion Chris Jericho named as one of the promotion's first acquisitions, ending his long term association with the WWE.
The birth of AEW gave the wrestling industry a much needed boost, giving many fans the alternative product to WWE that they'd long strove for, whilst also setting in motion many of 2019's other big events.
#9 New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor perform at The Garden
Wrestling historians will typically associate areas with certain promotions. For WWE, their wrestling home base has always been New York City.
For decades, fans would flock to Madison Square Garden to see the old WWWF and WWF headline the venue on a regular basis to witness stars such as Bruno Sammartino and Hulk Hogan in the flesh.
Even as we moved into the 1990s and 2000s, WWE would continue to perform at least once a year at The Garden. For the longest time, the company and the venue essentially had exclusivity agreement in place.
This made it all the more surprising when in June 2018, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor announced that their joint G1 Supercard event would take place at MSG over WrestleMania weekend.
The event, which sold out in minutes, marked the first non-WWE wrestling event in nearly half a century to take place at The Garden.
To many, G1 Supercard marked a changing of the guard, signifying the want for an alternative to the McMahon product.
The event itself was met with mixed acclaim. Many described the show as a tale of two halves, with the NJPW portion of the show praised whilst the ROH section was panned by many. It has led to speculation that the partnership between the companies could soon be coming to an end.
Regardless, the fact that a company from Japan held a show in this venue signified how far NJPW has come in the last decade.
#8 KOFI-Mania
It's hard to argue that Kofi Kingston is one of WWE's most loyal and respected performers.
However, for all that he had achieved in his career pre-2019, not many would have ever put him in world championship contention.
This would all change this year when an unfortunate injury to Mustafa Ali presented Kingston with a surprise opportunity to cement his legacy.
A late replacement in the Elimination Chamber, the New Day member put on a star turn in the match, coming so close to dethroning Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship.
Such was the response to Kofi's performance that many fans instantly called for him to get his one-one-one shot at WrestleMania.
In one of the best angles WWE did all year, Kingston was constantly forced to fight the odds to get the match of his dreams.
He had originally been granted the WWE Title match at Fastlane to challenge Bryan, only for Vince McMahon to deem Kofi unworthy and replace him with Kevin Owens. He later thought he'd been added to the match on the night, only to end up in a handicap match.
After overcoming four superstars in a gauntlet match to earn an opportunity, he would end up being hit by another curveball. It was only when his New Day brothers Xavier Woods and Big E won a similar gauntlet match that KofiMania was well-and-truly on.
WrestleMania 35 was Kingston's moment. His chance to show he truly belonged with the best in the business.
In front of his family watching at ringside, Kofi produced the match of his life, defeating Bryan for the WWE Title in arguably the bout of the night.
Say what you want about the reign that followed, but this moment itself is one that can never be taken away from Kingston.
#7 The women main event WrestleMania
Kingston wasn't the only one that hit a major landmark in his career this past WrestleMania.
The year 2018 was all about the women's revolution in WWE. We not only saw the first-ever Women's Royal Rumble match, but also the first all-womens pay-per-view, the critically acclaimed Evolution.
In midst of this, two colossal stars emerged as the shining lights of the WWE product: Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch.
Their hotly anticipated match at Survivor Series 2018 was shelved due to an injury sustained by Lynch at the hands of Nia Jax on the go-home RAW for that show.
When 'The Man' would kick off 2019 in style by winning the Royal Rumble, it was thought that this blockbuster clash would soon become reality.
But despite WWE making the decision to add Charlotte Flair to the mix and make it a triple threat encounter, it would soon become apparent why the company choose to add that extra bit of spice.
Weeks before WrestleMania, WWE made the move to publicly announce that Lynch, Flair, and Rousey would close out the show, making them the first women to have a main event match at WrestleMania.
Whilst the contest itself didn't live up to some fans' expectations, it wasn't about that to others. It represented the culmination of a journey that started four years prior when fans cried out to "Give Divas A Chance".
No longer were female wrestlers just eye candy. They were legit Superstars.
#6 The Ambrose Asylum jumps ship
The closing months of 2018 weren't exactly the finest of Dean Ambrose's career.
In the days following the 2019 Royal Rumble, it came as both shocking, yet also somehow unsurprising, when news emerged that 'The Lunatic Fringe' would be leaving WWE upon the expiration of his contract in April.
In the past when scenarios like this have occurred, WWE has usually decided to write the Superstar off television and keep them away from any ongoing storylines. With Ambrose though, he would continue to appear on RAW on a weekly basis. The company would even take the step to announce his upcoming departure in an official capacity via press release.
To some, this was merely an attempt to keep one of their top stars. Other fans saw this as a potential storyline scenario that would see Ambrose taking a few months off before returning refreshed later in the year.
However, it would soon become apparent that this wasn't the case. May 25th came along and AEW were concluding their debut show, Double or Nothing. As Chris Jericho celebrated a victory over Kenny Omega, the camera panned to the crowd where the former Dean Ambrose was making his way to the ring, indicating that he'd now signed with All Elite Wrestling.
Dean Ambrose was dead. Jon Moxley was reborn!
Moxley would later reveal on Jericho's podcast that he left WWE because he was tired of the creative bubble the company employs, and felt limited within it. It's been clear in the months since with his work in both AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, that Mox is thriving once again.
#5 The rise of The Fiend
Going into 2019, it would be easy to forget that at this time five years ago, Bray Wyatt was one of the hottest characters on WWE TV.
Following his brief run as one-half of the RAW Tag Team Champions with Matt Hardy in 2018, Wyatt had faded into the shadows, nowhere to be seen in any creative plans.
He reappeared in the spring sporting a sweater and a smile, and he appeared only on screen in vignettes dubbed The Firefly Fun House. Many WWE fans felt extremely confused, even upset, about this new development.
Bray is known as one of the company's most creative performers, however, so it became clear as the weeks progressed that his fingerprints were all over this character. Dark tendencies would start to appear in his persona, eventually manifesting as the character known as The Fiend.
By the time The Fiend made his first appearance in a WWE ring, it was clear the work Wyatt had been putting into these segments had paid dividends as the crowd respose was extremely positive.
His debut match under this new guise at SummerSlam against Finn Balor was met with universal acclaim. All the aspects of the character, such as the lantern in the visage of the head with Bray's old look, to his in-ring characteristics, were spot on. Higher-ups backstage seemed so happy with Bray's showing that he was quickly slotted into the Universal Championship picture, and now he holds that gold.
In an era in which many characters are quite generic, The Fiend is a refreshing addition to the wrestling scene. AEW have tried to hit this type of character with Brandi Rhodes and The Dark Order to lesser success. Maybe The Fiend just set the bar too high.
#4 The Wednesday Night Wars
When AEW started up, one of the trademarks the company filed for was Tuesday Night Dynamite.
This implied that when AEW secured a weekly television slot, they would be looking to fill the void left by SmackDown, which was soon heading to Friday nights.
When it was announced in July that AEW Dynamite would be airing on TNT on Wednesdays, it was clear that The Elite were targeting the wrestling-heavy fanbase of NXT.
A few short weeks later, WWE would announce that NXT was making the move to USA Network, as well as expanding from one hour to two.
Whether you see the move as a counterprogramming tactic or not is entirely your opinion, but it was a move that had been speculated for well over a year and meant that we had a serious ratings battle on our hands, one dubbed by fans as The Wednesday Night Wars.
The debut of Dynamite surpassed all expectations, gaining an incredible 1.4m viewers, smashing the NXT total of 891k. AEW would go on to win seven weeks in a row before NXT registered two straight wins in the ratings war.
In the digital age that we live in, it can be questioned just how much ratings really matter. However, I think what we can all agree that the competition is keeping the creative forces on both shows on their toes, and we've seen some fantasy wrestling TV over the last two months as a result.
Long may it continue!
#3 SmackDown debuts on FOX
As much as we love wrestling, we have come to accept that the peak of its mainstream popularity has long passed.
No longer are we in the days of the Monday Night Wars and The Attitude Era where wrestling would draw extremely high ratings.
It is for this reason that it was a surprise to many when in 2018, major network broadcaster FOX announced a five-year deal to air SmackDown.
For as long as can be remembered, wrestling has always aired on cable TV, or lower-level over-the-air channels such as UPN, which was the original home of SmackDown. After many years as a cable-only entity, having a top mainstream channel like FOX taking a chance on WWE represented a major opportunity for the sport.
The network held up their side of the bargain by introducing a dedicated marketing campaign for the debut of SmackDown in its new Friday slot, coinciding it with the beginning of football season, a point where US networks traditionally draw some of its largest ratings.
WWE equally pulled out the big hitters for the October 4th debut, with an appearance from The Rock, a cameo by linear boxing world champion Tyson Fury, and Brock Lesnar defeating Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship.
The show drew 3.9 million viewers in its first week, representing a significant increase over SmackDown's final broadcast on USA.
Whilst ratings have slipped in the weeks since, it will be interesting how WWE can use this increased platform to their advantage, and how it could draw more eyes to wrestling again.
#2 Cody's pre-Full Gear promo
One of the major critiques of wrestling in recent years has been the way in which WWE micromanages everything and over-scripted promos can be.
Since AEW have entered the market, they have represented a refreshing change of pace in this regard. Whilst the creative freedom the company gives its performers hasn't always equaled success, one man taking his chance is a man at the pinnacle of the promotion, and one of its founders, Cody.
Critics of 'The American Nightmare' look back at his WWE run and how he came across as nothing more than a solid midcarder. But since the inception of AEW, he has taken his game to the next level, especially when he has a mic in hand.
Cody has transitioned into one of wrestling's finest promos, much like his father was in his heyday. The creme-da-la-creme of Cody's work so far was easily his promo on the final episode of Dynamite before the Full Gear pay-per-view event.
Hyping his match with Chris Jericho, his words managed to turn a match with a decent yet unspectacular build into an anticipated clash with a big-bout feel. He took the crowd on an incredible journey over a short space of time, selling how much being AEW Champion meant to him and his family.
Not only that, but he installed a belief into the audience that the title match outcome was obvious, which made the finish at Full Gear more surprising.
I'll be the first to say I've never been the biggest Cody fan. But if he continues to produce gold on the mic, I could be singing his praises much more this time next year.
#1 NXT dominates Survivor Series
Since its move to the WWE Network in 2014, NXT has presented itself as the top in-ring pro wrestling product in all of WWE.
Despite this, many fans dismay over how the company's higher-ups perceive the brand. This is epitomized in how NXT stars are booked whenever they have moved to RAW or SmackDown in the past, with only a handful having successful runs.
2019's Survivor Series seemingly ushered in a change of approach.
The event's annual brand warfare was spiced up this year with the addition of NXT to the mix. In the weeks leading to the show, NXT stars would invade both of the main shows on a regular basis, looking dominate on each occasion.
Many fans were still skeptical when it came to Survivor Series, with many believing that NXT would end up serving his cannon fodder to the more established brands.
This was far from the case, as NXT ruled the evening, picking up four wins our of the seven brand-on-brand-on-brand bouts. Even in defeat, most of their stars came out looking great, especially Keith Lee, who had a breakout weekend.
Add in the clash between Adam Cole and Pete Dunne for the NXT Championship, and it was a landmark night for the Black and Gold brand.
Given the fact that most of the roster went through the demolition that was WarGames the night before, Triple H has done a great job selling his team to the management above him.
With the Wednesday Night Wars heating up, its clear that NXT is no longer developmental.
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