Friday, March 29, 2024
EditorialSuperstars Missing from WWE Stomping Grounds 2019 Card

Superstars Missing from WWE Stomping Grounds 2019 Card

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With Stomping Grounds 2019 coming up this Sunday night, the go-home shows of Monday Night Raw, SmackDown and 205 Live have given us an indication of what talent is booked for the pay-per-view and who is not currently scheduled. Of course, the card is always subject to change and WWE may end up making alterations to this lineup, but at the moment, the men and women in this breakdown are not currently advertised as being part of this event.

In some cases, this may be justified, or even a purposeful plan to set up a surprise. In other cases, it may be ridiculous. That is up to you to decide as we take a look at which superstars aren’t being promoted for this show.

From the Raw Men’s Division

— AJ Styles: Styles has been taking time off to heal from a back injury, but don’t count out the idea of him making an appearance here to screw Baron Corbin out of the Universal Championship match. That’s either happening here, or he’ll attack him on an episode of Raw before Extreme Rules to set up a match, or he’ll screw Corbin at Extreme Rules if Corbin/Rollins happens again there.

— The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor): Jobbers don’t get on the card. Sorry, fellas.

— The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar): AOP had a soft return in the 50-man battle royal, yet WWE barely called any attention to it. My guess is we’ll see them return either on Raw or SmackDown after this event.

— Bobby Lashley / Braun Strowman / Cesaro / The Miz: These four failed to earn the title shot for the United States Championship. That’s as good a reason as any to say “well, no more spots left on the card for you guys who came up short.” There’s still a chance some impromptu tag team match happens on the pre-show or something, though.

— Bray Wyatt: Wyatt still hasn’t made his in-ring debut, so if we see him at Stomping Grounds, it will either be in another Firefly Fun House video (but I doubt that) or he’ll attack someone. The latter is more likely, I feel, than the former, as the Firefly Fun House segments seem to be more closely tied to Raw and SmackDown.

— Brock Lesnar: But, but, but Paul Heyman said that Brock Lesnar can show up at any time on the go-home show to this event! That means he’s showing up, right?! Right?! Of course not. Move along. Nothing to see here.

— Cedric Alexander: Boy, WWE sure forgot about Cedric fast, didn’t they? That’s a shame. No wonder he tweeted that he misses 205 Live, as he’s only ever wrestling on Main Event nowadays and chasing after the 24/7 Championship.

— Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder: After having lost the Raw tag titles, these two are back at the bottom of the lineup, sadly.

— EC3, Eric Young, Heath Slater, Mojo Rawley, No Way Jose, Robert Roode, Titus O’Neil: My guess is we’ll see these guys all chasing after Drake Maverick and R-Truth, trying to win the 24/7 Championship, or we won’t see them at all. That’s all they seem to do lately.

— The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows): You’d think WWE would want to build this team up in preparation of the upcoming event in Tokyo, but nope, they’re not even close to sniffing a spot on this card.

— Lio Rush: While Lio Rush has remained active on social media, he’s been MIA on television for weeks, and all of his posts seem to carry this depressing message of not knowing if he’s fired or will ever return. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but since that’s the case, he’s certainly not on the Stomping Grounds lineup.

— The Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik, Kalisto, & Lince Dorado): Outside of getting wrecked some more by Lars Sullivan, what would these three have possibly done? Their next step is to keep feuding with The Singh Brothers on 205 Live, not to do something here.

— The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson): There’s a very good chance these two show up to interfere in the match between Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns, but as far as any official capacity goes, they aren’t scheduled for the card.

— Rey Mysterio: Mysterio is currently injured and will be out for an undisclosed amount of time. He says he’s hoping to be back somewhat soon, so we’ll see, but Stomping Grounds is too fast for any recovery to have worked.

— The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso): The Usos have been consistently performing and are highlighted every time they go out there, win or lose, but rather than give them a tag title opportunity here or something, it seems they’ll be sitting this out in favor of more action on the Raw episodes to follow.

— The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar): These poor guys were starting to become big deals in NXT, and they brought them up to the main roster only to immediately hinder their careers with the name changes, turning them heel, having them abandon the NXT tag titles, winning a Raw tag title shot and being left off the show for weeks, until they became entirely forgotten about.

From the Raw Women’s Division

— Alicia Fox: Fox has only appeared on Main Event since her return, I think.

— Dana Brooke: While Dana Brooke has been making some headway in regards to a higher spot on the card, that will take some time to manifest anything tangible.

— Naomi: Not everyone can be the focus all the time, so she just happens to be on the sidelines right now.

— Natalya: see Naomi’s part above.

— Nia Jax: Jax will remain out with her knee injuries for the coming months and isn’t expected to return to action until 2020.

— Nikki Cross: While she isn’t technically on the card, she’ll undoubtedly be in Alexa’s corner in her match against Bayley.

— Ronda Rousey: Rousey is still inactive due to her broken hand and her wishes to start a family. It is unknown when or if she’ll be returning.

— Ruby Riott: Riott’s shoulder injury will keep her on the shelf for the next few months.

— Sarah Logan: Since The Riott Squad split, Logan has been only working house shows and Main Event, really. WWE probably has no ideas on what to do with her and only split up the team to make it feel like the Superstar Shake-up was shocking.

— Sasha Banks: Who knows what’s going on with Sasha Banks at this point?

— Tamina Snuka: When last we saw Tamina, she was hanging out and partying backstage with Naomi and company. Nothing going on there.

From the SmackDown Men’s Division

— Aleister Black: Simply put, nobody has picked a fight with him yet.

— Ali: WWE has entirely dropped the ball with pushing Ali, as the Wild Card rule has tipped the focus to having double the amount of Shane McMahon promos and such, rather than letting people like Ali make a name for himself by getting a chance to perform.

— Andrade: There was a good chance he would have been fighting for the Intercontinental Championship at this event, but his mother sadly passed away. As expected, he was taking time off to grieve and to deal with more important family matters.

— Apollo Crews and Chad Gable: This is a tag team in the works, with both men also busy elsewhere, as Crews has Andrade on the mind and a guest spot on NXT, while Gable is now also part of the 205 Live brand, it seems.

— The B-Team (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel): Outside of helping out Shane McMahon, these guys haven’t done anything in a while. There’s no purpose for them to be fodder on this card, so there’s no need to book them.

— Big Show: While technically still listed as a member of the SmackDown roster, Big Show is much more of an ambassador than an active wrestler.

— Buddy Murphy: NXT’s best kept secret? Now, he’s on SmackDown’s milk carton as a lost superstar. They’ve done nothing with him since bringing him to the brand.

— The Colons (Epico Colon & Primo Colon): You can count the times per year these two show up on television or pay-per-views with one hand and still tend to have fingers leftover.

— Elias: I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see Elias at some point on this card, either in a promo or helping out Drew McIntyre against Roman Reigns.

— Finn Balor: The intercontinental champion is in a weird lull right now, wherein he’s somewhat feuding with Andrade, but he’s already beaten him, and Andrade is taking time off due to his mother’s unfortunate passing. Save for determining a new challenger and moving on, or taking a temporary detour and then coming back to Balor/Andrade, it seems Balor is just sitting this out and WWE is waiting.

— The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy): Jeff Hardy is still injured and Matt Hardy has nothing solid going on right now.

— Jinder Mahal: My guess is we’ll see him do something with the 24/7 Championship, at best.

— Lars Sullivan: Supposedly, Sullivan suffered an injury during his match against The Lucha House Party, which at least puts him out of action for this event, if not longer.

— Luke Harper: WWE won’t let Harper leave, but they won’t book him to do anything, either. The company is literally paying him to not go to AEW. If he’s valuable enough that he’s worth keeping away from the competition, why not try to make him someone for your own brand? Crazy thinking, right?

— R-Truth: If we don’t get something with him trying to win the 24/7 Championship back from Drake Maverick, I’ll be completely shocked, but as that’s supposed to be more random, WWE won’t advertise that for the card ahead of time.

— Randy Orton: My guess is Orton will be the one to start a feud with Aleister Black, and WWE is just waiting to pull the trigger on this until after this event.

— Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura: These two have been swept so far under the rug over the past year. It’s amazing how they went from being noteworthy people on the B-show to almost purposely ignored.

— Sheamus: The Celtic Warrior has been out of action quite some time due to injuries, and WWE has not given a timetable as to when or if he will be returning to the ring.

— Shelton Benjamin: His appearance in the battle royal at Super ShowDown may be the only time this year he’s on a pay-per-view, sadly. Shelton just isn’t a priority, and his talent is going to waste.

— Sin Cara: Now that Sin Cara has made his return at Super ShowDown, he’s…well, let’s be honest, he’s still not going to be appearing on any pay-per-views.

From the SmackDown Women’s Division

— Carmella: If we get any backstage antics with R-Truth, we’ll see Carmella there.

— Charlotte Flair: There’s a chance Flair gets involved in the Becky Lynch and Lacey Evans match, but there’s even more of a shot that she’s just sitting this event out along with Andrade.

— Ember Moon / Fire and Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville): These three are building up to something, but it’s not a high priority. It’s just background filler for SmackDown. At least it’s something, though, and more than what many others have going on at the moment.

— The IIconics (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce) / The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane): This match is happening soon after Stomping Grounds in Tokyo. WWE is opting to not do it here in order to do it there, where it will mean more for that particular crowd.

— Lana: No Rusev or multi-woman match, no Lana. That’s how it seems to go.

— Liv Morgan: Since the Superstar Shake-up, I don’t think Liv Morgan has made a single appearance on SmackDown. That’s what she’s been up to.

— Mickie James: James is currently dealing with an injury that will put her on the shelf for an indeterminate amount of time.

— Zelina Vega: If Andrade were wrestling, Vega would be by his side, but since that’s not the case, she’s MIA here, per usual.

From the 205 Live Cruiserweight Division

— Nearly Everybody: There is only ever one cruiserweight match, if any, on pay-per-view events. They always revolve around the Cruiserweight Championship, and since we have Tony Nese defending his title here against both Drew Gulak and Akira Tozawa, that covers one extra person than normal. However, still left out in the cold are Ariya Daivari, The Brian Kendrick, Gentleman Jack Gallagher, Humberto Carrillo, Mike Kanellis, Oney Lorcan, and The Singh Brothers.

Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!