WWE Stomping Grounds 2019
Highlights:
- Lacey Evans was named the special referee in the Universal title match, but her effect was nullified when “The Man” Becky Lynch interfered on her boyfriends behalf; meaning another ref had to take over.
- Ricochet won his first WWE championship by defeating Samoa Joe for the US title
- Drew McIntyre continued his losing streak against Roman Reigns
- Nikki Cross’s interference gave Bayley an opener to capitalize on a distracted Alexa Bliss.
- Kofi Kingston won the steel cage match by leaping through the door and falling to the floor, before Dolph Ziggler could crawl out the door.
- Brock Lesnar was teased to appear (by Paul Heyman), either after the WWE Championship match, or as the special referee in the main event; but in the end he no-showed.
- Drew Gulak won the Cruiserweight title by pinning Akira Tozawa
- It was revealed R-Truth won the 24/7 Championship for the sixth time, by pinning Drake Maverick at the latter’s wedding.
Event Card
UNIVERSAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Seth Rollins (c) defeated Baron Corbin*
*Corbin chose Lacey Evans to be the special guest referee
WWE CHAMPIONSHIP STEEL CAGE:
Kofi Kingston (c) defeated Dolph Ziggler by escaping the cage
RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Becky Lynch (c) defeated Lacey Evans by submission
SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Bayley (c) defeated Alexa Bliss after Nikki Cross’s interference
SINGLES MATCH:
Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre (w/ Shane McMahon)
UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Ricochet defeated Samoa Joe to become the new US Champion
SMACKDOWN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Daniel Bryan and Rowan (c) defeated Heavy Machinery
CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TRIPLE THREAT MATCH:
Drew Gulak defeated Tony Nese (c) and Akira Tozawa to become the new Cruiserweight Champion
TAG TEAM MATCH:
Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn defeated The New Day (Xavier Woods & Big E)
At Money in the Bank, Bayley won the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match and later cashed in the contract on Charlotte Flair to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship. On the June 4th episode of SmackDown, Flair competed in a triple threat match against Carmella and Raw’s Alexa Bliss, who appeared via the wild card rule, in order to earn a rematch against Bayley for the title at Stomping Grounds. Bliss, however, won the match, thus Bliss earned the title match.
At WrestleMania 35, Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre. Reigns was then drafted to SmackDown in the Superstar Shake-up, while McIntyre joined forces with Shane McMahon, but lost another match to Reigns by disqualification when Reigns appeared on the May 6th episode of Raw via the wild card rule. At Super ShowDown, Shane defeated Reigns thanks to a Claymore from McIntyre while the referee was incapacitated. Afterwards, another match between Reigns and McIntyre was scheduled for Stomping Grounds.
At Money in the Bank, Becky Lynch retained the Raw Women’s Championship against Lacey Evans, who in turn caused Lynch to lose her SmackDown Women’s Championship to Charlotte Flair that same night. After more feuding on Raw, another match between Lynch and Evans for the Raw Women’s Championship was scheduled for Stomping Grounds.
At Super ShowDown, Seth Rollins retained the Universal Championship against Baron Corbin after Corbin got into an argument with the referee, allowing Rollins to roll-up Corbin to retain the title. After the match, Corbin attacked Rollins with the “End of Days” and a title rematch was scheduled for Stomping Grounds. On the next Raw, Corbin revealed that WWE officials allowed him to choose a special guest referee for the match.
Corbin was going to choose Elias, but he was brutally attacked by Rollins, who followed suit and continued to attack Corbin’s other potential choices: EC3 and Eric Young on Raw, and The B-Team (Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas) on SmackDown. Corbin’s decision on the special guest referee remained unknown before Stomping Grounds.
At Super ShowDown, Kofi Kingston defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship thanks to interference from fellow New Day member Xavier Woods. Following the match, an irate Ziggler claimed he would have beaten Kingston had it not been for Woods and then challenged Kingston to a steel cage match for the title at Stomping Grounds and Kingston accepted.
On the June 11th episode of SmackDown, The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) defeated the team of Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn, the latter appearing via the wild card rule. On the following Raw, wild card guests The New Day defeated the team of Owens (also appearing via the wild card rule), Zayn, and Baron Corbin in a two-out-of-three falls match. A tag team match between New Day’s Big E and Woods against Owens and Zayn was then scheduled for Stomping Grounds.
On the June 11th episode of 205 Live, a fatal four-way match between Drew Gulak, Humberto Carrillo, Oney Lorcan, and Akira Tozawa occurred to determine the number one contender against Tony Nese for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at Stomping Grounds. The match, however, ended with both Gulak and Tozawa scoring a double pin. The following week, 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick decided that Nese would defend the title against both Gulak and Tozawa in a triple threat match.
On the June 10 episode of Raw, United States Champion Samoa Joe was a guest on The Miz’s “Miz TV”, only to get interrupted by Braun Strowman, Bobby Lashley, Ricochet, and Cesaro, each stating a claim to challenge Joe for his title. The following week, a fatal five-way elimination match between Strowman, Lashley, Ricochet, Cesaro, and Miz occurred to determine Joe’s challenger for the title at Stomping Grounds, which was won by Ricochet.
After SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan berated the SmackDown tag team division on the May 28th episode of SmackDown, Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) interrupted and challenged the champions to a title match, which was accepted but for a later time. On the June 11th episode, Bryan and Rowan were set to have a title unification match with the kayfabe Yolo County Tag Team Champions, a couple of “local” wrestlers with cardboard belts.
Heavy Machinery came out before the match and accused Bryan and Rowan of avoiding their challenge. Bryan said that Heavy Machinery needed to earn the opportunity and had them instead face the enhancement talent, who Heavy Machinery quickly defeated. Bryan and Rowan were then scheduled to defend the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Heavy Machinery at Stomping Grounds.
