Is Fastlane Worth Watching? We Take A Look at 4 Key Match Ups and Whether or Not They Impressed
In the early hours of Monday morning, WWE’s Fastlane aired live on the WWE Network and after waking up this morning to watch the action I was glad I didn’t make the choice to watch live. Nearly every match was easily predictable and they went where we knew they would with the main event. To save you the trouble and 3 hours of your valuable time, I’ve chosen to discuss a few aspects of the show that are worth talking about and have included the results at the end of the article.
4. Opening the Show with Two Must See Talents
For those of you who haven’t seen Samoa Joe or Sami Zayn before, try and go out of your way to at least watch the opening match of Fastlane. Both of these men were top talents working outside the WWE, NXT champions after arriving in the WWE and both have something to prove and nothing to lose. The perfect ingredients for an opening bout of a pay per view. These two had a solid match where Joe’s strength and surprising agility were pitted against Zayn’s incredible resiliency and fighting spirit in an attempt to establish Samoa Joe as the powerhouse on his rise to the top. In the end, Samoa Joe locked in the submission and instead of tapping out, Zayn passed out in the centre of the ring. A dangerous and dominating display from Triple H’s so called ‘destroyer’.
3. No Change of the Women’s Title
Most of us expected the result of the main event, but I, like many others, expected Charlotte Flair to regain her championship from Bayley at Fastlane. This would have made the most sense from a storytelling point of view as it would have kept Charlotte’s undefeated PPV streak intact as well as set up an epic rematch for the title at Wrestlemania. Bayley would have then had the opportunity to take back her gold and knock off the best PPV winning streak the company has ever seen on the ‘Grandest Stage of Them All’. Somehow, they didn’t go with this story and instead had Bayley retain with the help of Sasha, no doubt leading to a multi-woman match at Wrestlemania.
2. A Great Match but Where Do We Go From Here..
Braun Strowman, The Monster Among Men, showed so much promise tonight in a fantastic match with Roman Reigns and there are highlights from this match that are worth going out of your way to watch. This was always going to have an intriguing finish as both Roman and Strowman are two of Vince’s favourite talents. It was difficult to predict which of the two he would lean towards and I had thought a no contest may have been on the cards. To finish the match, Braun Strowman attempted to climb the top rope and hit a five-star frog splash.
Yes, this guy, who rivals The Big Show in stature, climbed the top and tried to frog splash. Roman moved, hit a spear and this one was over. The question going forward though is, is this over? The initial plan for Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania was to have him face the Undertaker. Now does he challenge the Undertaker? Or has this feud between Reigns and Strowman not yet reached its end? I guess we’ll have to tune in to Raw to find out if it continues or if the Undertaker appears.
1. The Main Event We All Expected
Well... I’m not… I’m not quite sure how I feel right now to be honest. Bill Goldberg, the 50 year old man who hasn’t wrestled since March of 2004 has just won the WWE Universal Champion from Kevin Owens in 21 seconds. Yes, that’s right. The main event of Fastlane lasted 21 seconds. A guy who is on TV on a weekly basis and has been champion since the end of the Summer last year just got beaten by a guy who is sweating by the time he hits the ring. I don’t know why I am so flabbergasted by this as I expected it from the minute it was mentioned but I guess a small part of me just wanted to see the wrestlers who are there year round get the opportunity to wrestle in the main event of Wrestlemania.
Anyway, Fastlane was probably not worth the 3 hours and didn’t do as much as I initially thought to shape Wrestlemania. The wrestlers, as always, worked incredibly hard to deliver some great in-ring moments but it was the booking of the show from a creative stand point that again, let the talent and the fans down. Let’s hope that over the next 4 weeks the build to Wrestlemania can entice fans to return to the product as well as satisfy those loyalists who are there week in and week out.
Also read: Goldberg Wins WWE Universal Title In 21 Seconds
WWE Fastlane 2017 Results
Kick-off Show
Akira Tozawa & Rich Swann defeated Noam Dar & Brian Kendrick
Main Show
Samoa Joe defeated Sami Zayn
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Enzo and Big Cass to retain the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
Sasha Banks defeated Nia Jax
Cesaro defeated Jinder Mahal (unannounced match)
Big Show defeated Rusev (unannounced match)
Neville defeated Jack Gallagher to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Roman Reigns defeated Braun Strowman
Bayley defeated Charlotte to retain the WWE Raw Women’s Championship
Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens to become the WWE Universal Championship
