WWE FASTLANE THOUGHTS AND RESULTS

With this post WRESTLEMENTARY’S MARCH TO MANIA begins.

Here, now Ace give his take on WWE FASTLANE.

Thoughts and Results

I have to be very honest, I wrote that WWE did such a good job building to FastLane that I almost forgot about it. Also, that they could probably skip doing this show with Mania looming. Yes, I did.

FASTLANE may have been the last stop on the Road to WrestleMania, but by no means was it a Road Block. To be very Honest, FastLane was a near great show, with a few low points, and easily the best RAW Exclusive PPV since the Brand Split (aka Brand Shit).

The show was very nicely laid out, and everything had a reason and place. Even the filler segment and matches with Rusev, Jinder, Sheamus, Cesaro and The Big Show worked – even if they were shoe horned into the show. The only real down part about these filler matches is that they burned time off the show, feeding the rumor of a short title match main event.

The show for the most part sailed along smoothly until the last two matches – and I will touch on them below.

It is Mania season, and FastLane also set up some interesting points moving forward. Has the ground work been laid for RAW Mania matches beyond Goldberg versus Lesnar? I think so.

The Results and Thoughts

Pre-Show:

Rich Swan and Akira Tozawa defeated The Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar
Thoughts:
Good, standard cruiserweight match. Tozawa is over big time. Truth be told, this match was more for building up the Tozawa/Kendrick feud. Will we finally get a one-on-one match between the two? Mania?

FastLane

Samoa Joe defeated Sami Zayn

Did anyone think Zayn was winning? Good decent opening match, it put Joe over as a dominating Killer . . . sorry I mean Destroyer. Could these to have a much better match? Hell, yeah. They could easily put on the match of the night. The point of this though, was to put over Joe as “The Destroyer.”



Sasha Banks versus Nia Jax

Thoughts: A nice match that saw Sasha finally break through her slump against Jax, and she needed the win. This was easily Jax’s best match to date.

Sahsa would not be done for the night.







Neville (c) defeated Jack Gallagher

MATCH OF THE NIGHT. I know that is the common consensus, but it is the truth. This was a great match between two stellar performers of any size. How damn good is Gallagher? That good. Neville. Neville is killing it and should hold onto the title for a while (until Aries maybe?)

Cole maybe a big deal of Neville using the Red Arrow for the win. Essential putting Gallagher over as such a challenger that Neville had to pull out his most dangerous move to win.


Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (c) defeated Enzo and Big Cass
Yes. YEs! YES! Dear Gods THANK YOU. Please Enzo and Cass away from anything. Especially Enzo. Especially Enzo. Especially Enzo.


Bayley (c) defeated Charlotte

This should have been the match of the night. The Dream Achiever Bayley versus the Queen of PPV, undefeated on the Big Shows Charlotte. And this was a stellar match, right up to the point where Charlotte was climbing to the top rope and Sasha came rushing down to stop her. Then Sasha interfered when Charlotte had a handful of tights.

Bayley won because of Sasha. Charlotte played by the rules in this match (almost).

This ruined a great match, perhaps what was on the way to being the best Bayley/Charlotte match. It also puts a black cloud on Bayley and her persona. Sasha helped her win the title, but only because Dana interfered. Sasha helped her kept the title, and was the only person who interfered.

Ruined match, ruined title run for Bayley. This needs to turn into Sasha’s planned heel turn, or the ruin will continue.

Any other match, people would have gone nuts, the only reason I can figure that the fans base is okay with this is how popular all three woman are: Especially Sasha.


Roman Reigns defeated Braun Strowman

Can we forget about Roman Reigns and make Strowman the Face of the company? Vince, please??

This was a good match, Strowman impressed, and honesty so did Roman. Both guys delivered. I don’t like that Roman won, but understand why. At least Strowman’s first loss was to a guy in the upper echelon – as the WWE sees him.


Goldberg defeats KO, wins Universal Title.

Was anyone looking forward to this match? I wasn’t. Was the outcome ever in doubt? Nope.
I wrote on twitter that night that this was Bullshit. It is. This is not good for anyone.

Goldberg squashes KO in seconds? Hell no. Just because Jericho showed up on the ramp, doesn’t mean KO should lose so easily.

This is stupid, bad booking gear toward short term profits at the expense of long term success. They claim they want to build new stars and the future, but then take action to kill that same future.

KO is near worthless now. How can anyone take him seriously unless he beats Goldberg down the line – which isn’t going to happen.

Final thoughts:

A near great show that was spoiled by the ‘Main Event’ and Sasha interfering in the Woman’ Title Match.

Everything else stood up and delivered as expected or surpassed expectations.

RATING: 6.75 – It loses points because of Sasha interference and the Goldberg squash – even if that was expected.








WRESTLEMENTARY NOTE:

This FASTLANE piece doesn’t cover FASTLANE fallout or MANIA implications. And there has been no direct coverage of RAW or SD LIVE! Since FASTLANE. This changes next week as I start THE STATE OF RAW, THE STATE OF SD LIVE and THE STATE OF THE WWE.

Also expect to start seeing pieces from Dave Parrish, Wes Kozala and hopefully Chris Rose.

MANIA IS ALMOST HERE!

ACE.