Fastlane 2016 Review

With a good number of the matches on the card, I headed into last Sunday's Fastlane PPV believing it could be the sleeper show of the year. Man was I wrong. I mean, this show had Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose going at it in a Triple Threat, AJ Styles going one on one with Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens defending his Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler, and the return of Edge and Christian to have a Cutting Edge Peep Show with The New Day. That card just screams "take my money and entertain me." So how did they mess up so hard? Simple, no surprises were to be had on this show. Odds are if you had a prediction for every match on the show, you'd walk away being correct on all but one. And the one you'd be wrong on is because nobody would bet on that match result happening because it would be one of the absolute stupidest booking decisions the WWE could ever do in the build towards WrestleMania 32. But I digress, sort of. Let's at least try to look at a number of the show's biggest pros, because there are a few good matches. But we'll also have to look at everything wrong that Fastlane did, and that's quite a bit unfortunately.


2 Out of 3 Falls for the United States Championship: Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio

This was a fantastic match! I can't believe they bumped this to the Kickoff show. This could have been a great way to open the PPV. You had great psychology for the falls and a lot less botches than their match at Royal Rumble. I'm really impressed at how much they are putting into Kalisto's stock. He's quickly becoming one of the most over superstars in the country and the WWE's best answer to being the next Rey Mysterio. I'm very intrigued to see what they'll do with him heading into WrestleMania.

Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch vs. Naomi and Tamina

Can anyone tell me the last time a Divas match opened a PPV? Ever?!?! Well, if they were going to have any two Divas open the show, it would be Becky and Sasha. The obvious story here was whether or not Sasha and Becky could be on the same page. The match itself is a fairly good opener, showcasing their talents heading into the obvious Triple Threat they'll be having with Charlotte at Mania. There's a few spots that are a little sloppy, but nothing too awful. I think a lot of that came from their opponents too. Naomi is one of the most underrated Divas on the roster, and she has some pretty good tag dynamics with Tamina. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been studying The Usos on tag team psychology.

Intercontinental Championship Match: Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler

This was a pretty solid Intercontinental Championship match. It's two of my modern favorites going at it, and they have pretty good chemistry together. I think the match really picks up at the end, with Dolph throwing everything he had into his moves, only to come up short. Owens retaining shouldn't come as a surprise, since this match was just thrown together the Monday before the PPV. Still, it's a fun match if you're a fan of either Owens or Ziggler.

The Wyatt Family vs. Kane, Ryback, and Big Show

What on Earth is WWE doing with The Wyatt Family? I wasn't expecting much from this match. How can you when one of the spryest guys in the match is Ryback? In all seriousness, this was an ok match for 6 big men. The MVP of the match was definitely Luke Harper, still proving to be the breakout performer in the entire Wyatt Family (you hear that Bray?!?!). But the most confusing moment of the night was having the Wyatt Family lose. Weren't they heading into a feud with Lesnar for Mania? It's obvious now that those plans have changed, but we were convinced since January that they'd be gearing up for a Bray vs. Brock match. What are they going to do now? Have one of them win the Andre the Giant Battle Royal? Talk about killing all momentum for a faction with such promise. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Divas Championship Match: Charlotte vs. Brie Bella

This match was a real mess. I wasn't expecting much, but I was at least expecting something better than this. I really hate that they decided to sideline Brie with a gimmick that is not only paying homage to her sister, but her recently retired husband as well. She just isn't feeling like her own character anymore, instead piggybacking off the success of the two closest to her. As for Charlotte, she did an awful job at selling whatever moves Brie was dishing out. Not to mention a ton of sloppy execution from both ladies' offense. This match was pitiful. Can we please just get to the Triple Threat at Mania now? Please?

AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho

I've seen a lot of people call this the Match of the Year so far. Guys, there's not much competition. And even so, this match was just alright. It's true that I've been a fan of AJ Styles since I became a fan of wrestling in 2007, and Chris Jericho is my number 2 favorite performer of all-time (right behind Shawn Michaels at number 1), so I should definitely be feeling some sort of magic with this match. I would have, if they hadn't already had 2 really good matches on RAW and SmackDown leading into this match. That made this match feel a little cheated when it came to the "dream match" scenario. Plus, there were a number of spots where I was fearing for AJ's safety. Yeah, a couple of sloppy botches here and there, but it doesn't take away from the match too much. It's still a very good match, but probably would've been more meaningful if it was the first time they wrestled each other.

The Cutting Edge Peep Show with The New Day

HOW ON EARTH DO YOU SCREW THIS UP!?!!? This is my favorite tag team today in the ring cutting promos with my favorite tag team for the Attitude Era. This isn't rocket science folks. Have them be hilarious and don't bring out the League of Nations. What this ultimately did was plug Edge and Christian's new show on the WWE Network and potentially get the wheels turning on the New Day's obvious face turn. But why the League of Nations? I kept hearing on the internet that Enzo Amore and Colin Cassidy could debut during this segment. How great would that have been? I would've jumped off my couch had Enzo and Big Cass come out to interrupt the New Day. What a waste.

R-Truth vs. Curtis Axel

What was the point of this being right before the main event? I've actually been kind of partial to the skits involving R-Truth and Goldust, and I haven't been having that bad a time with the Social Outcasts, but this really could've been on the Kickoff show. Heck, this moment could've happened on an episode of RAW and SmackDown and I would've been fine. It kills about 6 minutes between the last segment and the main event, but it's not worth any time whatsoever. Moments and matches like this during the PPVs really don't make the $9.99 worth it.

Match to Determine #1 Contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 32: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose

Maybe it's just me, but the booking heading into this match straight up bothered me. The whole "brother vs. brother" thing between Ambrose and Reigns just feels really forced. I mean, REALLY forced. Plus, they just throw Lesnar in there, feeling like an afterthought. Anyways, heading into the match, there were some pretty good booking decisions in the match. I like that Ambrose and Reigns teamed up to try and take down Lesnar, taking 2 announcer's tables out in the process. I liked how Ambrose took it to Lesnar physically, setting up their WrestleMania encounter. And of course, I loved when Lesnar got to dominate the other two in the ring. But my biggest problem was that the ending felt abrupt. I didn't mind that Roman Reigns won. We all knew that was going to happen, but it just kinda happened. There was no big payoff for the ending, it was just like they were saying "what did you think was going to happen?" Roman Reigns is going to WrestleMania again. Where I'm sure the fans will boo him...again. Will the WWE finally learn that this Roman Reigns babyface experiment just isn't going to work? I really doubt it.


Final Thoughts: With the exception of a few good matches, this is a completely predictable PPV from beginning to end. At the end of it all, I don't think I experienced anything new on the Road to WrestleMania. I'm going to go ahead and give this one a Skip It. Trust me, you won't be missing anything you didn't already know.


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