Tags
Akira Tozawa, Bayley, Big Cass, Braun Strowman, Cesaro, Charlotte Flair, Chris Jericho, Enzo, Enzo Amore, Fastlane, Goldberg, Jack Gallagher, Jinder Mahal, Karl Anderson, Kevin Owens, Luke Gallows, Neville, Nia Jax, Noam Dar, Raw, Rich Swann, Roman Reigns, Rusev, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, Sasha Banks, The Big Show, The Brian Kendrick, The Club, WrestleMania 33, WWE, WWE Fastlane, WWE Fastlane 2017
I was absolutely beside myself last night at the way the WWE treated it’s top and very best heel in Kevin Owens last night. The man who has been carrying Raw for months as the WWE Universal Champion loses in 22 seconds? Are you kidding me Vince McMahon? The two of them should have had a match where Owens was able to showcase what he could do against Oldberg. The WWE just loves to put championships on part timers who are barely part timers as it is. Now we have to endure a match between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania that is going to be for the title. Another decision that upset me was the fact that the WWE had Braun Strowman lose to Roman Reigns only because I felt that Braun should have gone into Mania with some momentum, but Vince still believes in Roman Reigns. The only match that I was not upset about last night was the women’s championship match as the WWE finally decided to stop playing hot potato with the title. Now Bayley can realize her dream of entering WrestleMania as WWE Women’s Champion. The rest of the night in my opinion was forgettable at best with a couple of matches added as The Big Show beat up on Rusev and Cesaro beating up on Jinder Mahal.
As far as the points card was concerned, I finished with 63 points out of a possible 116 which is a mere 54% and that is a failing grade. I will remind you as well that the card didn’t feature the matches Cesaro and The Big Show had and it also didn’t feature the pre-show match too. As far as predicting the outcome of matches, I finished the night 8-2 (two of them I predicted on Twitter) which is very good. As far as the PPV is concerned, Smackdown Live is a superior brand to Raw and they proved it at their last PPV. They proved that their writers are better than Raw’s if that makes any sense.It just baffles me that any old timer can return and get a title shot right away. All you have to prove is that you were a big name like Brock when he returned, The Rock when he returned, and now add Goldberg to that list. They have accomplished their mission in making the championship a joke, I just feel bad for the guys are constantly working all the time. So I am going to give WWE Fastlane an C for a final grade.
Akira Tozawa/Rich Swann def The Brian Kendrick/Noam Dar
Sasha Banks def Nia Jax
The Club def Enzo and Cass
Samoa Joe def Sami Zayn
Cesaro def Jinder Mahal
The Big Show def Rusev
Neville def Jack Gallagher
Roman Reigns def Braun Strowman
Bayley def Charlotte
Goldberg def Kevin Owens
For all of you WWE fans, tonight is the last PPV stop before the show of shows, the showcase of the immortals, WrestleMania 33, and tonight as WWE Fastlane 2017 kicks off, some big surprises could come our way. Actually, I don’t really believe that because I think tonight will not have many surprises contained within because they have to set up potential WrestleMania storylines. We all know that unfortunately Goldberg will walk out of Fastlane as WWE Universal Champion and it’s a shame because Kevin Owens has been a great champion in my opinion. Plus, a champion vs champion match at Mania would have kicked ass (I’m talking about Jericho/Owens). Neville has truly been the savior of the Cruiserweights so why would they take the belt off of him now? Gallagher will put up a decent fight, but he won’t win. The Club are not going to drop the titles to Enzo & Cass yet because you have to set that up for WrestleMania. Samoa Joe is just beginning his dominance in the WWE, so unfortunately for Sami Zayn, he’ll have to play victim yet again to a rising heel.
We all have seen the shameful pattern the WWE has treated the women’s division yet they are too blind to see it for themselves. The belt has been around for a year and Charlotte is already going to be a six time champion, that is a joke. I would keep the belt on Bayley personally, but I think Charlotte is walking out a champion tonight. What a shame that is. If I was the WWE, I would make Braun Strowman win tonight’s match against Roman Reigns because he is a dominant big man and he is on a roll. Plus, you can set up Roman’s match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania by having the deadman distract him tonight thus giving Strowman that window of opportunity. Strowman is going to win The Andre The Giant battle royal, so why not have him go into it on a hot streak? The only match I am on the fence for is the Nia Jax/Sasha Banks match because it could go one of two ways, but in the end I think that Sasha gets her revenge against the most dominant force in women’s wrestling. During the pre-show, they have Akira Tozawa and Rich Swann teaming up to face The Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar, but Tozawa is on a roll so we know who is winning that match. As usual thanks to 
Even though the main event did go the way I theoretically wanted it to go, it was still an incredible match. In fact, the three matches that I said were going to be great lived up to their name. It was hard to choose a match of the night because AJ Styles and Chris Jericho brought the house down in my opinion, but so didn’t Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler. The only problem I had with the main event was the way it ended because it was so predictable. Dean Ambrose has just gotten Brock Lesnar off of Roman Reigns who was trapped in the kimora lock with a chair. He not only repeatedly hit Brock with the chair, but he also nailed Roman Reigns with it before he turned his attention to Brock for one final blow. Then out of the corner, you see Roman get up and you knew he was going to spear Dean. Well with that said, the other matches were exactly how I thought they were going to turn out and they were rather lackluster. There were so many botches during the Brie Bella/Charlotte match that left you frustrated because she can’t compete with Charlotte. The Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch versus Team B.A.D. wasn’t all that bad, but Naomi is that bad. I don’t understand the logic behind having Ryberg, The Big Show, and Kane beating The Wyatts. The Wyatts are the hottest thing out there and you have them lose. Nevertheless, it was a decent PPV and I finished 5-2 on the night on my predictions and I didn’t count the horrific match between Curtis Axel and R Truth because I didn’t know that was going to happen. Here are the results:
Tonight at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee, the WWE debuts the event that has replaced The Elimination Chamber PPV called Fastlane. There are a couple of matches on the card that should interest fans because the Road To Wrestlemania gets tighter after this and the matches begin to take shape. Rumor has it that John Cena will be fighting Rusev at Wrestlemania 31, so if that is true then it’ll be interesting to see where they take the match tonight. Daniel Bryan will face the newest most hated man in sports entertainment thanks both to Vince McMahon and The Rock in Roman Reigns to decide who will face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31. I think you may have a repeat main event at Wrestlemania 31 which will feature Brock Lesnar taking on both Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan so to me tonight won’t essentially matter. I hope Roman understands that he is the new Batista because no one wants to be force fed a champion and I am sorry, but that means no title in the future for Reigns. We all know that Sting accepting the challenge to a face off tonight against Triple H will only mean a match at Wrestlemania 31, but we still want to see him in the ring. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro are my new favorite tag team in the WWE so I am hoping for big things from them and tonight we are all getting the match we have always wanted to see in Goldust taking on Stardust. The last thing I will say before getting into my predictions is that I am excited to see that Dean Ambrose and Bad News Barrett are making the intercontinental Title legitimate again and they’ll probably steal the show (well, hopefully they do). Here are my predictions: