I'm going to make a bit of an effort to keep this post a little shorter than my Elimination Chamber review. This was an enjoyable event, although not anything spectacular, and the matches definitely out-shined their abysmal build. The Fastlane name has been associated with some really bad pay-per-views over the years, and this wasn't one, so history, I guess?
Fastlane 2016 Score: 1/10
Fastlane 2017 Score: 5/10
- Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura had a very good match to open the show, one that, surprise, surprise had almost no interesting build. Rusev in particular showed me a lot during this match, and that superkick was one for the ages. Good win for Shinsuke, and I'll be intrigued to see how he does, promo-wise, in the build-up to 'Mania.
- Bobby Roode and Randy Orton are two personal favorites, but I can't say I loved their match. Even the addition of the US Title wasn't enough to add interesting stakes, as they failed to invest the crowd in this overly lengthy bout. The last few minutes got me back into it, and I liked seeing Randy complete the Grand Slam, but this still felt like a miss.
- It's a SmackDown specialty: pointless women's tag match! Naomi looked god-awful in this match, whiffing on multiple spots and just generally looking far removed from her championship form last year. And poor Becky took a clean fall, to absolutely no reaction. A mess, plain and simple.
- The Usos/New Day feud would be right up there with the Braun/Roman feud for the top spot in WWE last year, and seeing them go at it again was quite fun. Ultimately, this match didn't really mean anything, as it was just an excuse to have the Bludgeon Brothers murder everyone. Seriously, this was an insane beatdown. The potential triple threat match at WrestleMania should be great, but the trick will be getting the fans to care, as they were quite throughout the match and the beatdown.
- I really enjoyed the Charlotte-Ruby Riott match, as Ruby looked the best I've seen her since joining NXT. Flair took some incredible bumps in this match, definitely looking like a female AJ Styles with her total disregard for her own well-being. And hey, Asuka is here! That match should be pretty great, although I do wish it happened last year.
- The six-way main event seemed very pointless on paper, and proved to be even more so in execution. Shane's interference certainly didn't help, and I'm really confused at what their trying to do with him, Sami and KO. AJ won clean in very sudden circumstance, confirming his match with Shinsuke, which is great I guess, but could've been done without this match. I'm also confused at what John Cena is doing, since this would've surely been the time to bring 'Taker out. Finally, can we stop with the whole "throw everyone in" multi-person matches? Between the Chamber and this, I'm sick of these type of matches.
6/10
The score is a little low for a show I did like, but I felt like it was on par with Elimination Chamber last month, so I gave it the same marks. That's it for Fastlane, and up next is WrestleMania, which features an incredibly stacked card. I'm pretty excited, I hope you are too, and I'll see you again on April 8th!
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