WWE Fastlane Live Show Review

Fastlane Live Show Review

By Justin Blakeman 

Overall Opinion of the show:  This past Sunday I packed up my car and made the six hour trip to Cleveland Ohio to see this year's edition of WWE Fastlane. Fastlane was the final pay per view before Wrestlemania and WWE had some great opportunities to introduce new storylines and build toward this year's Wrestlemania. Unfortunately, WWE did not capitalize on the opportunity and they chose to treat this like it was just another PPV. That being said the PPV was not a terrible show, there were a number of solid matches on this PPV and the overall quality was not bad. The show was met with some very negative reviews but I think this was more of fans disliking the finish of one match and not a reflection on the show as a whole. I would rate the overall show a C+ because there were a number of decent 2 to 4-star matches on the card. I really enjoyed the Diva's tag match, US Title match, the IC Title match and the match between AJ Styles and Jericho. I will even go as far to say I really enjoyed the main event. I like most people was hoping for a Dean Ambrose victory but the overall match was fantastic. It will be interesting to see where WWE goes from here on Raw tomorrow night, they have a lot of work to due in the next few weeks. They are trying to sell out a 100,000 seat arena and their center piece just got booed out of the building. 

Crowd Reaction: The crowd in The Q was loud from start to finish and they were into the entire PPV. This was one of the better live crowds I have seen at a wrestling show when considering just attentiveness and noise level. The crowd was predominantly made up of 20 to 40-year-old males, I mention this because normally when I attend WWE wrestling shows I am surrounded by families. I feel like that may have been part of the reason why Roman got the reception he did. While waiting for the doors to open, I looked at the other people in line and I saw a lot of Ambrose, CM Punk, Owens, and New Day shirts. You could just tell this was a pro heel and anti-hero crowd. While waiting, I looked at my friend and told him " If Roman wins tonight he will be booed out of the building". That statement was only reinforced when we made it inside the building. Every time they showed Roman's face in that building the crowd would boo and I mean boo VERY loudly! It was clear from the start that WWE had a problem on their hands if they chose to go forward with the Roman victory angle. If my friend who doesn't watch wrestling could tell I'm sure Vince was very award too.

Matches:

Kalisto vs Del Rio for the US Title: This match was a very solid match and the fans were pretty into it from start to finish. This was one of the few matches that featured a baby face that was actually over with the Cleveland crowd. The fans loved Kalisto and they popped for all of his big moves and at one point we had a pretty nice Lucha chant going to help will him to victory. This was a fun back and forth match and the crowd had a blast cheering and booing. I think the right guy went over and the match actually deserved a spot on the main PPV card. I think it was a great opening match and it really set the mood for the next few matches that followed.  Match Grade: B

Diva's Tag Match: Like the preshow match this was one of the matches that featured very over babyface characters and very heated heels. The match was really fun to watch and it had a great pace. The quick tag at the beginning really helped sell the idea that the team of Becky and Sasha had some problems but they were able to overcome the issues and get the win. All four women were showcased very well in this match and the action kept the crowd engaged for the whole match. I didn't hear any silly chants or distracting waves during this match. At one point my friend looked over and said: "man they have really stepped up the woman's wrestling since I stopped watching". Solid work by four women involved. You can tell that Sasha and Becky are going to be huge stars going forward for WWE.  Match Grade: B

Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler for the IC Title: Like most people I am kind of over the back and forth feud between Owens and Ziggler. These two have been trading wins for a month or so now and the feud has really done nothing for me personally. That being said this was actually a really good match. Both these guys can go in the ring and they both typically deliver solid matches no matter who they are facing. This match was a great back and forth match with a number of close pinfalls. Each guy had his opportunity to hit a few big moves and get in some decent offense. I will Ziggler sells his A#$ off and Owens has no trouble dishing out loads of believable punishment. The only odd spot in the match was the referee spot at the end. It looked like Ziggler was going for a kick and almost hit the referee, Owens was able to turn that into a powerbomb for the win. That whole sequence did not come off clean and I think it was one of those moments that sounded good before the match but got muffled during execution. Overall this like the previous two matches was a solid match and the crowd was into it from the start. I will say that Kevin Owens was by far the most over in this match. Like I said earlier this was a very pro heel crowd and Ziggler didn't get the love I thought he would with it being him his hometown. Match Grade: B

6 Man Tag Match: On paper this looked like a terrible match but it was actually not that bad considering the match was filled with huge guys. Fans were into chanting for Ryback and Show actually got a decent pop when he single-handedly took out all the Wyatts. He also got a nice pop when he picked Harper up over his head and threw him out of the ring. I will never understand what WWE has against the Wyatts, they are a great team with an awesome gimmick. They can all handle themselves in the ring and Bray and Harper are fantastic on the mic. I don't know why they can't find anything for the Wyatts to do and I don't know why they keep building them up to only let us down with another loss. We can only hope that this is part of a greater storyline and that it will pay off in the end but at this point, I'm sure it's just going to end with they Wyatt's looking weak like all their storylines do.  Match Grade: C


AJ Styles vs Chris Jericho: Out of all the matches on the Fastlane card, this was the match I had circled as my match of the night candidate. I loved the build up to this match and I like both men involved. I don't know how the match came off on TV but the in-house match came off a bit slow. I know these are two grizzled veterans in the ring and they come from the school of match pacing but this one felt a little long.  Now I am not stupid I know match pacing is everything and if you build a match right with holds and in ring work it will pay off in the end. But this felt a little different than that in-house. I also feel like they used a number of the big spots in the first match and neglected to use them in this match which may have been my issues.  From what I am reading this was a great match so I may have to just go back and watch it on the network because I feel like maybe my angle was off by being at the show. The crowd was hot for the whole match and both guys seemed to have an equal following. There was a steady AJ Styles vs Y2J chant going for most of the match.
Match Grade: B- but I may change that for the better after re-watching the match on TV.

Charlotte vs Brie Bella for the Divas Title: I don't know how this match came off on screen but it was rough to watch live. The match was filled with botches and sloppy wrestling. I feel like these two didn't really have a lot of in-ring chemistry and you could tell they were not clicking for whatever reason. The crowd was pretty silent for most of the match other that chanting for Ric Flair. This one didn't have the same punch the first divas match did but it was nice to see Brie get to have one last big moment before she joins Daniel in retirement if those rumors are true. Match Grade: C

The New Day vs Christian & Edge vs The League of Nations Angle: This was the point where the PPV began to take a nosedive for me. This segment was terrible and I feel like it was better suited for Raw not the final hour of a PPV. The lines were terrible and the people involved really had no reason to be there. New Day for whatever reason decided to call out the League of Nations which is a fellow heel team. That made little sense to me and then by the end they were acting like babyfaces which was confusing. League of Nations came off as sympathetic which I assume was not what they were going for and Edge and Christian just didn't seem to be very funny. That said it was cool to see Edge and his intro one more time live.
Segment Grade: D 

Curtis Axel vs R-Truth: Like the last segment this match just screamed Raw third hour material. This was a match that should have been on the preshow or not even on the card for a PPV. My guess is WWE just wanted to get Social Outcasts and the R-Truth/Goldust angle on the PPV. This killed two birds with one stone.  Match Grade: D- 

Main Event: This match was a very interesting match, all three guys had a legitimate chance of winning this match. But in a way we all knew exactly who was going to win the whole time. WWE put Roman in a bad spot in this match. They took a guy who is having trouble getting over and put him in a match with the two most over guys in the company and expected him to not get the boo treatment when he won. To make matters worse, they were in Dean Ambrose's home state and WWE had Roman pin Dean for the win. The match itself was a great match. They told a great story and I like that Roman and Dean had to work together to take out Brock. Brock walked away looking strong, it took two men and a dozen chair shots to take out the beast. While the beast was out Dean and Roman worked well together showing that they have great in ring chemistry. I loved the fact that Dean was the guy who brought the chair into the match it fits his character and the crowd went nuts! My only real complaint with the match was the fact that Roman no sold the dozen chair shots Dean gave him. He took all those chair shots and just popped back up to hit Dean with a spear for the win. It was a very anticlimactic ending to what was a really solid match. And I can honestly say I have never heard boos that loud at a live wrestling event. I don't know if they edited them for the TV feed but that place erupted with a loud negative response towards Roman and you could see how disappointed he was by his body language and facial expressions.  I feel really bad for Roman he is a decent wrestler with a ton of upside. He comes out and works his butt off in the ring and he still receives a massive negative response. WWE has their hearts set on him being the next face of the company but I think they are just setting him to fail with bad booking and WWE needs to consider a huge heel turn angle at some point  for Roman if they want him to get over. Match Grade: B+