Some of WWE Fastlane was perfect. Some of it was bold and some of it left you wondering if the right decision was made.
WWE had a solid night on Saturday at Gainsbridge Fieldhouse, laying the foundation for some major stories moving forward, including for Roman Reigns. Fastlane featured a surprising championship change, the continued build of a rising star and more than one heel that took a loss that may need to be rectified down the road. The only truly great match was the main event, but nothing was less than solid.
Here are five takeaways from WWE Fastlane
Seth Rollins’ reign as World Heavyweight champion rolls on as he and Shinsuke Nakamura delivered a hellacious last man standing match in the main event. Yes, this was a typical champion overcoming the pain story and Nakamura sure did look menacing, but the best version of the King of Strong Style so far in WWE wasn’t enough to get him a World Championship and another chance may not come around for awhile.
Nakamura, who only had to beat the count a few times, put Rollins and his injured back through hell in this match. The champ dragged a ladder from under the ring setting it up along the side of the announce table, but Nakamura moved before he could leap. They then went into the stands, where Nakamura knocked Rollins onto the concrete after a low blow and he barely beat the 10 count. He then dropped Rollins on his back on exposed concrete to counter a Pedigree as they walked back to the ring. The challenger would also hit a double knee to Rollins from the top rope through a table onto the outside — with Michael Cole telling the champ to stay down. Chairshots to the back followed.
As both men climbed the ladder, Nakamura sprayed Rollins with red mist like the Great Muta and pushed him through the announce table. When that didn’t finish things, he landed a Kinshasa knee into a propped-up table in the corner but Rollins was able to roll out of the ring onto his feet.
Back into the crowd, they went as both men got up onto a table near the stands. Rollins delivered a Stomp to Nakamura and then landed a Falcon Arrow through two table. Nakamura was on skates and couldn’t quite get up as Rollins was able to leverage himself using the broken table. It was a move worthy of the finish, but I would have liked Nakamura to be given a few more chances to show his toughness to beat a few more counts.
at Fastlane.
Damian Priest wanted to cash in his Money in the Bank contract on this night — and it might have been his best opportunity yet — but Rhea Ripley talked him out of doing it. If it didn’t come now, it might be very soon considering the missed chance and The Judgement Day losing their tag team gold.
The Undisputed WWE tag team championships are the last thing Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso, two of your biggest singles stars, need. But you can’t deny the short-term benefits to the way they defeated The Judgement Days’ Finn Balor and Damian Priest. JD McDonagh had his first slip-up in his attempt to officially join The Judgement Day, smashing Priest in his bad knee with the Money in the Bank briefcase by mistake. It led to him getting Cross Rhodesed on the announce table and being unable to save Balor after he was hit for a Superkick-Cross Rhodes combo. It was 5-on-2 and they still prevailed and are WWE’s new old couple.
McDonagh’s actions will only increase the tension between him, Priest and the rest of the group and maybe Uso and Rhodes being champions will cause some tension between them and former champions Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. While the tag division doesn’t need babyface champs at the moment, these storylines can flow into WarGames at Survivor Series in November.
The match itself was sold leading to the fun and frantic ending. Uso took a bunch of the offense to build to hot tags to Rhodes. Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio eventually hit the ringside area. Ripley flirted with Uso for a moment to continue the sexual tension WWE has been building between them. Rhodes had to break up a pin after a Coup de Gras and Uso later kicked out after Ripley smashed him in the head with Priest’s briefcase as a precursor to the finish.
No one, including Iyo Sky should ever doubt Bayley again, The WWE women’s champion had told her Damage CTRL teammate she didn’t need her at ringside. Turned out she did. Bayley showed up near the end of the match and ended up saving the title for Sky and screwing Charlotte Flair out of her 15th world championship. Flair had Asuka tapped to the Figure Eight, but Bayley distracted the ref. It allowed Sky to hit a moonsault on Flair for the win. This was perfect booking as Flair now has a legit reason to feud with Bayley while keeping the belt on the fresh champion in Sky.
At one point, Asuka pulled off a powerbomb from underneath Flair, who had Sky on her shoulders while standing on the middle rope. The crowd didn’t feel fully into this match until Flair hit a spear on Asuka, who was able to kick out before Bayley showed up. Hopefully, WWE lets Iyo and Asuka go one more time and Bayley and Flair will be fun if the Queen can make her realize she is too good to be a sidekick.
John Cena wrestled the perfect match to continue to push LA Knight as one of WWE’s biggest stars. Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa handled the 16-time world champion for most of the match, leaving him unable to tag in Knight. It made when he did feel that much more important and Knight needing to be the one to bail Cena out. With Sikoa taken care of, Cena hit a Five Knuckshuffle on Uso and Knight followed with a Blunt Force Trauma neckbreaker to get the win.
It perfectly set up plenty of trouble for Uso — who is a loose Bloodline member at best — when Roman Reigns returns to SmackDown this week. Paul Heyman could be heard saying “We have a problem” while on the phone with the Tribal Chief, who needed him to give him play by play of the match instead of just watching on TV. Knight refusing to have his hand raised by Cena at the end, but instead raising the legends was a nice touch. The Megastar feels absolutely in-ring for match with the Undisputed WWE Universal champion now.
Wade Barrett, Booker T and Xavier Woods did a Pizza Hutt ad early on the show and there was Pizza Hut branding all around the ring for the Street Profits and Bobby Lashley vs.The LWO match. Wood eventually brought Michael Cole and Corey Graves a pizza at the announce table. LA Knight showed up in a Slim Jim Car and the Brawling Brutes did an ad pushing WWE action figures with Mattell. Get used to even more highly visible advertisements with the merge with Endeavor complete.
Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar and Carlito over Bobby Lashley, Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins
This was another booking decision that has let’s wait and see on it. WWE, who is trying to build a new aggressive version of the Street Profits with Lashley, chose not to start really establishing them. Instead, they lost to Carlito. Yes, Carlito was the LWO’s mystery partner and you could say their opponents couldn’t prepare for him after they took out Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro on SmackDown. This had better lead to Lashley and the Profits finding the mean streak they are searching for or what was the point. Pay-per-view wins carry weight, and this initially doesn’t help them at all.
Biggest Winner: L.A. Knight
Biggest Loser: Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Lashley/Street Profits
Best Match: Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (Last Man Standing)
Predictions: 2-3
Grade: B