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The final WWE pay-per-view before WrestleMania 34, Fastlane, emanates from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio this Sunday.
Four title matches will take place at the SmackDown-exclusive event, with AJ Styles defending his WWE Championship in the main event against John Cena, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin.
Bobby Roode vs. Randy Orton (United States title), The Usos vs. The New Day (SmackDown Tag Team titles) and Charlotte Flair vs. Ruby Riott (SmackDown Women’s title) are the other featured matches on the card.
Elsewhere, in the two non-title matches, Shinsuke Nakamura will face Rusev and Becky Lynch will team with Naomi to take on Carmella and Natalya.
In this article, we guide you through our last-minute predictions for the show.
#6 Becky Lynch & Naomi vs. Carmella & Natalya
With monthly dual-brand pay-per-views on the horizon, matches like this will soon be a thing of the past and WWE’s main focus at PPV events will be to get as many Raw and SmackDown Live title matches on the card as possible.
Becky Lynch & Naomi vs. Carmella & Natalya is largely meaningless, in all honesty, and it just shows how inconsistent the SmackDown booking has been of late that this match has even made it onto the card.
As for the outcome, Carmella needs to appear like a genuine threat to the SmackDown Women’s title if she’s going to cash in her Money In The Bank contract soon (she only has three months left), so let’s go with a win for her and Natalya.
Prediction: Carmella & Natalya win
#5 Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
As we outlined when we considered five possible shocks that could happen at Fastlane, the perfect scenario here would be for Rusev to emerge from the match as the babyface that everybody wants him to be.
“The Bulgarian Brute” will probably receive the best reaction of the night, despite his continued heel antics in recent weeks, as it’s clear that fans would rather see him as a good guy rather than a ‘cool’ bad guy.
Shinsuke Nakamura will get the win on Sunday – he’s the #1 contender for the WWE title, after all – but it’ll be a very unhappy “Rusev Day” if Rusev and Aiden English discourage crowd chants, just like they did on this week’s SmackDown.
Prediction: Shinsuke Nakamura wins
#4 Bobby Roode vs. Randy Orton (United States title)
Randy Orton will look to win the United States title for the first time in his career, also making him a Grand Slam winner in the process, when he takes on Bobby Roode at Fastlane.
This match has largely centered around Jinder Mahal mocking “The Viper” over the SmackDown ‘Top 10 List’ – a power ranking voted for by fellow Superstars – which saw relative main-roster newcomer Roode finish above locker-room veteran Orton.
There’s an outside chance that Jinder is added to the match, making it a Triple Threat, following his win over Orton on Tuesday. Assuming that doesn’t happen, we expect Roode to retain, possibly via disqualification or Jinder-related shenanigans, to keep the rivalry going.
Prediction: Bobby Roode retains
#3 The Usos vs. The New Day (SmackDown Tag Team titles)
The New Day defeated Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin in February to earn another opportunity at the SmackDown Tag Team titles, renewing their rivalry with The Usos in the process.
While Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods have featured on the WrestleMania main card in the last two years, Jimmy and Jey have appeared at six WrestleMania events but they have been consigned to the kickoff show every time (only Primo Colon has a worse record).
For that very reason, The Usos surely have to be involved in a SmackDown Tag Team titles match on the WrestleMania 34 main show, so we’ll play it safe and predict that they’ll pick up another win over their long-term rivals.
Oh, and don’t be surprised if there’s a confrontation with the Bludgeon Brothers after the match!
Prediction: The Usos retain
#2 Charlotte Flair vs. Ruby Riott (SmackDown Women’s title)
Ruby Riott was very impressive in her promo segment with Charlotte Flair on SmackDown Live this week. However, let’s be honest, she has zero chance of walking out of Fastlane as the SmackDown Women’s champion.
“The Queen” will almost certainly get the win on Sunday, probably after Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan are ejected from ringside, but we’re expecting Ruby to emerge with plenty of plaudits in what is undoubtedly the biggest match of her WWE career to date.
There’s also a chance that Asuka, the women’s Royal Rumble winner, and Charlotte’s rumoured WrestleMania opponent, could appear after the match to finally reveal that she has chosen to challenge for the SmackDown Women’s title.
Prediction: Charlotte Flair retains
#1 AJ Styles vs. John Cena vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin (WWE title)
The WWE title has been booked very predictably ever since AJ Styles won it from Jinder Mahal in November 2017, and this Sunday’s six-pack challenge is 99 percent certain to result in another win for “The Phenomenal One”.
Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura is a dream WWE rivalry that fans are yet to see, and it’s near-impossible that the company would change their plans to have that match at WrestleMania 34 after half-setting it up already at the Royal Rumble.
Despite an obvious outcome, the match should still be a compelling watch, especially after Sami Zayn hit best friend Kevin Owens with a Helluva Kick on this week’s SmackDown Live. There's even a chance that The Undertaker could return and cost John Cena the title.
Prediction: AJ Styles retains
