What’s the story?
The final Raw-exclusive PPV before WrestleMania 33, Fastlane, is scheduled to take place on 5th March 2017 at the Milwaukee's BMO Harris Bradley Center. With several rumours making rounds among the Wrestling circles on the probable match card for WrestleMania 33, it is expected that Fastlane could clear this cloud of uncertainty to some extent.
With the way things are moving, Pro Wrestling has come up with the following possible match card for Fastlane PPV.
In case you didn’t know…
It is said that the road to WrestleMania begins at the Royal Rumble PPV where the superstar who takes part in the main event is revealed. There is usually one PPV scheduled between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania to make things more clear and bring more sense to existing storylines.
This year around there are 2 such intermediate PPVs- Fastlane for the RAW brand and Elimination Chamber for the SmackDown Live brand. It is said that 90% of the match card for WrestleMania is stacked after this intermediate PPV (this year two intermediate PPVs).
The heart of the matter
The WWE Fastlane 2017 match card could look something like this
Kevin Owens vs. Goldberg (WWE Universal Championship)
Chris Jericho vs. Sami Zayn (United States Championship)
Luke Gallows/Karl Anderson vs. Cesaro/Sheamus (RAW Tag Team Championship)
Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns
There are also a couple of other matches expected- One for the Cruiserweight Championship and the other for the RAW Women’s Championship.
What’s next?
Fastlane is expected to be the middle ground where superstars settle their existing issues with their rivals and get ready for new bouts heading into WrestleMania. It is also important for WWE to book this PPV in an exciting fashion because this is the last checkpoint before WrestleMania and the last chance to prepare fans for the big night.
Also Read: Predicting WWE's 9 Champions after WrestleMania 33
Sportskeeda’s take
In the coming weeks on RAW, the build-up for Fastlane and WrestleMania 33 will gather pace and major announcements can be expected. As of now, Kevin Owens doesn’t have an opponent to face at Fastlane. It is safe to assume Reigns and Strowman competing at Fastlane but the WWE Universal Title match is in jeopardy.
Goldberg will be live on tomorrow’s episode of RAW to answer Brock Lesnar’s challenge. If the rumours are true, expect some confrontation between Owens and Goldberg leading into a Universal Title Match at Fastlane. Cesaro/Sheamus could exercise their re-match clause and ask for a Tag Title match at Fastlane. A match between Zayn and Jericho is highly likely and Zayn is the favourite to win that match.
