“Fastlane” has been a PPV name for only three years, and thus far its name is synonymous with controversy, disappointment, and creative mishaps. Every year since 2015, the speed-themed PPV has been the subject of hostile fan reaction and general disapproval, despite all three editions containing good-to-great matches on their respective cards.
It has reached the point that Fastlane as a PPV concept might be cursed to suffer back luck for all time unless WWE abandons the name in favour of something different.
2015:
The first edition of Fastlane took place in February 2015. You might remember this period as the time when Vince McMahon decided to pull the trigger on Roman Reigns as the new top guy of WWE. For those of you who might’ve forgotten, let me take you for a brief trip down memory lane.
When Roman Reigns won the 2015 Royal Rumble match, the reaction was downright toxic. The fans hated everything about that match, with the general feeling being that this one was worse than the 2014 version, which was itself a monumental debacle. Reigns won after Big Show and Kane basically handed the victory to him on a silver platter, acting as foils designed to eliminate everyone still in the match that the audience liked.
The hatred that Reigns received that night followed him on a nightly basis and continued into the first-ever WWE Fastlane PPV. But even though Reigns was the largest target of fan negativity that night, he wasn’t the only one. Fastlane 2015 was filled with questionable decisions and disappointing match results that left many people less excited to see WrestleMania 31 and more frustrated with WWE’s general booking style.
Many of the matches on that show ended following shenanigans and ‘screwy’ booking that didn’t help either person. Nikki Bella defeated Paige with a Roll-up, one of the least-effective moves in all of wrestling. Without a clean and decisive victory for a woman, the match felt completely inconsequential, especially since it went under six minutes bell to bell.
Dean Ambrose lost an Intercontinental Championship match by getting disqualified for not stopping his attack against Wade Barrett when Barrett was in a corner. In other words, Ambrose lost for kicking too much ass. This rule made Wade look like a complete pansy that needed help to win, made Ambrose look like a complete moron for not being able to control his own actions in an important match, and overall made the IC title less valuable.
Rusev had to cheat to win his match against John Cena instead of getting a clean win that would’ve elevated him as a new star on the roster. While WWE can try hard to insist that it was a win by technical submission, it wasn’t a case of Rusev being the stronger man and overpowering Cena. Instead, Rusev had to rely on his manager and a kick to the groyne to get the advantage, because John Cena couldn’t take a decisive loss before WrestleMania, even though it would’ve added some more intrigue to the feud.
The main event was Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan, which came about after a genuine poll created by WWE found that the overwhelming number of fans wanted Bryan in the main event and not Reigns. In hindsight, this was a great match and possibly the best one in Reigns’ career. But no matter how good the match was, the audience knew what was coming. Reigns vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania 31, and they weren’t going to take that sitting down.
All in all, the first Fastlane didn’t impress fans as much as WWE had hoped.
2016:
The 2016 edition of Fastlane wasn’t that much better than the first, with many matches being ruined by questionable finishes and a less-than-enthused audience. Alberto Del Rio, who had returned to WWE under the promise of being in the main event, was in a pre-show feud with Kalisto over a midcard belt that felt like a carbon copy of his feud with Rey Mysterio from years prior, right down to the insults Del Rio launched towards his masked opponent.
The Wyatt Family, once a promising and intimidating stable, lost to the ragtag team of Kane, Ryback and the Big Show. This of course further tarnished Wyatt’s credibility as a wrestler, making fans wonder if Wyatt was being punished for some unseen mistake or something. Why else would a promising and popular guy like Wyatt lose to two of the oldest and least-athletic men on the roster plus Ryback?
Then there was a two-minute impromptu match between Curtis Axel and R-Truth, which no one cared about because everyone involved was so low on the totem pole. This was the intended buffer match for the main event which, despite being filled with great action and drama, didn’t excite the audience as much as everyone expected.
This was because the match’s result – Roman Reigns winning to go on to main event WrestleMania again – was a foregone conclusion. As a result, the audience wasn't as excited as WWE might’ve hoped. In fact, some people disliked this result so much that the ‘"#CancelWWENetwork’ hashtag was trending once again.
It was painfully clear that the audience wanted Dean Ambrose to face Triple H for the title at WrestleMania 32, not Reigns. But Vince McMahon’s mind was made up, and he was going to get the main event he wanted, fan reaction be damned.
Oh, there was also a plug for the Edge & Christian show. I include it here because it was so insignificant in hindsight yet took up so much time for no other reason than to remind people that the WWE Network has some weird shows on it.
2017:
Fastlane 2015 was bad. The following year’s version was, relatively speaking, a bit worse. But it was the 2017 edition that really made me think that the entire concept is, in fact, cursed.
This RAW-exclusive PPV was a trainwreck of a PPV, top to bottom. Nothing on the show was truly awe-inspiring enough to make you, the viewer, want to revisit this show ever again. There were only two above average matches: Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn and Neville vs. Jack Gallagher. Everything else was either average or disappointing due to a booking decision that did not make sense.
Cesaro’s match against Jinder Mahal and the RAW Tag Team Title match were both average, lacking anything truly unique about them. Everything else on the show had some kind of flaw that was too obvious to ignore.
As someone that likes to find reasons to watch newer wrestlers, I was sorely disappointed by Rusev losing to the Big Show. What purpose does this serve these days, considering Rusev’s the one that’s more likely to be on the main shows than Big Show. And isn’t Rusev the guy that gets a solid reaction, no matter what he says or does? Why book him to get demolished by Big Show when his credibility is always hanging by a thread because of so many high-profile losses?
Fastlane, a B-show PPV that’s supposed to be just another stop before WrestleMania, marked the end of two critical streaks that had been promoted heavily for months: Charlotte’s PPV undefeated Streak and Braun Strowman having never been pinned or submitted.
Now, with WrestleMania less than a month away, the logical decision that any sane creative decision-maker would make would be for both of these to end at WrestleMania. That way, they can be built-up as major storylines leading into WrestleMania, and more people would watch these wrestlers’ respective matches to see if they would, in fact, lose at WrestleMania.
Instead, Bayley defeated Charlotte one month early at Fastlane, in a moment that had less than a quarter of the impact and memory than if this moment happened at WrestleMania. Charlotte had spent such a long time building up her undefeated Streak, and she didn’t even get to defend it at WrestleMania to make her match that much more important.
As for Strowman, he took his first pinfall loss to Roman Reigns, thus ending the mystique he had built up for months as a truly unstoppable monster. The argument for this decision was that Reigns needed a major win going into his Mania match against the Undertaker. That said, WWE could’ve booked this match differently, and it could’ve still worked.
In fact, this was one match that was begging to have shenanigans happen in it. ‘Taker could’ve interfered and cost Reigns the match. This way, Strowman is still undefeated and still protected as a monster for an eventual bigger and more important confrontation with a top star, and Reigns has a more personal reason to want to face and defeat the Undertaker.
This was a logical decision that a lot of people watching Fastlane 2017 could’ve envisioned and it would’ve made complete sense. Instead, WWE decided to ‘swerve’ everyone with a less-interesting Roman Reigns win.
Then, we got the main event. Bill Goldberg defeated Universal Champion Kevin Owens in 22 seconds. All it took was one Spear following a surprise Chris Jericho appearance, and Owens went down. In an instant, Owens’ credibility as a champion was thrown out the window, and what little prestige the title had from Owens at least defending it in competitive matches likewise disappeared.
Though some people did celebrate Owens’ win, it was an awful way to end the show in hindsight. Goldberg’s aura remained intact, but the whole storyline between Brock Lesnar and himself felt like it didn’t need the championship to be important.
At this point, I for one believe that it is right to be worried whenever WWE starts promoting Fastlane. History has already proven that this show is more likely to play host to questionable booking decisions and fan contempt than it is to be remembered on a positive note. For three straight years, Fastlane has been one of WWE’s poorest PPVs from a creative standpoint.
Keep in mind that this show takes place during the Road to WrestleMania, which is supposed to be the time of year during which WWE’s creativity and selling prowess are at their best. Instead, we get the exact opposite, with more fans feeling confused and disappointed than satisfied.
Ultimately, it’s safe to say that Fastlane is cursed, and there’s no one in the company right now that can lift it.
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