WWE Fast Lane -- Results & Afterthoughts

WWE Fast Lane serves as WWE's replacement to the Elimination Chamber and serves as WWE's final stop on the road to WrestleMania between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. The main event pits Daniel Bryan against Roman Reigns in a match to decide who will face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

Preshow - MizTV (The Miz & Mizdow) interview with Paul Heyman

Great back and forth here, but I swear, Paul Heyman is WAY too good to be limited to these preshow events. If you're going to fly him out to the PPV, at least give him mic time on the actual card. I think we're going to see Miz and Mizdow dissolve before or at WrestleMania. I'd even bet money on that

The Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, and The Big Show w/ J & J Security) def. Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, and Ryback after Kane held up Ziggler for a mock Superman Punch variation of the WMD by The Big Show. Randy Orton returned post-match to take out J & J Security while Rollins fled the scene.

I understand that they had to give Rollins and the other faces feuding with the Authority something to do, but c'mon. I was expecting a little better than this. I thought Dolph Ziggler would be going places after being the lone survivor of his Survivor Series team versus the Authority, but nope. Ziggler is in the SAME exact position as he was previously. Vanquishing the Authority became an afterthought as John Cena reversed that decision a few weeks later while Sting garnered all of the attention and praise instead of Ziggler.

There's a similar trend with everyone on the opposing team of babyfaces. It's a team of guys who should be in better elevated positions on the roster than this. Erick Rowan should be part of the many teams chasing for the tag titles as the Wyatt Family shouldn't have split up to begin with. Ryback should have been the one in a high-profile feud against Rusev but got the rugged pulled out from underneath him prematurely. Then we have Dolph Ziggler for reasons I mentioned already.

I don't understand the hate for Big Show and Kane. These are two veterans doing their jobs, putting over younger stars. They are damn good at their jobs too - consistent, great work despite being rather stagnant after all of these years. I rather see them putting people over instead of newer guys getting buried before fans have a chance to even garner an opinion about them. I personally wouldn't mind seeing them as a tag team in the tag team division like their domination period from 2005. If they are supposed to be the Authority's "muscle" then let's see it then with a show of force.

As for Orton's return... about damn time I say. Now we know what WWE has lined up for Rollins for WrestleMania to keep him out of the title picture for the time being. To be quite honest, they could have had Orton come out weeks ago and did this but whatever.

Goldust def. Stardust via roll up counter to the Cross Rhodes.

I honestly marked out for Stardust's new gear. He totally stole Batman's gloves though.

Great storytelling here, but pretty average match. I can kinda see why WWE didn't save this one for WrestleMania if that was the effort they were going to put into this.

I'll add this too. I wish some of the younger fans show some respect for Goldust. That guy has come a LONG way to say that he's up in age now and still putting on great matches. If he doesn't get a HOF spot sooner more than later, then I'm going to be pissed.

Jon Stewart (host of the Daily Show) calls out Seth Rollins

Lame... Why even waste anytime on this? Moving on...

That's pretty fucked that WWE allows a celebrity who's not even on the roster shoot a promo when 70% of the active roster don't get that much mic time.

Stardust snaps backstage and assaults Goldust before declaring that he's living in his own shadow now to Dusty Rhodes.

I don't mind THIS Cody Rhodes/Stardust at all. Give us more of this, WWE.

The Brass Ring Club (Tyson Kidd & Cesaro w/ Natalya) def. The Usos (w/ Naomi) for WWE Tag Team Championship

I was really starting to fear for these two teams. If anyone can turn this division around for the better, it's these two teams. Throw in the dynamic between the teams' ladies at ringside and you potentially have a goldmine of a feud here. I was a little disappointed that Naomi and Natalya didn't get involved at all in this match, but I suppose they can save that for the inevitable rematch at WrestleMania. Speaking of the valets, damn BOTH Naomi and Natalya were slaying with those outfits tonight. Meow...

Is it just me or the BRC showing a few shades of the Beatdown Clan from Impact Wrestling? That's EXACTLY what I was thinking during their segment that was recapped before the match started.

As for the match itself, I could watch these two teams fight each other all day. Great chemistry between these two teams. If they want to get the Lucha Dragons and the Ascension involved and do tag team turmoil at WrestleMania then I'm all for it.

If I had any complaint about this match it was the finish, just like with 80% of the matches on this card. Why did Kidd finish it with a Swinging Fisherman's Suplex? I thought the BRC would've pulled off that double team move that they have been showing off lately.

Triple H confronts Sting in the ring

I guess I'm the only wrestling fan who isn't giddy as a girl with a new vibrator (thank you Jim Cornette for that phrase...) off Sting in WWE and facing Triple H at WrestleMania. Seeing Sting in HD is jarring enough and shows that he looks WORSE than his final days during his run in Impact Wrestling. I understand that it's a dream for a lot of his fans to see him in a WWE ring, but the novelty has ran its course for me. WWE, just give us Sting vs. The Undertaker and allow these guys to ride off into the sunset for good.

I see no benefit for Triple H facing an "ancient" Stinger other than stroking his ego.

Don't get me wrong. The moment where Sting shoved his baseball bat into Triple H's face and forced him to drop the sledgehammer was iconic. Even more magic was added to this moment as Sting didn't say a WORD. He maintains his aura of mystery for new fans.

I couldn't stop laughing at that convenient "STANG" sing in the crowd and the fact that Triple H keeps calling himself the "lifeblood" of WWE - while dressed up in his 2002 return attire. Bitch please. The lifeblood of WWE is the Undertaker - always has been if we're going that route from the Monday Night Wars.

If I wrote this segment I would've had Sting about to be assaulted by HHH and do the same turnaround then have the lights go out once Sting had Triple H cornered. The lights come back on and The Undertaker is behind Sting. Sting releases Triple H and faces Taker. Both icons stare down until Triple H tries to get in the way. Both men hit their finishers on Triple H then look up at the WrestleMania sign in unison. There, you've sold the PPV off this one segment ALONE.

Bad News Barrett def. Dean Ambrose via DQ to retain the Intercontinental Championship

While I personally find ALL of Dean Ambrose's matches to be at a snail pace that drag along, I thought Ambrose deserved a win here. It was rather pointless to end this match with another loss for Ambrose. That guy can't ever cut a break at PPVs. Dean Ambrose is already over with fans, so why can't WWE get behind this guy?

Nikki Bella (w/ Brie Bella) def. Paige to retain the WWE Divas Championship

Good Lord, there was enough people butthurt after that match.

Listen, I love Paige as much as everyone else and I want to see her succeed, but I rather see this feud continue into WrestleMania instead of a meaningless title change prior to the big event that they will more likely flip around or reverse by then. To these Divas' credit, this match wasn't bad at all outside of the lackluster finish.

Nikki is doing a good job of integrating some power moves into her arsenal, especially the Alabama Slam and Rolling Powerbomb from the corner. I have to applaud her for having answers to not one but ALL of Paige's finishers (RamPaige, Paige Turner, and PTO) as well. I don't want to discredit Paige here either as she is becoming an even better worker.

Bray Wyatt openly challenges The Undertaker at WrestleMania

I'm on both sides of the fence on this one as I personally feel like it's going to be lose/lose for both Superstars. Don't get me wrong - the match itself along with the build will be full of all kinds of win for the fans, but let's look at this from a long-time standpoint.

The Undertaker HAS to win to shake off that stench of failure after losing to Lesnar last year and show that he's still "got it". Bray Wyatt HAS to win to show that he's ready to be a main event player in the future WWE landscape. The guy has been in WWE for roughly two years now and hasn't even been considered for ANY championship of any kind. Hell, even his former followers in the Wyatt Family, Luke Harper (former Intercontinental champion) and Erick Rowan have had more title opportunities than him.

I'm just wondering what is going to be the payoff for both Superstars (outside of fan service) for this match. I guess this is going to be WWE's way of stalling and saving The Undertaker vs. Sting for next year in Texas.

Rusev (w/ Lana) def. John Cena to retain the United States Championship

A great back and forth contest between these two and I was relieved to see Cena give Rusev the rub instead of going over as the first Superstar to beat Rusev. Now I hope the marks can quit saying that John Cena buries everyone who steps in the ring with him. 

Extra credit props goes to Lana for playing the job of the manager/valet flawlessly here. Just watch her facial expressions throughout this match. Less means more. She only got involved at the most vital point of the match and did enough to help Rusev win. I thought that the low blow was a tad bit overkill as Cena already was out. 

Roman Reigns def. Daniel Bryan to defend his #1 Contender spot for headlining WrestleMania versus Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

To say that people were booing Roman Reigns out of the arena last month at Royal Rumble during the conclusion of that event, it's easy to say that Reigns and Bryan threw down tonight in this main event. Great action from bell to bell. If that doesn't convince the haters and remove all doubt that Roman Reigns can and deserves a fair shot against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, then something's wrong. Daniel Bryan was the perfect person to serve as the measuring stick to see if he was ready for Brock Lesnar. 

I only fear if WWE can continue to carry this momentum for the next five weeks going into WrestleMania. 

Closing Thoughts

Here's the thing I can't stand when going into these events that follow one of NXT's Takeover live specials. Everyone goes in either with the (extremely high) optimism that it's going to rival that event or go in shitting on the show before it even starts. Hello, people - we should ALL know that these PPVs aren't going to live up to those extremely high-expectations and high standards that the NXT specials have set the standard for, so we need to stop tormenting ourselves trying to expect the same from these PPVs on the main roster. 

That being said, this event wasn't that much better than your average run of the mill episode of Monday Night RAW or Friday Thursday Night SmackDown! but it did serve it's purpose as the last stop on the road to WrestleMania. It managed to set the stage appropriately for what is yet to come on the grandest stage of them all.

At the end of the day, Jesse Collings of Wrestling Inc. hit the nail on the head when he called the show a "glorified episode of Raw", adding that "there were a few highlights, but there was not a single thing that took place on this show that couldn't have been done on an episode of Raw."