Fastlane (2018) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for the SmackDown brand. It took place on March 11, 2018, at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. It was the fourth event under the Fastlane chronology. The 2018 event was the final SmackDown-exclusive pay-per-view and subsequently the final brand-exclusive pay-per-view under the second brand split as following WrestleMania 34, all WWE pay-per-views will be dual-branded, featuring wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brands.
Shinsuke Nakamura def. Rusev
I caught the tail end of this one, but from what I saw it was better than what I was expecting going in to say that they booked this match at the last minute. I hope whenever they do the next Superstar Shake-Up post-WrestleMania they do something with Rusev, Aiden English, and Lana. They need to quit squandering a potential main event player they have sitting on the sidelines here. As for Nakamura, it was a no brainer to give him the win here as he has to look strong going into WrestleMania. It just seems like they are biding their time on his time to shine before WrestleMania, where they (hopefully) make him look like a rockstar in his first WrestleMania match.
United States Championship Match - Randy Orton def. Bobby Roode (c) to become new champion and become the latest entry in WWE's ongoing list of Grand Slam Champions
There were some good moments in this match and a lot of slow bits too. Call me cynical but Orton and Roode just don't click well. They were teasing the RKO reversal from the top rope almost the entire match as even the crowd was ready to see it coming the multiple times that Roode kept going from off the top rope. I kept saying to myself, "Roode's going to get RKO'd out of the air..." I just knew it was going to happen as Roode isn't known for high flying offense and mostly kept his arsenal ground based.
I can't be mad at WWE taking the belt off Roode as that run was a flash in the pan anyway. Orton has more name value going into WrestleMania so I can understand why they went with Roode dropping the title to Orton here. Either they are going to have Orton drop it back to Roode at 'Mania or (groan) drop it to Jinder Mahal...
Carmella and Natalya def. Naomi and Becky Lynch
Nothing really to write home about this match other than the shock I had at Carmella picking up the win. They must be setting up the Money in the Bank winner to fail whenever she cashes in as WWE's mantra is usually to job out the MITB holder until they cash in for their big win. If they are setting up Asuka to win the title from Charlotte then Carmella can definitely count that out if she thinks she has a chance to cash in on Charlotte.
SmackDown! Tag Team Championship Match - The Usos (c) vs. The New Day ends in no contest after the Bludgeon Bros. (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) laid waste to both teams
Going into this match I had little to no enthusiasm to see this match, despite the fact I knew that this would have been arguably the sleeper hit of the evening. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against New Day and the Usos' in-ring talents. I'm just sick of seeing them feud. Their promos for this match have been great, but I don't want to see the Usos drop the titles to anyone until or after preferably WrestleMania. This has been the best run of their careers and no need to waste that push on dropping the belts to the New Day for the millionth time.
Seeing the former Wyatt Family members lay waste to the opposition here was the best thing I've seen from any portion of WWE's tag team division in months. Superb booking here. If they can find a way to shoe in Haas and Benjamin... err Gable & Benjamin into the mix too and have a Fatal 4 Way for the SmackDown! Tag Team Championships that's NOT on the damn preshow for WrestleMania then you can call me a happy camper.
SmackDown! Women's Championship Match - Charlotte Flair (c) def. Ruby Riott (w/ Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan); Asuka challenges her post-match for WrestleMania
I hate to knock both ladies here as this wasn't a bad match by any means, but good Lord Charlotte is a far cry from her father in terms of ring psychology. These matches where she takes the bulk of the abuse in the match and barely working her opponent's legs only to win off the Figure Eight drives me nuts. After the Alabama Slam/Modified Electric Chair Slam into the corner, it would've made more sense to win off a Natural Selection than slapping in the submission. I mean, c'mon she was working Ruby's head more than her legs in this match so that just made me throw my hands up in terms of psychology here.
As for the post-match angle that saw Asuka immediately come down to point at the WrestleMania sign, I wasn't surprised in the least. Out of all of the women on the main roster who have been spared Asuka's wrath, it's Charlotte who has somehow dodged the bullet to cross paths with the Empress of Tomorrow until now. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that they were going to have Charlotte drop the title to Ruby when they were building her up for this pending match. The only thing that would have stopped this match becoming reality would be some freak accident/injury between now and WrestleMania in April. Besides, out of the two reigning champions on RAW and SmackDown!, everyone knows that
WWE Championship Match - AJ Styles (c) def. John Cena, Kevin Owens, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, and Dolph Ziggler to retain
This match wasn't bad, but it was very telling that AJ Styles was going to retain because he out of the mix for the bulk of the match. When I noticed that, it was very telling that they were going with the safest means possible to avoid any possible injury from the Phenomenal One here. You knew Baron Corbin wasn't winning this and Dolph Ziggler sure as hell wasn't going to win it, especially when John Cena's in the damn thing too. Owens and Zayn were there just to play off their bromance that's been the focus of SmackDown! Live for the last few months (and main reason I haven't cared to watch honestly...)
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