SPOILER! Rate WWE Fastlane 2021

[Lackin]

Date - 21/03/2021
Location - THUNDERDOME!

Pre-Show
Riddle def. Ali (RETAINED US Championship)

Main Show
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler def. Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair
(RETAINED the Women's Tag Team Championships)

Big E def. Apollo Crews
(RETAINED the Intercontinental Championship) (Or did he?)

Braun Strowman def. Elias
(Elias replacing Shane O'Mac due to injury)

Seth Rollins def. Shinsuke Nakamura

Drew McIntyre def. Sheamus
NO HOLDS BARRED!

Alexa Bliss def. Randy Orton
(and possibly a divorce because of the pinfall)

Roman Reigns def. Daniel Bryan
(RETAINED WWE Universal Championship)​

 

[Lackin]

Overall for me for the show was 3* or 6/10

Pre-Show had an ok US title match but was distracted by the wasted potential and booking of retribution, glad that retribution has seemingly disbanded.

Main Card

Any Nia Jax match I watch will always be worried for the talent involved. Boring bout not much happening, happy that Bianca and Sasha have not finally come to blows the tag angle was great in 2007 with HBK and Cena but this felt flat almost instantly.

Big E and Apollo had a great start to the match with the very vocal Big E taking control from the offset but Apollo fighting back, a very good match however it will be always remembered for the botched finish in which Apollo actually won the match.

Braun Strowman literally just destroyed Elias as he should have, a shame it wasn't against Shane but a No Holds Barred match at Mania should be good between them.

Seth Rollins and Nakamura continued the trend for good matches, but again didn't set the world alight but was a very entertaining back and forth throughout but I feel it felt start-stop like the pacing was struggling, wasn't really interested in this match and forgot it was even on the card tbf.

Drew and Sheamus HOLY FUCK! Brutal, Violent, and Explosive (Quite Literally) ticked all the boxes for me up to now best match of the night and both men left the ring as winners and looking strong.

Next up was the intergender Orton, Bliss match. Exactly how I expected it to go down but it did not disappoint in regards to the horror aspect, Alexa played the character perfectly. Would like to have seen the fiend make a bigger impact than grabbing a leg and performing a Sister Abigail but still made an impact nonetheless and the pin was very un-PG, Randy I bet received a phone call soon after from his Mrs.

Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan were the match of the night taking the crown from Drew and Sheamus, great action from the start with great storytelling, both very vocal increasing the tension and suspense to a high in an arena with no fans. Bryan's transitions were phenomenal and the ref took bump incredibly well and this allowed EDGE to get involved. Roman secretly tapping was fantastic in my personal opinion easily sets up for the triple threat at Mania. I can see why Jey intervened but I would be lying if I said it's not annoying me now.

6/10 Great Matches, Entertaining Action but let down with controversial booking and botches. But at the same time is making me want to tune into Raw and Smackdown to see what happens so it's doing its job.

 

[Snowman1]

A good babyface ALWAYS delivers what they promise.

5/10

The main event was tremendous. Daniel Bryan's just on a whole different level than any other wrestler right now. Him toying with Reigns was fun. Taking a believable ass kicking, coming back and delivering those crazy submissions, this match kept my attention really tightly and had me at the edge of my seat. Reigns more than played his role. The finish was... convoluted, but okay. Bryan makes Reigns tap and we move on to a triple threat at Wrestlemania after the Edge heel turn. It's going to be weird in 2031 when they're still bringing attitude era guys back to main event, and then Daniel Bryan still has to bring us so much emotion back to wrestling?

Okay back to my point 2 months ago: Why did Daniel Bryan not win the Royal Rumble? That was the obvious call. When he's a part of the Rumble it's a story in itself. The random Edge win was fun at the time, but Reigns has so much history with everyone else that this whole legends' mystique ain't enough. As a result he's so ice cold you want him to carry your beer. If he went after Drew then that would have been fine, but now he has an actual story. Good job WWE. And Drew/Sheamus and Bryan/Reigns should have been the Mania main events at the time, we got them here and it felt a LOT less special.

Drew vs Sheamus was a freaking blast, too. Top notch WWE video production really made this feel important after creative dropped the ball. Made this feel like a blood feud, and this was just two dudes beating the shit out of one another, isn't that what we watch for?

I can't wait for Jacob Fox to go onto Cagematch in 2031 and try to remember why Alexa Bliss has a pinfall victory over Randy Orton. Monthly reminder Bray Wyatt has never been a part of anything good.

The rest of the show was varying degrees of Pringles' matches that I wasn't invested in, but for what they were (Elias/Braun was the dictionary definition of filler), it still blows my MIND how this locker room gives you this level of effort. Here's Mustafa Ali going out to get embarrassed by his dog shit faction, being a low-card dude losing the US Title to a joke character, working through a knee injury, being stuck on pre-show duties, and still giving this level of effort for his love of the business.

 

[Jacob Fox]

I liked the show. It gave me all the things a wrestling show should., including something to bitch about. There were a couple things I was not happy with, but you have to have those in wrestling.

Also, many thanks to @Lackin for the rate thread

 

[Snowman1]

 

[Lackin]

View attachment 16865

Any people say WWE can't long term book

:21-1::21-1:

 

[Roadster]

Plenty of good matches, but it was all very predictable. It was booked like one of those old 3-hour RAW specials, and had the feeling of a C-PPV. I don't think it was very wise to have a PPV just 3 weeks out of Mania. 2/5 for me, it was just about average, nothing really off-putting but nothing to make me consider it an above-average viewing.

Reigns v. Bryan had a really good match and despite the dozen and half hijinks that came with it, it was pretty good for the overall story. Seamus v. McIntyre had a great old-school brawl. Both men were working stiff and it showed, and it added a lot of steam to the match. Those two matches were the best of the night. It's a shame that the Retribution break-up happened in two weeks, but I mean it was a botched program from the start. I wonder if Yim, and Thorne are gonna go back to their regular gimmicks as it looks like Tbar and Mace are gonna be breaking out into a team of their own.