Match 1 - Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback Vs Seth Rollins, Big Show and Kane
Considering the fallout from Survivor Series it's pretty sad that this was the only spot on the card for these guys on this particular show. There's nothing wrong with temporarily ducking a spot while other feuds require the limelight, but a Pay-Per-View six man tag match? Ouch. Rollins is in feud limbo while creative flip flop on when to bring Randy Orton back, and Ziggler is in limbo because...he's Dolph Ziggler, it's all he knows.
The match itself is about as typical as these things get, Erick Rowan sells for the babyface team for most of the match. Then Ryback gets a hot tag, then Ziggler gets another hot tag, and after not that much of a comeback Big Show hits an illegal knockout punch from the outside behind the referee's back for the win. Post match the Authority beat up on all three guys some more until Randy Orton's music hits and he chases everyone off.
Honestly, considering creative were putting off Orton's return for weeks this was fairly underwhelming for his return. Rollins Vs Orton should be one of the bigger matches on this year's Wrestlemania, after being gone for three months returning (and failing to actually make any kind of save for the other babyfaces) after an opening six man tag match is kind of weak.
Match Highlight -Ziggler shouting at the ref "Rowan's hurt!" and a ringside fan shouting back "NO HE'S NOT IT'S FAKE"
Match 2 - Stardust Vs Goldust
In yet another wonderful case of the internet being wrong on literally everything related to wrestling, the match rumoured to take place at Wrestlemania for about 5 years finally happens on the February Pay-Per-View in 2015. This match reminds me of the John Cena Vs Bray Wyatt match from Wrestlemania last year, where the guys are trying their best to tell a story in the ring but the audience are struggling to get into it because the writer haven't done their job telling it to us. Although the live crowd did inject some intrigue into the match by chanting "Cody" at Stardust and giving him something to react to.
The match ends with an awkward roll up (with the referee not making a third count but calling for the bell for whatever reason) by Goldust because he doesn't really want to hurt his brother. Stardust sulks out of the ring and we move on. An awkward finish, confusing narrative and a mostly bored crowd really killed this one, which is a shame considering the talent of both guys.
Match Highlight - Err, lots of Stardust hissing?
Backstage Stardust attacks Goldust and cuts a promo on his dad about how Cody Rhodes is dead. Normally I would roll my eyes at this sort of thing but Cody has such a great track record with weird gimmicks I wouldn't worry about it.
Match 3 - WWE Tag Team Championship - The Usos(c) Vs Cesaro and Tyson Kidd
Tyson Kidd looks SO happy to be on a Pay-Per-View.
I really like this matchup, I approve of stagnant midcarders being thrown into logical tag teams and Cesaro and Kidd are a great mix of speed and strength. The Usos are one of the best tag teams in the world today but they've already wrestled everyone there is to wrestle and were in desperate need of new opponents to not become stale.
As you'd expect it's an exciting match (not exciting enough for the commentators to actually react to it during high spots apparently but oh well) and after a lengthy breakdown Tyson Kidd hooks one of the Usos up in...uh...a super slam let's say and wraps him up for the win. The moment was made by the crowd really wanting to see Kidd and Cesaro take the belts.
Match Highlight - Cesaro swinging one of the Usos (I don't know which one) by one leg and then sliding into a half boston crab. Also the crowd going back and forth between "This is Awesome" and "Tyson Kidd" chants.
Triple H and Sting Meet Face to Face
It's kind of a weird wrestling thing that you roll your eyes at but it's pretty bizarre to see a pre-segment promo for two guys going out to the ring to talk to each other.
Triple H comes out to the ring in a leather jacket, branded T-Shirt and blue jeans, maybe the fact he's about to promote a Wrestlemania match with Sting made him forget it's not 2002. It's kind of weird to see Triple H make himself the heel by pushing the fact he helped push WCW out of business, when one of the big reasons the Invasion angle failed so many years ago is the company's complete refusal to do that. Trips does all of the talking here because Sting used up all his Dark Knight quotes in TNA. After promising Sting a chance to "extend his legacy" by walking away the offer is obviously refused and the fight is on.
Trips gets the upper hand by hitting Sting with the microphone and goes for the sledgehammer, but Sting catches him and holds Trips up by the throat with his bat for a great visual, then points it at the Wrestlemania sign. Sting goes to walk away but Triple H goes to ambush him again, gets caught in the midsection with a bat and another Scorpion Death Drop.
This segment was pretty much what it needed to be, although their efforts to make Sting as cool as possible so far are making Triple H look like a bit of a dweeb. They're going to have to do a pretty major beatdown of Sting at some point during the next five weeks.
Match 4 - WWE DIvas Championship - Paige Vs Nikki Bella(c)
It was always hard to watch WWE Divas matches, but the quality of NXT Diva's division has made it nigh on impossible. At least Paige is cool and er, Nikki is one of the *not so terrible* ones. Also, whatever happened to the thing about the Bellas hating each other and Brie being Nikki's slave? I don't blame creative for dropping it but I honestly don't remember it having any kind of conclusion.
Well whatever, some stuff happens then Nikki pins Paige with an awful thigh pulling roll up.
Match Highlight - The concession stand made $630.21 during this match.
A flashy Wrestlemania graphic confirms Triple H Vs Sting for Wrestlemania. The WWE production guys are amazing, how did they throw that together in 10 minutes!!!! (lol)
Match 5 - WWE Intercontinental Championship - Dean Ambrose Vs Wade Barrett(c)
On the pre-show they played a pretty impressive interview/promo package regarding Dean Ambrose and what the Intercontinental Championship means to him. The fact that package didn't make it onto the Pay-Per-View itself pretty much sums up how the company actually feels about the title.
Ambrose is crazy over, the production crew even switched to a wide shot of the arena during the match that's normally saved for Daniel Bryan level crowd reactions. After kicking out of Wasteland and avoiding the bull hammer elbow Ambrose comes back and Wade Barrett constantly tries to run away with his title. Ambrose beats on him so much trying to stop him leaving he gets disqualified. I like the fact that Wade tried to desperately get away from Dean but it's still a pretty weak finish to an otherwise fun match.
Intercontinental title matches are really rare at Wrestlemania these days, but I don't know what else there is for either guy to do this year and they deserve the spot, so hopefully they save the rematch for then.
Match Highlight - An incredibly dorky sounding fan at ringside shouting at Barrett "I got bad news Barrett...YOU SUCK ehehehehe".
Out of nowhere the lights go dim and the druids come out, then the infamous gong hits and I cream myself a little. A casket is pushed down to ringside, it's opened and up sits...Bray Wyatt. Looks like the Undertaker was the target of Bray's cryptic promos and they actually are going for this match for Wrestlemania. I'm looking forward to it but it's going to be a difficult one to book with the streak gone. Bray cuts another promo directly on the Undertaker and about how he's a broken shell of what he used to be, and flat out confirms a Wrestlemania match. I guess we're just assuming Undertaker accepts the challenge. Oh well, this was a nice addition to the presentation considering the point of this show is to be a big hype bubble for Wrestlemania ready to pop.
Match 6 - WWE United States Championship - Rusev(c) Vs John Cena
As Stone Cold tweeted the crowd finally showed up for this match as Cena (as always) elevated the atmosphere towards a big match feel. I don't know if it's just because I'm wearing headphones or what but I heard about a dozen in-ring conversations during this match which was pretty distracting. Nonetheless that problem doesn't affect the live crowd and they got into it as Cena did a great job of making Rusev look like a formidable opponent.
After Rusev breaks out of Cena's submission holds and kicks out of an Attitude Adjustment, he catches Cena in the camel clutch. Cena almost breaks out of it but due to interference by Lana Rusev is able to hit a low blow and slaps it on again which Cena is unable to get out of and passes out. It was a good match (aside from the distracting extremely loud spot-calling) that made Rusev look fantastic. The question now will Rusev be able to last after he eventually takes his first loss, or will he fade away like all the "first year dominant" foreign heels that were fed to Cena before him.
The finish wasn't the best though, I think it would have told a better story if Cena had tried several things to break out of the submission hold all leading in failure then passing out. Still, Rusev won which was the right call.
Match Highlight - A dude chanting "You tapped out!" at Cena then realising he didn't and awkwardly fading out of it. Also Rusev breaking out of a crossface and tossing Cena off him in one swipe.
Match 7 - Winner Faces Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania - Roman Reigns Vs Daniel Bryan
It's been a while since we've had a major babyface vs babyface match in WWE, and although it's not a good idea to do them too often they can be exciting when they're built right (and this one was built pretty fight with both guys wanting to prove they're better than the other and deserve to go to Wrestlemania).
Reigns shuts down most of Bryan's offence in the opening minutes and it's mostly him until he takes a hard kick to the midsection which slows him down and Bryan gets more vicious. Both guys hit big offense and kick out of each others finishers and its desperation time for both of them. They knock each other out, it turns into a big brawl on the mat, then Bryan sets up for a second running knee but gets hit by a spear instead and Reigns is your winner. And the internet assumingly goes into a meltdown.
This isn't a great endorsement but this was easily Reigns best singles match, but it was a great match all in all. Both guys wrestled like they really wanted to win and it constantly felt like a clash between two forces. People are going to hate on it because of who won, but that shouldn't take away from what the match was.
Match Highlight - Bryan counters Reigns grabbing his throat by rolling into the Yes Lock.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
A lukewarm crowd and a few too many non-finishes took away from it, but overall Fast Lane was a strong Pay-Per-View, at least in regards to what its purpose was. I've argued before that WWE shouldn't do a PPV in February because you're in an awkward position where you don't want people to take big loses on the road to the biggest show of the year, and it also messes with storylines (especially when you have to contrive a reason to have a huge six man cage match). The focus was on making Wrestlemania feel like a big deal, and between Sting, Cena putting over Rusev, Wyatt's promo and Reigns and Bryan beating the crap out of each other it certainly succeeded in that regard.
Ultimately, the show actually filled the three hour slot, had little to no filler, no heavy drag points where you're just sitting around waiting for the main event, and for the most part didn't blow...whether this show endeared itself to you or not that's pretty rare for WWE Pay-Per-Views in general. I doubt this show will go down in history or anything, and I certainly don't think we'll be revisiting it months later like last year's Elimination Chamber, but after the trainwreck of the Royal Rumble this gave the company some much needed forward momentum.
I'm going easy on it because it was essentially a three hour promo for a bigger show down the line that was given away for free, but WWE Fast Lane was enjoyable and succeeded at what it was supposed to do so hey...I'M not mad.
But yea, Daniel Bryan lost so...boycott, anger, rage, etc.
RATING - 6.5/10
DANIEL BRYAN FAN ADJUSTED RATING - GARBAGE/10
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