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Fastlane 2017


JamieStevenson

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The final stop on the Road to WrestleMania will be at the Raw exclusive PPV event Fastlane on Sunday 5th March 2017. This will be the third installment of Fastlane.  Previous years haven't offered an awful lot in terms of development towards WrestleMania other than perhaps the #1 contender for the championship. This year though the WWE Universal Championship is on the line, as will all of the titles I'm sure. Like Elimination Chamber, this will be the typical 3 hour PPV, 1 hour Pre-Show format. We start off with the bad news that Seth Rollins is now injured, same knee that previously kept him out for a long time. It doesn't look as serious this time but he is still a doubt for WrestleMania, and of course will miss out on what was potentially going to be a great match with Samoa Joe at this event. This leaves a big spot free on the card to be filled, hopefully they'll find something else for Samoa Joe.

 

 

The main event of the evening will be between Kevin Owens and Goldberg. They first encountered each other on the debut edition of The Kevin Owens Show back on the Jan 2nd episode of Raw in the lead up to Royal Rumble. Goldberg asserted he'd win the Royal Rumble and have a date with either Kevin Owens or Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, of course we all know Goldberg didn't go on to win it.

Goldberg interrupted Jeri-KO making their WrestleMania plans, he also secured his own plans by accepting Brock Lesnar's challenge. Kevin Owens then made the mistake of stating that the Goldberg vs Lesnar match would be a great undercard match. This prompted old man Bill to point out that there was no challenger for the title at Fastlane and that Owens should step up and take him on for the WWE Universal Championship. Jericho then stepped in and accepted the match on his best friend's behalf! Is it possible that Goldberg walks out of Fastlane and into WrestleMania as the WWE Universal Champion? After what Goldberg did to Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series, how long will Kevin Owens last?

Kevin Owens turned on his best friend Chris Jericho during the "Festival of Friendship". Owens opened the 20th Feb episode of Raw by insulting his Fastlane opponent Goldberg and proclaiming that he will outsmart him and make the match go longer as everyone knows Goldberg can't go long. It was clear that Owens has turned all of his focus on the the WWE Universal Championship match at Fastlane. This was evident when he mic dropped instead of explaining his actions from the previous week.

The following week, Goldberg returned to the go-home Raw. Goldberg says he's never not followed through on a promise he has made. He promises to hit Kevin Owens with SPEAR! JACKHAMMER! and become the new WWE Universal Champion and take it into WrestleMania to face Brock Lesnar. Kevin Owens came out to confront Goldberg and listed all of his accomplishments since joining the main roster. He declared that to Goldberg that "YOU'RE NEXT", not in the way old Bill says it but in the way that Goldberg is next in the evolution of Kevin Owens WWE Universal Championship reign.

 

 

At Royal Rumble during the WWE Universal Championship match between Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman got himself involved by brutally attacking Reigns which resulted in the champion retaining his belt. The following night on Raw, Strowman explained his actions. He can't stand Roman Reigns and he wanted a shot at the championship, just like Owens promised him. Mick Foley commissioned for later that night. Owens held onto the championship once more as Reigns returned the favour and attacked Strowman.

Braun Strowman this week on Raw faced 4 local jobbers and once again he went after Mick Foley and demanded competition. Mick Foley gave that to him in the form of a match against Roman Reigns at Fastlane. Strowman came out to cost Reigns later in the night in his match against Samoa Joe.

Braun Strowman has been receiving the monster push as of late. He defeated Mark Henry, Roman was warned by Stephanie McMahon that if he interfered in this match, the Fastlane bout would be cancelled. Reigns came out once the match was over, landed two superman punches but then was on the receiving end of the running powerslam. The following week Strowman was given the honour of being in the main event of Raw with a terrific looking Big Show. Strowman of course won and was again confronted by Roman Reigns, Strowman came out on top again.

Braun Strowman went to Mick Foley and expressed that he thinks Roman Reigns will back out of their Fastlane match and requested that they have a contract signing to ensure the match actually goes ahead. Foley agreed to this and a massive brawl ensued with both men getting in significant offense. In unusual circumstances, a beat down Reigns signed the contract as Strowman was heading to the back, Reigns showed he will not be backing out of this match at all.

 

 

Austin Aries managed to secure himself an interview with WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville, to share some breaking news. Due to former champion Rich Swann now being injured, this offered an opportunity for a new challenger to the self proclaimed "King of the Cruiserweights". It was announced that on 205 Live there will be a fatal-5-way elimination match, with the winner being #1 contender and will face Neville at Fastlane. The competitors will be: Cedric Alexander, TJ Perkins, Noam Dar, Jack Gallagher & Tony Nese. Every man came down to the ring and a brawl ensues. In typical Cruiserweight division fashion, it resulted in a 6 man tag match.

Sadly Tony Nese had suffered an injury and could not compete in the Fatal-5-Way match on 205 Live. Instead, that free spot was contested for between Mustafa Ali and Ariya Daivari. Mustafa Ali advanced to the main event and joined Cedric Alexander, Noam Dar, TJ Perkins & Jack Gallagher. A great fatal-5-way elimination match ensued and the most over man in the Cruiserweight Division, the gentleman Jack Gallagher won the match and will face his fellow Englishman Neville for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at Fastlane. 

On the 20th Feb episode of Raw, we had the standard contract signing for a championship match. Jack Gallagher and the champion Neville exchanged in a few words but we all know there's only one way these situations can end, with a little scuffle in the ring.

On the go-home episode of Raw, Neville & Tony Nese faced off against Jack Gallgher & TJ Perkins. Not much to discuss here other than Neville once again backing off and abandoning one of his tag team partners. He refused to get in the ring and help Tony Nese get out of one of Gallagher's submissions which of course resulted in the win.

On 205 Live, Neville addresses the state of 205 Live and the Cruiserweight Division. Neville has also claimed that it is his ring, which "Gentleman" Jack Gallagher firmly disagrees with and the two of them start scrapping. Gallagher comes out on top and stands tall in the middle of the ring to close the show. A nice little preview for Sunday's WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match.

 

 

"This is not a flash in the pan scenario. I'm not some Sami Zayn who's happy to be on Raw, I'm here to make a statement and it's very, very simple. Nobody, nobody on this roster can stand toe-to-toe with me". The line that has sparked a bitter and violent feud between Joe and Sami Zayn. Later in the night Zayn defeated Rusev and then went on the mic to blast Joe for his comments in the sit down with Michael Cole. Samoa Joe did not take to kindly to this and ambushed him. THE DESTROYER HAS BEEN UNLEASHED.

On the 20th Feb episode of Raw, Sami Zayn was scheduled to face his former best friend and bitter rival, WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens. 'The Destroyer' Samoa Joe blindsided Zayn again, this time before the match as he was making his entrance. He beat him down real good and threw him into the ring for an easy Kevin Owens win as Zayn wanted to still go ahead with the match. 

"The Destroyer" Samoa Joe continued his dominance on Raw by decimating former indie foe Cesaro. After the match he took to the mic to call out some of the fan favourites and basically stating none of them stand a chance against him and any of their past accomplishments mean nothing. Sami Zayn retaliated and the pair brawled out on the entrance way. Sami Zayn vs Samoa Joe has now been booked for Fastlane.

 

 

At Royal Rumble the queen Charlotte Flair went 16-0, remaining undefeated on PPV (Shame about her Raw record). Natural Selection on the apron was the finishing touch in a good match between her and Bayley. Bayley continuously pins Charlotte on episodes of Raw, even pinning her in a mixed 6 person tag team match. This feud seems to be continuing as Charlotte distracted her during the match with Nia Jax on the Feb 6th Raw. It has been announced that Charlotte Flair vs Bayley for the WWE Raw Women's Championship will take place on the Feb 13th episode of Raw. Could Bayley go into Fastlane as champion?  

On the 13th Feb episode of Raw, the WWE Raw Women's Championship was on the line in the main event between Charlotte Flair and Bayley. A decent match, Dana Brooke came out to interfere on behalf of Charlotte, Sasha Banks followed soon after to even the odds. Banks involvement then resulted in Bayley, for the first time ever, becoming the new WWE Raw Women's Champion. The following week on Raw, Stephanie McMahon tried to convince Bayley to relinquish the championship as she "hadn't earned it". Sasha Banks came out to defend Bayley and reminded her she's worked hard to get to where she is now and Bayley subsequently did not give up the title. This however prompted former champion Charlotte Flair to come out and invoke her rematch clause for a match at Fastlane.

On the go-home episode of Raw, Charlotte doesn't care for Bayley's dreams and vows to embarrass her in front of her father and prove that she's a one hit wonder. Sasha Banks of course again came out to defend her friend and this led to a tag team match. Sasha & Bayley were pretty excited only to discover that Charlotte's partner wasn't Dana Brooke and was in fact NIA JAX. I'll post that tag team match down with the small Banks vs Jax section.

 

 

 

We have seen many matches already between Gallows/Anderson and Cesaro/Sheamus, things kicked up a notch when Enzo and Cass announced they'd be watching the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship match very closely. They were at ringside as the championship match took place, Luke Gallows rolled to the outside and kicked Enzo in the face which resulted in Big Cass attacking Gallows. The match therefore ended by Disqualification. 

Cesaro defeated Enzo Amore on the Feb 13th episode of Raw. The following week, it was announced that Cesaro and Sheamus would take on Enzo Amore and Big Cass in a #1 contender match, with the winning team facing Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship at Fastlane. Enzo Amore and Big Cass came out victorious in the match and as Enzo was gloating to the Swiss Superman after, he received a nasty brogue kick by Sheamus. 

Enzo Amore and Big Cass were involved in a backstage segment with Enzo getting all hyped about becoming the new WWE Raw Tag Team Champions and was expressing how he'll be able to show off to everybody, especially the ladies. Big Cass had to bring him back down to earth, reminding his partner that Gallows and Anderson have won tag team gold all over the world and not to underestimate them. Big Cass did still assert that they will become the new champions. They further built momentum towards this Sunday at Fastlane when Big Cass defeated Luke Gallows in a singles match.

 

 

At Royal Rumble Nia Jax defeated a broken Sasha Banks. Jax has been putting beatdowns on the former WWE Raw Women's Champion for months now. On the go-home episode of Raw we had a match that had Bayley & Sasha Banks facing off against Charlotte & Nia Jax. Jax reigned supreme in the match and dominated both of her opponents. After the match, Stephanie McMahon found Bayley & Sasha backstage. Sasha says she'll be at Bayley's side during her WWE Raw Women's Championship match but Stephanie said that Sasha is still trying to steal her friend's spotlight and that she can be ringside, but she'll have to get through her rival Nia Jax first at Fastlane.

 

 

In the Cruiserweight division there are several little feuds going on. One of the feuds which is picking up interest is the new star Akira Tozawa refusing to go under the wing of the veteran and former WWE Cruiserweight Champion The Brian Kendrick. The Brian Kendrick had a keen interest in Tozawa right away as he was on commentary for his debut match. Kendrick tried for a couple of weeks to become his mentor but Tozawa wanted nothing to do with him.

Kendrick and Tozawa were scheduled to face each other on the 20th Feb episode of Raw. Tozawa took a long time to decide if he would engage in the customary pre-match handshake. As he was about to shake Kendrick's hand, he was brutally assaulted and the match did not go ahead. The following night on 205 Live, they did finally face each other and the master tactician Kendrick tied up Tozawa's foot under the rope to ensure he'd win via counout. Kendrick again preached about Tozawa disrespecting him.

On the go-home episode of Raw, Akira Tozawa faced off against the Scottish Supernova Noam Dar. Tozawa won and was attacked by The Brian Kendrick after the match. Sadly, instead of booking a singles match at Fastlane we now have Rich Swann & Akira Tozawa vs The Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar on the Fastlane Kickoff Show. The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann at least has history with Kendrick so it should hopefully be a fun match.

On 205 Live, Akira Tozawa wanted to fight The Brian Kendrick right here, right now. Kendrick was having none of that and was still very insulted that Tozawa turned him down and did not want to be mentored by a man with 18 years experience. 

 

 

The official theme song for this PPV is recycled over from last year's Fastlane event:

 

 

Confirmed Matches:

Rich Swann  & Akira Tozawa vs The Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar (Kickoff Match).

Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax. 

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (C) vs Enzo Amore and Big Cass for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship.

Neville (C) vs Jack Gallagher for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

Sami Zayn vs Samoa Joe.

Bayley (C) vs Charlotte Flair for the WWE Raw Women's Championship.

Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman.

Kevin Owens (C) vs Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship.

 

20170227_Fastlane_KickoffMatch--72eaa61879ad2f3999580664c5d5b61e.thumb.jpg.57b80b0f916057e399f186e3c4af636c.jpg20170227_Fastlane_sashania--83b299eddb933e5d9783843e927aa47a.thumb.jpg.8e217a0d90657ab7baafc20453f4936d.jpg20170220_Fastlane_tagteam--6d931ba09870ef4b0872e67980c0ff06.thumb.jpg.3c7c0fc79370f7960c61cc9248ba7971.jpg20170215_Fastlane_NevilleGallagher--813385b353052187a3bf59173d245772.thumb.jpg.477ab600340c274ebf44db15b144aad4.jpg20170215_Fastlane_ZAYNSAMOA--43f976a166046162517a9d25c740c9bb.thumb.jpg.5e0efb01cc9a4b95e6a81b88fc894703.jpg20170215_Fastlane_Bayleychar--b0b64bdd7a93e2af2be84ab94a5c6e2c.thumb.jpg.b5e1fdecbfab64f1eb1d4b5c296a8a24.jpg20170214_Fastlane_ROMANSTROWMAN--33576e6a413f0bdc13490a3903f902a5.thumb.jpg.78b1aa96b8b5d1966f67dd34145bfcab.jpg20170214_Fastlane_KOGOLDBERG--8db8a44e4c159ce5e85c38cf6594d9c3.thumb.jpg.90a9f499d478b4161306f2856bb6340f.jpg

wwe_fastlane_2017_official_poster_by_jahar145-daz8i55.thumb.jpg.c27671c514c38374cbfef89be95630ab.jpg

Official matches and all other relevant information will be updated once available.

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Alright, I've got this back on track for now. A couple of booking swerves have forced me to change bits of the thread, which I guess is actually a good thing as we don't want the product to be predictable. 

Anyway, tag title match and women's title match announced. Change of graphics and a bizarre looking Goldberg orientated PPV Poster. 

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For all that it's going to be a throwaway PPV in terms of results, and some of it will be quite predictable, it's one I'm actually quite interested in just to see what they do.  

Do they go completely mental and have Bailey retain or do they just go down the tired PPV streak route?

Do they have Goldberg completely Brock out Owens in seconds?  Anything else would make Lesnar look pretty bad, but I'm not sure they can really justify another 2 minute match just to keep the story up and get the belt on Goldberg.  Do they extend it with interference?  If they're following the story there's really only one way it could go, but it wouldn't be the first time they've put in a stupid swerve.

Who do they have win between Reigns and Strowman?  Will their massive hard-on for the former lead to a first clean defeat for BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUN?  Most likely we'll get a non-finish to protect both, but they could just have Braun go out and beat him clean in the middle of the ring.  That'd be interesting for many reasons.

Apart from that it's going to be the usual filler, but there's definitely more matches I'm interested in seeing than on the Elimination Chamber card.

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Sasha is gonna cost Bayley the match I think, leading to another triple threat at Wrestlemania where Bayley pins Sasha to regain the title. Charlotte can instead brag about never being pinned or submitting in a PPV match for a while in that case.

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That'd be the worst decision they can make. It would negate the whole "she can't lose on PPV" thing which is a main thing in the women's title at the moment, and when she is beaten at Mania, it doesn't mean even nearly as much. They'd be as well just having her lose for the good it would do.

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Charlotte to win clean I reckon. Put on a great match and as Bayley is recovering from the loss to the ovation of the crowd for her efforts, her best friend Sasha comes out to console her, only then to turn. 

Then whether it's a triple threat or fatal-4-way at Mania, Bayley would have to overcome at least 2 heels in the match and will make the inevitable victory even better.

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Makes sense to have it as a 4-way at WM.  It's unlikely they're going to have two separate RAW womens matches on the card given everything else they've got to do.  Have Charlotte win - because it would be stupid not to - and go from there.  Not sure if Banks should turn yet - 3 heels and 1 face could definitely work if they do it correctly, but I like the balanced face/heel dynamic, have Bayley win, then Banks turns on her after to set up the next few months.  Charlotte vs Jaxx too.

I don't think we'll see a triple threat, either a one-on-one or a 4-way so it doesn't exclude just one person

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