WWE Fastlane 2015 Results: Biggest Highlights and Low Points
The pit stop along the Road to WrestleMania 31 was the 2015 WWE Fastlane pay-per-view event, and now that the event is finished and the results are in, what happened?
Fans gathered in the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee, to essentially bide some time and set up a few of the details going into the biggest show of the year.
Not only would the No. 1 contender to Brock Lesnar's WWE World Heavyweight Championship be decided, but Triple H would get his confrontation with WCW legend Sting, John Cena would attempt to dethrone Rusev and more.
Going into this event, it was clear that it could go one way or another: Either it would consist of numerous game-changing results that could reshape WrestleMania, or it would go down as nothing more than an unnecessary waste of time.
How did the finished product turn out? Are there more pros or cons? What is worth going back and watching if you missed out on the show?
It's time to break down not only the biggest highlights, but also the biggest low points of Fastlane, presented in order of appearance.
Low Point: Kickoff Pre-Show MizTV Segment with Paul Heyman
1 of 9
Pretty much any time a spot on a pay-per-view is taken up by a promo instead of a match, it is a waste of time.
There are so many shows that are filled with so many promos as it is, so unless something big and important happens in it, there is really no reason not to have a segment like this on Raw or SmackDown instead.
This edition of MizTV consisted of nothing that people would need to go back and watch if they missed it.
Were there any special announcements made? Not in the slightest bit.
Did Brock Lesnar show up in any capacity? Absolutely not.
At the very least, this should have been used as a means to have some physical altercation between The Miz and Damien Mizdow, but even that didn't occur.
If you wanted to see Paul Heyman's face or watch Mizdow sit in the corner of the ring, then your wishes were granted, but if you wanted anything of substantial value, you're out of luck.
Highlight: Six-Man Tag Team Battle
2 of 9
While this match was by no means something that will go down in history as particularly memorable, it was a solid way to open the show.
This is the type of fight that is frequently the main event of an episode of Raw or SmackDown, although the quality was upgraded a little bit because it did not need to end with a disqualification.
Instead, it was capped off by the return of Randy Orton, who will be seeking vengeance for the way things went down between himself and The Authority.
It can be argued that this return wasn't much of a surprise—as evidenced by the crowd chanting for it well before it happened—but that shouldn't take away from what was a well-rounded segment.
Going into this, fans shouldn't have expected more than what they were given, so unless your hopes were really high and that contributed to your disappointment, this should have been perfectly adequate for the start of the show.
Low Point: Goldust vs. Stardust
3 of 9
Sibling rivalries are almost always an easy story to tell, and when you have odd characters such as Goldust and Stardust, there is an even bigger chance the feud can be good.
However, this match was awkward, to say the least.
The pacing was rather slow to the point where it was audible that some fans were chanting "boring" and the crowd just wasn't as pumped as they should have been.
Even worse, the ending came out of nowhere and seems to have been botched in some capacity, whether due to the referee's counting or just poor planning on how it should be executed to begin with.
Before this match started, there was a promo building it up where Goldust promised his father, Dusty Rhodes, that he would do his best not to hurt his brother, but that he would have to beat him to the point where he would stop wearing the paint.
To say that none of that beating happened here would be an understatement, since the match was mostly comprised of Stardust being in charge and Goldust reversing some maneuvers.
These two have so much more to give, and this feud has considerably more potential than what was exhibited here, which makes it such a disappointment.
Highlight: Tyson Kidd and Cesaro Win the WWE Tag Team Championship
4 of 9
The four talented men in this match had a handicap going into their segment, as they were following the mess of a match between Stardust and Goldust.
If you were not as into this title defense as some others because of that, it is understandable, but if you can go back and watch it again in a few days, it will likely hold up a lot better.
The Usos have been the glue of the tag team division for quite some time, virtually always delivering quality performances.
Paired up with Tyson Kidd and Cesaro—two wrestlers who are no slouches, either—this was a good combination of spots and some technical wrestling as well.
Overall, this was an entertaining midcard match that also happened to have a title change, which usually gives a little boost to almost anything.
Highlight: Sting and Triple H Meet Face-to-Face
5 of 9
Anyone savvy to the way WWE works knew exactly what would happen here, as it was obvious that a promo would lead into a physical confrontation that in turn resulted in a match being announced for WrestleMania.
Thankfully, this was kept short, as the only thing that could have hurt the segment would have been if it went on for far too long.
After all these years of not seeing Sting in a WWE ring, fans are eating it up whenever they get an opportunity to see him, so that right there would be a highlight to a lot of viewers.
In particular, it was fun to see the parallel between Triple H's sledgehammer and Sting's baseball bat come into play, teasing what will likely be a gimmick match of sorts at the biggest show of the year.
Low Point: Nikki Bella vs. Paige
6 of 9
It is pretty much a running gag that the Divas division will end up being a low point of the night and sadly, it is a prediction that almost always comes to fruition.
Both Paige and Nikki Bella have had better matches in the past and are more talented than what was shown tonight.
In fact, the Divas division in general is better than whatever ends up happening at pay-per-views or on the main roster television shows.
If you are interested in watching a good match involving the women of WWE, you should check out NXT TakeOver: Rival as opposed to Fastlane.
This was rushed, and as a byproduct of that, it was filled with botches and a lackluster ending that easily makes it one of the worst segments of the night.
Middle of the Road: Bad News Barrett vs. Dean Ambrose
7 of 9
The Intercontinental Championship match was equal parts highlight and low point, depending on what part of the segment you're talking about.
The match itself was a fun brawl that could easily be placed on the highlight spectrum, but this took a turn for the worse when it comes to the booking of the ending.
Instead of Bad News Barrett retaining the title with a random Bullhammer out of nowhere or Dean Ambrose walking away with the belt in his hands, the members of the WWE creative team decided to have their cake and eat it too.
Ambrose was disqualified for refusing to listen to the referee, meaning Barrett would retain via disqualification. However, Ambrose would just simply take the title with him and leave.
Booking like this is exactly the type of obstruction that turned Fastlane into a setup event rather than its own entity.
Low Point: Rusev vs. John Cena
8 of 9
As stated before with other matches, it can definitely go down in history as a mistake for WWE to have had this match take place at Fastlane and then once more at WrestleMania.
While nothing is confirmed for next month's event and there is still time to build up some anticipation for that match, it's hard to imagine that it did nothing but hinder that match by having this one take place beforehand.
Essentially, this followed the format of some other things at Fastlane, where WWE wanted it to be more of a prequel to WrestleMania rather than its own show.
By no means was this the worst match in history or anything of the sort, but if you don't hold back with your criticism, ask yourself whether this was necessary.
The ending of the match—which saw Lana distract the referee, allowing Rusev to low-blow John Cena—was clearly done as yet another stall to give them a reason to have a rematch at WrestleMania.
Just like with Dean Ambrose and Bad News Barrett's match, a shady finish like this just kills anything that came before it.
Now, fans have already seen what Rusev and Cena can do in the ring together, so there's no speculation and anticipation of watching that for the first time.
Instead, this is the same story that's been done time and time again, with Cena looking strong and being given a chance to spend the next few weeks complaining about wanting another chance to prove himself and get revenge.
On top of this pointless outcome, Cena's reputation for being less than quiet when calling out the moves was in full swing, as he was so loud that a good portion of the match was told to the viewer before it even happened.
All in all, what was accomplished here?
Rusev had a chance to defeat Cena and look really strong, but WWE wouldn't allow that, so it doesn't do any favors for him.
Cena takes a loss and will put his character on repeat in the same story that has been told for years, so that doesn't really change the game for him, either.
We've already seen a full match with these two, and it wasn't something stellar like Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, so people won't be clamoring for a sequel.
The only way WWE had anything to gain by having this match was to provide a strong enough setup for WrestleMania to justify repeating it, but that wasn't achieved.
This was a failure that hurts WrestleMania 31 and it was completely avoidable in every way.
Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan
9 of 9
WWE took a risk by putting these two men together, as it could have spelled disaster with the audience being even more upset about Bryan's loss.
As such, there were plenty of opportunities for WWE to overthink the situation and the creative team to get in its own way, booking things in a fashion that made the situation worse, such as with Rusev and John Cena.
Problems could have occurred with either man looking too dominant or too weak. Reigns could have won on a fluke and seemed like a joke heading into WrestleMania, or the crowd could have been effectively told to shut up and deal with it by making Bryan job in subordination.
Although the crowd wasn't as hot for this as expected, it was nice to see that it wasn't solely a story of booing Reigns, which helped make this an actual decent match to sit through.
Now, WWE can move forward with the main event of WrestleMania and try to figure out the best way to utilize Bryan as well as Reigns.
What did you think were the best and worst parts of the night?
Is there anything in particular that stood out to you as the biggest highlight or low point of the bunch?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Anthony Mango is the owner-operator of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment as well as the host of its podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
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