WWE Fastlane 2015 Results: Re-Booking Full Card from PPV
In the wake of World Wrestling Entertainment's Fastlane pay-per-view Sunday night, fans have a much clearer idea of what they can expect from the WrestleMania 31 card thanks to the determination of a new No. 1 contender, the issuing of a challenge from "The Vigilante" Sting and the revelation of Bray Wyatt's next target.
In the night's main event, Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan to become the undisputed top contender to Brock Lesnar's WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The win erases a disappointing Royal Rumble victory for the juggernaut of The Shield and puts him on a collision course with the most dominant man in sports-entertainment.
More importantly, Reigns and Bryan provided fans with the best match of the night. Unfortunately, it was a rare in-ring highlight on a night where matches disappointed far more than they wowed and excited.
Rusev shocked the world by defeating John Cena when the former 15-time heavyweight champion passed out in the clutches of The Accolade.
Tyson Kidd and Cesaro defeated The Usos to capture the WWE Tag Team Championships, Nikki Bella successfully retailed her Divas Championship against Paige, and Dean Ambrose stupidly got himself disqualified in the Intercontinental Championship match against Bad News Barrett, ensuring that his streak of losing on pay-per-view continued.
When WWE presents a disappointing show from an in-ring perspective, it is easy to point to the workers themselves and blame them for everything that went wrong. While they deserve their share of the blame, there are oftentimes other factors that contributed to the overwhelming results.
Now, less than one full day removed from the event, here are a few ways to re-book each match on the card to ensure a better product than fans were "treated" to Sunday night.
6-Man Tag Team Match: Dolph Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan vs. the Authority
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The opening match of Sunday's pay-per-view pitted Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback against The Authority's Seth Rollins, Kane and Big Show in the culmination of a feud that has been ongoing since last November.
While the match was a solid choice for an opener, especially given the connection stars such as Ziggler and Ryback have with the audience, it closely resembled a match fans had seen countless times on free television. In fact, it can be argued that the contest failed to live up to some of the previous matches between these six Superstars.
The heels won the match, sucking some of the life out of the bout, but Randy Orton's long-awaited return and RKOs to J&J Security and Kane helped inject some energy back into the arena.
How would one go about re-booking a match that was not particularly bad and featured a newsworthy return at its end?
Re-Booking the Match
Rollins was the most over heel in the match, the only one to get a reaction from the Memphis crowd. By the time the contest reached its climax, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, Kane and Big Show again dominated, leading the Big Red Monster to pick up a pinfall over Ziggler.
Why WWE has put so much effort into protecting Kane and Big Show over the last month, especially at its two pay-per-view presentations, is a mystery. Fans consider both Superstars old and overexposed, and the lack of reaction to their entrance should be all the proof Vince McMahon and WWE Creative need to come to the conclusion that Show and Kane are nowhere near as effective as they once were.
Rollins should have scored the pin, thus looking even stronger when Orton hit the ring, looking for revenge for the beatdown he endured at the hands of The Authority last November.
Easily the biggest star on the heel side of things, this was Rollins' match to win.
Goldust vs. Stardust
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Goldust and Stardust's budding rivalry intensified on the February 16 episode of Monday Night Raw when the latter betrayed his older brother, leaving him lying following the Cross Rhodes finishing maneuver.
In a brother vs. brother match that fans have waited nearly four years to see, the contest proved to be less Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart and more like the underwhelming matches between the Hardys. The Rhodes delivered a slow, boring and uninteresting match that failed to wake up a quiet Memphis crowd.
The older sibling ultimately picked up the win with a crucifix pin, though a botched count by the official left fans in a state of shock and finished the match on a down note.
A dejected and stunned Stardust made his way to the backstage area, where he later attacked Goldust in front of their own father.
Re-Booking the Match
It was far too early in the story for this match to take place and have any chance at getting the audience to invest themselves in it. After all, Gold and Stardust have spent the last few weeks losing every match they competed in. From out of nowhere, WWE Creative was suddenly asking fans to now care about the performers again.
The contest was poorly conceived and even more poorly executed. The action was non-existent and left a sour taste in the mouths of any fan hoping to see a great singles bout between two critically acclaimed workers.
Waiting until WrestleMania for this match and replacing it with The Ascension vs. The Prime Time Players would have been much, much better for both Goldust and Stardust, whose prospects of earning a contest on the WrestleMania card took a major hit Sunday night.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos vs. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro
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There was every reason to expect a good match out of The Usos, Kidd and Cesaro on Sunday night. After all, the two teams had worked relentlessly over the last few weeks to not only tell their story but also deliver some of the finest work on television.
Given the considerable talent of the men involved, expectations were heightened.
The two teams did not disappoint.
Did they wrestle a classic tag match? No, but what they did do was provide fans with the best match of the card to that point, one featuring nonstop action late in the contest. At numerous points, it looked as though the champions might retain, but a clean pinfall win for Kidd gave he and Cesaro the victory and the titles.
Re-Booking The Match
This one was fine, with nothing of note needing to be changed.
Kidd and Cesaro, two superb professional wrestlers, beat the champions clean and captured the titles. In a sports-entertainment landscape in which WWE Creative often overthinks things, leading to ridiculous finishes involving sparking television monitors and mask-wearing choirboys, this one was effective and put the new titleholders over as the top duo in tag team wrestling.
Divas Championship Match: Paige vs. Nikki Bella
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After weeks of being pranked and humiliated by The Bella Twins, Paige entered the FedExForum looking to gain a measure of revenge against her tormentors and wrest the Divas Championship away from Nikki.
Unfortunately, a sly champion and some underhanded methods helped Nikki retain her title and guarantee a trip to WrestleMania with the top prize in women's wrestling in her possession.
Paige mounted a comeback late and appeared well on her way to taking the title away from her rival when she found herself thrown face-first into the turnbuckle, rolled up and then pinned with a handful of her tights grasped by Nikki.
Disappointed by the outcome and determined to plead her case to the official, Paige had no choice but to watch from inside the squared circle as Nikki celebrated her successful-though-tainted title defense.
Re-Booking The Match
Ideally, Paige would have captured the Divas Championship Sunday night, but the finish suggests that her story with The Bella Twins is far from over.
Still, the finish was awful. It was clunky and anticlimactic. Worst of all, it undid all of the work accomplished by the women, who did everything they could to deliver an entertaining contest in the time given to them.
Paige will remain in the hunt for the Divas title but will likely have to deal with some sort of match with multiple Divas come WrestleMania if last year's show was any indication.
Intercontinental Championship Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Bad News Barrett
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Barrett's return from injury has been anything but spectacular.
Since coming back to WWE television, he has lost more than he has won, and the Bad News character that helped him get over in the first place has been irreparably damaged thanks to WWE Creative toying with its foundation via an uninspired mockery of TMZ.
His feud with Ambrose, if nothing else, had given him the opportunity to work with a guy management trusts enough to headline a few pay-per-view events, as The Lunatic Fringe did late in 2014.
Unfortunately, the match Sunday night was a disjointed mess, with Barrett proving to be a cowardly heel who attempted to run rather than stay and fight. The story ultimately overwhelmed the quality of the match, and fans were left with yet another disappointing contest in a long line of them.
Ambrose got himself disqualified after refusing to break at the count of five, then proceeded to flatten Barrett with Dirty Deeds before leaving with the championship.
Re-Booking the Match
Ambrose and Barrett have styles that should make for a good, competitive match if allowed the opportunity. Instead, their match Sunday night was a complicated mess that tried too hard to tell what should have been a simple story.
The Lunatic Fringe is going to win the title eventually, perhaps as soon as WrestleMania. Why book a finish that hurts both competitors and gives fans another match to point to when discussing the disappointing nature of the show? Why not allow the wrestlers to have a strong match, culminating with Ambrose's title win?
Barrett is in need of a reset, especially taking into account all of the recent losses, so having him drop the title and regain some momentum would not be a bad thing.
United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Rusev
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One of the most interesting matches on the card thanks to the numerous booking directions the company could conceivably take, John Cena vs. Rusev was the culmination of The Bulgarian Brute's year-long reign of dominance over WWE.
Cena, staying true to the story told in the weeks leading into the show, proved that he was not an old man incapable of hanging with the company's resident Super-Athlete. Instead, he nearly became the first Superstar to pick up a pinfall or submission over Rusev.
But the U.S. champion proved resilient, fighting out of every submission and pinfall attempt before capitalizing on interference from Lana, delivering a low blow and superkick and forcing Cena to pass out in the clutches of the Accolade.
The sight of Rusev standing tall in the center of the ring, an unconscious Cena lying at his feet and the Russian flag hanging high overhead is one few could have expected. Based on the crowd reaction, the fans in Memphis certainly did not expect to see the leader of the Cenation defeated in the manner that he was.
Re-Booking The Match
On first glance, it could be argued that the low blow was unnecessary and that a clean win would have done even more for Rusev. But when one takes the story the competitors told into account, it makes perfect sense and, more importantly, sets up a potential rematch for WrestleMania.
Rusev claimed that Cena was old, broken down and unable to hang with him. But at the end of day, not only did Cena hang with Rusev, but he was seconds away from defeating him before Rusev delivered a low blow and picked up the win that way.
I would change nothing about this match. It was clearly the match of the night at that point, and one that had Rusev leaving looking like a million dollars regardless of how he won.
No. 1 Contender's Match: Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan
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The biggest match of the night had major WrestleMania implications. Reigns and Bryan battled for the right to determine which Superstar would challenge Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the grandest stage in the industry.
For 20 minutes, the two top contenders to the biggest prize in the business delivered a hard-hitting match. Bryan attempted to outwrestle Reigns, while the juggernaut used his speed, strength and ferocity to wear down the bearded leader of the Yes Movement.
In the end, it was a spear from Reigns that both ended Bryan's night and cashed his ticket to the main event of WrestleMania.
The handshake at the end of the bout was perfect, as was Bryan warning Reigns, "You better kick his ass," said in reference to Lesnar.
Reigns celebrated to end the broadcast, the recipient of a reaction much different than that of the one he was subjected to in Philadelphia.
Re-Booking The Match
There was not much to dislike about the match between Reigns and Bryan. Some will continue to whine and complain about the fact that Reigns, not Bryan, is heading to WrestleMania to compete in the main event, but there is no pleasing everyone.
The only thing that needs to be addressed regarding the main event of Fastlane is that the match was essentially a traditional wrestling bout, completely flying in the face of the tone set on the February 16 episode of Raw.
There, Bryan and Reigns brawled around the ringside area, the tension between them boiling over. As a result of that pull-apart segment, fans had every right to expect a much more heated, much more intense match from the competitors Sunday night.
Those who did had to be disappointed by the rather straightforward contest they witnessed instead.
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