WWE Fastlane 2017: Biggest Themes Established in Build to Event

Fastlane 2017 will be the final pit-stop before WrestleMania 33. Unlike SmackDown's rush to Elimination Chamber, the Raw roster has had much more time to sit back and work out the plot details heading into the event.

Of course, in typical WWE fashion, some of what makes up the currently advertised card for the show has been phoned in, while other elements have had to change on the fly due to injuries and adjustments to what will happen in Orlando in April.

For example, a match as big as the clash of titans between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman has essentially consisted merely of two large guys wanting to fight each other and nothing more.

Likewise, unless you're particularly invested in 205 Live and the cruiserweight division at face value, you've likely not paid much attention to the relative bare-bones content used to build the feud between Gentleman Jack Gallagher and Neville, despite how that should nevertheless be an entertaining match.

That being said, there have still been some storylines with a consistent direction WWE has been leading us to.

Here is a rundown of the biggest themes leading up to Fastlane 2017.

The Self-Destruction of Jeri-KO

Some dissension between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens had been teased over the course of their relationship, but everything always snapped back to the two of them remaining steadfast in their unity.

All that came to an end when Jericho volunteered Owens to defend the Universal Championship against Goldberg.

It was obvious Owens had no true intentions of facing the nigh-unstoppable juggernaut, but once his best friend's mouth put him in that position, the writing was on the wall.

This was solidified in the Festival of Friendship, where Jericho appeared to take it all in stride by having Gillberg come out as a joke, rather than treating it as a serious issue. Because of that, Owens turned his back on his former best friend and cast him aside.

With the way Goldberg has been booked throughout the history of his career, it should come as no surprise that it feels as though a black cloud looms over Owens' head.

Since his return to WWE, Goldberg has utterly destroyed the most credible wrestler on the roster on numerous occasions by squashing Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series and eliminating him from the Royal Rumble.

Although Owens has tried to keep a cool head about things by saying he will prove to Goldberg that superheroes don't exist, the WWE Universe is fully anticipating the end of his run as top dog of Monday Night Raw.

Without Jericho by his side, Owens feels as though he has removed an albatross, but he is setting himself up for failure.

An impending Goldberg Universal Championship reign is essentially inevitable based on not just the pure confidence the former two-time champion has, but also the animosity between Jeri-KO to build to an encounter between the two at WrestleMania 33.

Tag Team Triple Trouble

After The New Day reached their goal of surpassing Demolition's record for the longest tag team title reign in the history of WWE, the creative team quickly hit the fast-forward button on two new sets of champions.

Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods lasted a whopping 483 days with the belts, but their successors weren't quite so lucky, holding them for a mere 10th of that time span.

While the tension in the partnership of Cesaro and Sheamus seemed to be over as the two found a synergy that led to them dethroning The New Day, just 42 days later, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson usurped that spot on top of the mountain.

During their obligatory rematch, Enzo Amore and Big Cass were ringside to scope out the competition, and to indicate their hopes to become the next tag team in line for a title shot, when they found themselves thrust in the action.

By interfering in the match, they cost Cesaro and Sheamus a potential victory, causing a rift between the two teams who had been at least cordial beforehand.

Since then, tension has been high in the tag team division on Raw—at least for the teams that matter, as nobody is pondering the whereabouts of The Golden Truth or The Shining Stars in this title picture.

Enzo and Cass were successful in properly earning a true championship opportunity, but this clearly didn't sit well with The Celtic Warrior and The Swiss Superman.

Will there be new champions crowned at Fastlane, or will Sheamus and Cesaro be swept up in their emotions and unable to sit back and watch the match go down without their involvement?

If they interfere, who would draw their ire more: the two men who took the belts away from them or the two men standing in their way of getting them back?

Outsiders in the Women's Championship Scene

For a series of singles matches between Charlotte Flair and Bayley, the Raw Women's Championship sure has revolved quite a bit around the presence of other women, hasn't it?

In such a short time in the company, Charlotte already has one of the best records for women wrestlers now that she has held the championship on four separate occasions and maintained an impressive undefeated streak on pay-per-views.

One of the reasons she's been able to hold that title for so long has been help from her cohort, Dana Brooke, who made her return after a seven-week absence in an attempt to help Charlotte retain her title once more.

To counteract her involvement, though, Sasha Banks came to the rescue and followed her neutralization of Brooke with a stiff shot to Charlotte with her crutch, allowing Bayley to become the new champion.

Since then, the argument has been made that Bayley is not an honorable champion and shouldn't be the rightful titleholder as she won through nefarious means.

Of course, the hypocrisy of the situation is the root of the matter, but it did prompt the question of whether or not two wrongs make a right.

Bayley and Banks came to the decision that essentially all is fair in love and war, almost as if karma was striking Charlotte for her previous misdeeds.

Credit: WWE.com

While all this controversy was going on, Nia Jax remained confident that, if she were to be given an opportunity, she would destroy all of the "little girls" in the division and reign supreme.

She'll have her chance to take her frustrations out on Sasha Banks once more, while Bayley attempts to overcome Charlotte and most likely her ringside stooge, Dana Brooke.

With Sasha having thrice won the title from Charlotte on Raw just to drop it to her the next pay-per-view, can Bayley survive the curse her friend has put on the belt?

It seems to be a certainty that this match won't go down without an appearance by at least one if not all three of the outsiders, and where it leads going into WrestleMania shouldn't be much of a shocker.

Who Can Stop Samoa Joe?

Finally, there is the whirlwind surrounding Samoa Joe's call-up to the main roster.

Right from the start, Joe positioned himself at the top of the pecking order by taking out Seth Rollins, both within the storyline as well as the unplanned injury which may have killed the likely match against Triple H at WrestleMania.

It appeared WWE was heading toward a match between Rollins and Joe for Fastlane, but with The Architect out of commission, the next best option on the table became Sami Zayn.

That feud spawned out of what was essentially the same situation, wherein Joe completely wrecked Zayn to prove his dominance and to make a statement.

Since Zayn is able to step in the ring, he's tried fighting back, presenting us with another underdog feud similar to what he just went through with Braun Strowman.

The bigger theme with this story is definitely the destructive nature Joe has inside of him rather than the fighting spirit of Zayn we've seen before. Since that's the case, this is a match to showcase Joe as a top contender on Raw with a definite victory in the books.

In some ways, Fastlane can be considered an event that can be skipped as the biggest outcome of the night will undoubtedly be Goldberg's title win everyone already sees coming, but there's always room to turn things on a dime one last time before the biggest show of the year.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.