WWE Fastlane 2018

WWE Fastlane 2018

Columbus, OH - March 2018

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, AJ Styles holds the WWE Championship, Bobby Roode was the United States Champion, and Charlotte held the SmackDown Women's Championship. On the tag side of things, The Usos are the reigning SmackDown Tag Team Champions.

COMMENTATORS: Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, and Tom Phillips

If you've been watching SmackDown Live regularly as of late, I'm not really sure why you'd do that. A year and a half or so ago, when Vince McMahon split the roster (again) to form two separate brands, SmackDown broke out to an early lead as the go-to show for great wrestlers like AJ Styles, great characters like The Miz, and some of the best up-and-comers in the company in American Alpha and Becky Lynch. With Shinsuke Nakamura, Rusev, and Kevin Owens added, the 2-hour show was the WWE's best TV program for most of 2017.

And then it stopped being that. The reasons for the show's plunge in quality are numerous - 
from the one-dimensional, unpopular push of Jinder Mahal to the lackluster and endless AJ Styles/Kevin Owens feud to the anti-productive treatment of Rusev and the aforementioned Lynch - but the end result is singular: SmackDown has maybe never been colder.

Which made Sunday's FastLane pay-per-view an important opportunity for the WWE to remind fans why they should care about SmackDown when RAW's major storylines are clearly grabbing every square centimeter of the WrestleMania spotlight's shine.

Opening things up was 2018 Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura squaring off against Rusev. While Rusev is technically a heel, he got a huge ovation from the Columbus crowd. Nakamura was equally over, though, considering the initial buzz for his signing and the fact that he's coming off the Rumble win, he should definitely be more over. Chris Jericho mentioned in one of his books that during his first year with the company, there was a question as to whether he could maintain heat during his matches and Nakamura is likely under similar scrutiny from some agents as this match started out fairly hot, cooled off, and then built back up in its final minutes (largely thanks to Rusev's nasty superkick cut-offs more than anything Nakamura did). This was better than Nakamura's matches against Jinder Mahal, but that's not too big of a surprise considering Rusev is probably a top 10 worker in the whole company. Good, not great match. (3/5)

The United States Championship was on the line next with Bobby Roode defending the strap against Randy Orton.The story here is that the Viper was on a personal quest to win the one title he's never held. Roode is a methodical worker, Orton is a methodical worker, so when you combine these elements, you're not going to get a match with loads of high spots. Still, I thought they did a nice job of keeping it highly physical and competitive. It wasn't the most interesting match, but it had a couple genuinely great moments, including good work on the barricade and a big superplex by Orton that had been foreshadowed earlier in the match. The finish was also sharp, though I'm not very interested in what the post-match angle is pointing to. A Roode/Orton/Mahal three-way dance just doesn't do a single thing for anyone involved at this point as Roode is in desperate need of firmer positioning as a heel and Orton and Mahal feuding again is like microwaving last night's dinner when last night's dinner was woeful gruel. This match wasn't bad, in fact it probably exceeded my expectations, but it wasn't anything special either. (2.5/5)

Becky Lynch and Naomi teamed up to take on on Natalya and Carmella next. This felt like a TV/house show match more than a "PPV quality" contest and would've benefitted from some sort of stakes, even something silly like the losers having to come out on SmackDown in the winners' tee-shirts or whatever. With no stakes, the match became about Nattie and Carmella's alliance, which, again, would feel "bigger" or more meaningful if they made the extra effort to wear matching attire or have a name (the way LayCool did in their prime). Lynch got the hot tag (as expected) and woke the crowd up, but the closing minutes of this were noticeably sloppy. I'm not sure what direction the SmackDown women's division is heading towards, but I'm definitely bummed that it does not seem to be one in which Lynch is given the positioning she deserves as she's easily the brand's most universally beloved women's wrestler - far more so than Charlotte, whose babyface run has been a flop. (1.5/5)

A nice video recap of the epic Usos/New Day feud aired before their match. These teams nearly always have great matches and this one started out fun enough, though the speed at which they started busting out their trademark spots should've been the first hint that this bout was not going to have a definitive finish. After a huge Usos splash to the outside that took out the entire New Day, the Bludgeon Brothers showed up and proceeded to lay waste to all 5 of the match participants, decimating them in impressive fashion. How many multi-man matches is WrestleMania going to feature? As a match, this wasn't anything worth seeking out, but the Bludgeon Brothers' beatdown was entertaining enough, especially the final spot - a powerbomb on the steel steps that caused Woods to have to leave on a stretcher. (2/5)

A video package aired, replaying Roman Reigns' impassioned promo against Lesnar from RAW. I'm not necessarily feeling like the build-up to this match ("Part Time Lesnar" vs. "Full Time Reigns") is WrestleMania-worthy writing, but I believe the match will be good so I'm not going to poo-poo it too much.

Backstage, AJ guarantees victory before getting interrupted by Shinsuke Nakamura. Between all these segments, by the way, the cameras kept returning to ringside to heavily, heavily sell the Bludgeon Brothers beatdown.

Next up - Charlotte defending the SmackDown Women's Championship against relative newcomer Ruby Riott. I had not been following this feud, so I was thankful for the video recap and, at least on review, this feels almost like a Mania-esque storyline with a clear character-driven conflict. I've been plenty critical of Charlotte's babyface run and the reaction she got during the pre-match introductions said it all as this match started off heatless. Things picked up as the match wore on, though, especially once Becky and Naomi came to provide back-up for Charlotte. Riott's submissions looked legitimately painful (and her trash talk added even more to the drama) while Charlotte came off as sympathetic for maybe the first time I've seen since she joined the Blue Brand. Not every sequence was flawless - everything they did outside the ring, from Charlotte getting shoved to the guardrail to Ruby's trepidatious dive, was ugly - but the bulk of the execution was good to great (that Riott STO, the face-first crash into the second buckle by Flair, even Morgan and Logan's interference). By the time this match became a pure 1-on-1 contest, the crowd was fully engaged and popped nicely for Flair's Alabama Slam into the top buckle, a move I'm not sure I'd seen her bust out previously. From here, Flair hit the spear and then locked in the FIgure 8 for the victory. Arguably the match of the night and a career-making performance out of Riott who definitely deserves a bit of spotlight after Mania dies down. I'm also going to add a half-point for Asuka showing up in the post-match. (3.5/5)

Main event time - AJ Styles defending the WWE World Championship against John Cena, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens. I was not expecting this match to be great as the Zayn/Owens storyline hasn't interested me in months and Corbin and Ziggler just seem completely out of place anywhere near the main event after the 2017s they had. After a subtly great performance at Elimination Chamber and the Royal Rumble, I was curious how much of this match would be devoted to teasing a Cena victory, but after an initial flurry, he fell into his role in the match and didn't overshadow his competitors too much. If anything, the stars of this match were Zayn and Owens, whose interactions with Shane McMahon (while not perfectly executed) were definitely the biggest story coming out of the contest. As I wrote multiple times in 2017, the WWE has basically mastered the art of the multi-man match, packing them with one tight, trademark offense-oriented sequence after another to give everyone their shine. While I'm not sick of the formula just yet, I do hope that, post-Mania, they get back in the habit of building more one-on-one matches around personal conflicts and clashes of character rather than just turning every contest into the type of matches you and your buddies would've had playing WCW vs. nWo: Revenge on N64 in your parents' basement 20 years ago. I haven't seen many reviewers give this a full 4 stars and I'm not going to either - as good and fun as this match was, we've just seen this type of match too many times in the past calendar year for it to feel fresh and "must watch." (3.5/5)


With a Kwang Score of 2.67-out-of-5, the 2018 edition of Fastlane never sunk to the lows of Elimination Chamber's Wyatt/Hardy match, but also didn't quite hit the same level of madcap, chaotic fun that Braun Strowman delivered in that show's main event. It was a good-not great show all around that would've benefited from one more unexpected surprise appearance (Asuka being the sole "guest star" on the show) - Undertaker? Mysterio? - or even an upset victory (maybe Roode should've stolen the win - the post-match angle could've been executed nearly identically anyway) to keep fans guessing. Rousey's appearance at Elimination Chamber added relevance to that show in a way that, say, the Deadman showing up, could've done on this night. Hell, I would've been down with even Mark Henry, Big Show, or Cass showing up to announce they're entering the Andre Battle Royal - at least that would've served a purpose (which I'm not sure can be said for the womens' tag match). With no "must see" matches on this card and only the brief Asuka/Charlotte moment feeling like an important step towards Mania, I'm giving it a...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver