WWE Fastlane 2019 will be headlined by Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch with major WrestleMania 35 implications, Daniel Bryan vs. Kevin Owens for the WWE Championship and Roman Reigns’ first match since October 2018.
The final pay-per-view before WrestleMania is certainly a newsworthy one as it will mark the reunion of The Shield, determine whether Ronda Rousey faces just Flair or both Flair and Lynch at WrestleMania and could potentially result in multiple new champions being crowned. Overall, the event’s card is a fairly solid one, but there is nothing all that captivating on a show that is really just an overlooked stepping stone to the biggest pay-per-view of the year. The good news is that some of WWE’s major storylines seem to be resonating with fans as viewership for Raw and SmackDown has rebounded in recent weeks.
The bad news, however, is that the quality of the red brand in particular still isn’t all that great and there are a number of major WWE stars who have no path to WrestleMania, including Braun Strowman and Finn Balor. Ideally, Fastlane will be a very newsworthy pay-per-view that gets the ball rolling on several marquee WrestleMania storylines because time is running out to create some compelling storylines for many of WWE’s biggest names on the way to its flagship pay-per-view.
Let’s take a look at five smart decisions WWE must make at Fastlane in route to WrestleMania 35.
Shane McMahon Turns Heel
With Shane McMahon and The Miz reportedly set to face each other in singles action at WrestleMania 35, there are two ways WWE can get there: Either Shane turns on The Miz at Fastlane, or The Miz turns on Shane.
The latter is the more likely option. However, the former is the more intriguing one. Given that it’s a virtual certainty that The Miz and Shane’s tag team will implode soon, why not swerve fans by having Shane turn instead? Fastlane will be taking place in The Miz’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, so there is an easy and logical story to tell here of The Miz getting shafted in front of his hometown crowd as his father sits ringside to watch it all go down.
WWE reportedly views Shane as a sizable draw, but his drawing power has long been minimized due to the staleness of his babyface character, which has clearly run its course. Shane badly needs a heel turn, and with The Miz getting surprisingly over as a babyface, there’s no need to turn him just yet. The better story is to let The Miz finally get a true WrestleMania moment when he, as a babyface, beats Shane in one of the biggest matches of his career on the grand stage of WrestleMania 35.
Then, if WWE wants to move The Miz to Raw during the Superstar Shakeup in April and turn him heel later, he can use his victory over Shane as the basis of that turn.
Ricochet And Aleister Black Become Raw Tag Team Champions
WWE has completely dropped the ball with the vast majority of the recent NXT call-ups, including Nikki Cross, who can’t even get on TV, and EC3, who has been booked like an absolute joke.
The lone recent call-ups who have been booked well are Ricochet and Aleister Black, who seemingly wouldn’t mesh all that well as a tag team but are doing well in that regard. They’ve had a handful of main roster matches, have yet to lose and will be facing The Revival and the duo of Bobby Roode and Chad Gable for the Raw Tag Team Championship at Fastlane. Though many fans are pushing for The Revival to retain the titles both because they’ve been booked atrociously as champs and because they want to leave WWE (and retaining the titles might change their minds), WWE needs to continue the momentum it has built up for Richochet and Black.
It’s actually incredibly rare for NXT call-ups to do as well as this duo has done so far, which is by design as both Ricochet and Black have main event potential. After WWE already completely killed the “push” of EC3 and ruined a slew of other NXT stars who have been called up in recent years, including Bobby Roode, the last thing WWE should do is have Ricochet and Black lose at Fastlane when winning titles so early on into their main roster run will set them on the right track.
Daniel Bryan Defeats Kevin Owens, Faces Kofi Kingston At WrestleMania 35
It seems WWE had a last-minute change in plans as the company originally had Daniel Bryan vs. Kevin Owens penciled in for WrestleMania 35, but it now looks like Bryan will beat Owens at Fastlane and then go on to face Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania 35, despite Kingston being removed from his Fastlane title match by Vince McMahon.
Truth be told, Bryan beating Owens and then facing Kingston at WrestleMania is exactly what should happen. Bryan has been doing absolutely magnificent work as a heel and shouldn’t drop the WWE title just yet, much less to Owens, who just came back after a lengthy hiatus. If Bryan is going to drop the WWE title anytime soon (and he certainly may not), there is no better man for the job right now than the red hot Kingston, who is easily the most over babyface in SmackDown’s men’s division at the moment.
While Kingston’s soaring popularity happened completely by accident, sometimes you need to ride the wave of momentum even if it didn’t come about how it was supposed to. That’s the case here with Kingston, who, by virtually all accounts, was never planned for this spot but is more than deserving of it. In order to get there and potentially make history as the first black WWE Champion, Kingston will need to hope that Owens loses and that Vince gives in to fans’ wishes to see Kingston fight for the title at WrestleMania.
Based on all that’s transpired, that’s not only what should happen but also what will happen. Good call, WWE.
Dean Ambrose Turns On The Shield Again
There is a lot of confusion regarding Dean Ambrose’s WWE future, as there is a ton of chatter that he may be staying with WWE after all, even though one report states that he’s still leaving in April after rejecting a massive contract offer.
But the biggest curve ball came when Ambrose, Reigns and Seth Rollins reunited The Shield on last week’s Raw amid reports that Reigns is trying to persuade Ambrose to re-sign with WWE. Exactly what will happen with Ambrose in the long term isn’t clear, but one thing is: The most compelling narrative WWE can tell at Fastlane is for Ambrose to turn on Rollins and Reigns yet again. This, of course, would set up Reigns vs. Ambrose at WrestleMania 35, a match that was originally set to take place at the pay-per-view and is still a WrestleMania worthy match even if Ambrose does leave.
WWE has several options for Reigns’ WrestleMania 35 match, but almost none of them are particularly intriguing, especially his rumored bout against Baron Corbin. An Ambrose vs. Reigns match, however, could be a fantastic addition to the card that ties up all the loose ends of a Shield reunion that, at least on the surface, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Reigns, of course, should be in a high-profile match while Ambrose should be as well, especially if he’s sticking around.
With a limited amount of appealing options for Reigns, the best thing WWE can do at Fastlane is have Ambrose turn on Reigns and Rollins again, proving why they shouldn’t have trusted him in the first place.
Becky Lynch Defeats Charlotte Flair
If Becky Lynch defeats Charlotte Flair at Fastlane, she will be added to the Raw Women’s title match at WrestleMania 35 to make it a triple threat match. Talk about a no-brainer.
The long-running plan has been for this bout to be a triple threat match, and there is absolutely no reason to deviate from that plan at this point. Especially now that both Rousey and Flair have turned heel, the biggest selling point of what will likely be the first-ever women’s match to main event a WrestleMania is the babyface Lynch overcoming not one but two loathed heels and winning the Raw Women’s title in the process.
If anything other than that happens at Fastlane and WrestleMania, WWE will be missing a golden opportunity for an unforgettable moment not just for Lynch but for the entire women’s division. With Rousey likely on her way out of WWE and Flair already having enough women’s title reigns to last a lifetime, the outcome of both the Fastlane and WrestleMania matches should never be in doubt: Lynch should win and take her rightful spot atop WWE.
Blake Oestriecher is an elementary school teacher by day and a sports writer by night. He’s a contributor to @ForbesSports, where he primarily covers WWE. You can follow him on Twitter @BOestriecher.
