WWE Fastlane 2019

March 10, 2019

Quicken Loans Arena

Cleveland, OH

Pre-Show: The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev -

Kind of your average throwaway Pre-Show match. Not a whole lot of build to this one. The only curious thing is that they announced that it will be Big E and Woods participating in the match. That said, I doubt anything major happens here.

Winnter: New Day

Pre-Show: Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade -

It's too bad that this match couldn't make it's way onto the main card. Mysterio and Andrade have great chemistry in the ring together. I'm going to be positive and hope that this may be leading to something bigger for this feud at Wrestlemania in a couple of weeks. Since it's on the pre-show and the pre-show basically means nothing, I'll say it'll be some kind of non finish as to not be a feud ender,

Winner: Andrade via interference

The Usos (c) vs. The Miz and Shane McMahon for the WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship -

I think that most people are suspecting a turn either during or more likely after the finish of the match. I kind of hope that it's Shane with the heel turn, but it will probably be the more obvious situation where The Miz turns after Shane takes the pin. While The Miz is definitely a much better heel, I'm actually kind of enjoying the change of pace with his character. Too bad that it'll be short lived just to set up a match with Shane McMahon at Mania.

Winner: The Usos via pinfall

The Revival (c) vs. Ricochet and Aleister Black vs. Bobby Roode and Chad Gable for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship - 

This should be a fun match. I've always enjoyed three way tag team matches in general. Ricochet and Aleister Black has been a fun new team even though I'm unsure of how long term it is. It kind of seems like the WWE's way of inserting them into the main roster without really having a plan for them. I could see them giving them the belts here, but I don't think that's what will happen. Most likely all three of these teams will be involved in some kind of multi team title match at Mania. With that said, I don't think there is a real reason for a title change here. Most likely it'll be Roode or Gable who will take the fall as to not pin either of the new guys yet.

Winner: The Revival via pinfall

The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (c) vs. Nia Jax and Tamina for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship - 

Although it wouldn't be unheard of for Sasha Banks to lose a championship in her first defense, given that this a new set of titles that they probably want to establish, I really don't see them making a change here. I hope not anyway.

Winner: The Boss 'n' Hug Connection via pinfall

Asuka (c) vs. Mandy Rose for the WWE Smackdown Women's Championship - 

I see this as kind of a filler match on a mostly filler show a few weeks before Mania. I can't see them taking the title off of Asuka at this time. Maybe the end of this match will lead to whatever match Asuka will be having at Wrestlemania since we really don't know what that'll be yet. 

Winner: Asuka via pinfall

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair (If Becky Lynch wins she's inserted into the WWE Raw Women's Championship Match at Wrestlemania) - 

The finish to this should be fairly obvious. There's no way that after all this build that Becky is left out of that Wrestlemania match. How we get to the finish is a little less clear, but hopefully it'll be a clean finish. Could be a Rousey appearance at some point. Hopefully after the match just for a stare down with either Becky or both of them. 

Winner: Becky Lynch via pinfall

The Shield vs Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley - 

I have to say, I'm surprised that Roman is returning to the ring this soon. I expected him to maybe have to do a little training to get back into ring shape. Having him in six man tag is a good way to ease him back in though I guess. Also, I'm sure they want to get one last Shield match in before Ambrose leaves after Wrestlemania. Pretty obvious what will happen here. They will get all the big Shield spots in one last time. Roman will look strong. The Shield should dominate. I don't anticipate this being a very long one.

Winner: The Shield via pinfall

Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kevin Owens - 

I really hope that this doesn't lead to Kevin Owens turning heel again. I'm really enjoying his every man babyface gimmick right now. It's possible that Kofi gets involved here, but I don't see how really. I can't see him costing Bryan the title nor can I see him costing Owens a win either. I think it'll either be a DQ finish or Bryan wins after interference. Most likely the interference will be Rowan, but I kind of hope that it's from a returning Sami Zayn who returns as a heel and costs Owens the title. That could set up a program for Owens going into Mania and open up Bryan for the match with Kofi that most people expect to happen. 

Winner: Either Owens by DQ or Bryan after interference

Conclusion -

Overall, while mostly a throwaway show, it could have some fun developments to build towards Wrestlemania. I mostly hope that Zayn returns to set up a match with Owens at Wrestlemania. I really want Owens to remain a babyface for now and this would be a logical way to get him out of the WWE Championship picture for Wrestlemania without hurting his character. Anyone want to discuss Fastlane be sure to either comment or tweet me @DevManeuver. Thanks for reading.

WWE Previews

7:17:00 AM

The WCW World Heavyweight Championship. In it's day both one of the most prestigious championships in wrestling or the least, depending on the era. A lot of people have differing opinions on this, and this just just my own. For the record, this list will be strictly WCW proper, not from after the Vince McMahon purchase. These are my top ten WCW World Heavyweight Champions.

10. Bret Hart:
                                               

Yes, Bret Hart is on the list. No this isn’t a list for top ten WWF/E champions. I know a lot of Bret’s time in WCW was wasted and by the time he reached the top his career was about over. His short run as champion was memorable in my opinion. Beating <name redacted> in the finals of the WCW Mayhem tournament to crown the new WCW Champion after the fiasco that was Halloween Havoc ’99 was an extremely memorable moment as well as a very good match. Maybe not as good as their Owen Hart tribute match on Nitro, but very good none the less. How could it not be with two of the greatest in ring wrestlers of all time.

9. Diamond Dallas Page:

                                                 

I feel like a lot of this list is going to be me defending my opinion. I know Page as WCW Champion is mostly remembered for the Russo era and the mess that was WCW 2000, but a lot of people forget his first title win at Spring Stampede ’96 and his second win on Nitro against Sting two weeks later were big moments for many people who have been waiting for DDP to win the big one since ’97 (ala at the time teenage me). Yes, the stuff in 2000 involving Page was pretty terrible, you can never take these two moments away from him as short lived as they turned out to be.

8. Lex Luger:

                                   

Lex Luger had runs as champion during multiple eras of his WCW run, both before and after his brief WWF stint. What puts him on the list to me is 1997. Yes it is another short reign. That was kind of the name of the game with guys not named Hulk Hogan during that’s era. Luger’s win over Hogan on the 100th episode of Nitro was a huge moment for WCW in the war with the nWo. Hogan regained the title 5 days later at Road Wild ’97, but seeing Luger celebrate in the ring with all the top WCW guys of the time after his win is a moment that sticks in my mind to this day.

7. Booker T:

                                           

Yes WCW 2000 sucked. We all know this. That doesn’t mean that some good didn’t come from it. Booker T’s rise to the main event was one of the few bright spot for WCW in it’s dying days. Hot potatoing of the title inflating his reigns aside, he is still the 5 time WCW champion and he’ll never ever let us forget that.

6. Randy Savage:

                                        

Macho Man Randy Savage is of course one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Any company, any era. While mostly remembered in history for his WWF run, his WCW run was pretty memorable itself. His first reign as WCW was a big one, as he won the World War 3 match, a three ring battle royale, to win the title that was vacated the previous month after a controversy from Halloween Havoc (where have we heard that before). He would trade the title with Ric Flair the next two months and have a few less memorable reigns in the latter days of WCW, but that first title win was special for sure.

5. Goldberg:

                                                   

July 6^th 1998. Georgia dome. WCW was red hot at the time. One of the biggest championship matches to happen on television again Hulk Hogan. He was again bogged down later on by crappy booking later on, but that Georgia Dome Nitro was by far one of the most memorable moments in WCW history.

4. Hollywood Hulk Hogan:

                                     

Hogan almost has to be on this list. While he had a few title reigns when he first came into the company, he was the champion for the better part of a year during the peak days of the nWo’s takeover of WCW. The amount of time he held the title alone puts him up this high on my list.

3. Sting:

                                

Sting has many times been called the franchise of WCW due to the fact that he was one of the few guys who didn’t jump ship to the WWF. He had many title reigns and wins, but maybe none more memorable than him finishing off his year long storyline with the nWo by defeating Hollywood Hogan at Starrade 1997. Yes, the ending may have been a bit controversial, but the end of that match with WCW guys storming the ring to celebrate Sting’s win is an iconic moment in WCW history.

2. Big Van Vader:

                                 

I have to admit, I didn’t see much of this era of WCW at the time. Or any wrestling really. I was a huge fan during the Hulkamania years in the WWF, but from 1992-1996 I pretty much saw no wrestling. Thanks to the WWE Network though, I have gone back and revisited a lot of this era. Vader was a dominating force in the mid 90’s WCW and definitely deserves this spot if for nothing else his battles with the likes of Ric Flair and Sting.

1. David Arquette:

                                         

Yeeeeeah I’m just kidding.

1. Ric Flair

                                 

Was there ever any doubt? Ric Flair is considered by many, myself included, as one of if not THE greatest World Champions in the history of wrestling. While he is best known for his NWA title reigns, he held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship on many occasions. He, along with Sting, also kept the company afloat during some rough times before the company’s popularity exploded with the rise of the nWo in 1996.

And that is my list. Do you agree? Disagree? Have a completely different order altogether? Feel free to leave a comment or tweet me @DevManeuver. Thanks for reading.

Top Ten

7:47:00 PM

©WWE

The road to Wrestlemania is officially underway. As has been the talk of the IWC in the last few days, the projected main event participants have started early with a war of words on twitter. Some people are working themselves into a shoot believing that the two are "going off script" with their shots at each other. Personally, I think if that were the case, the WWE would have stepped in and put a stop to it right away. Make no mistake, the McMahons love publicity and this is just that. Let's get started.

This all started after Becky was arrested for continuing to show up to WWE shows after being suspended for 60 days by Vince McMahon. On Raw this past Monday Ronda made it clear to Stephanie McMahon that she wanted Becky reinstated so she could have the match with her at Wrestlemania. When that didn't happen, she threatened to relinquish the WWE Raw Women's Championship. When Stephanie didn't relent, she put the belt down on the mat and walked out. The next day Becky started it all off by this post on twitter.

Becky basically just wants Ronda to go back for the belt because she wants to beat her for it at Mania, not have it handed to her.

Ronda then accuses Becky of faking the mug shots. She also uses the insult "ginger crutch ninja" which I have no words for. Also, not that it matters much, they're technically jail photos, not prison photos. But I'm just nitpicking here.

Here Becky tells Ronda to keep the F word (fake) out of her mouth and try to get better at the wrestling business and stop acting like she's above it. 

Ronda then addresses the "fake" comment by insulting Becky's version of the armbar saying that it looks like she's holding the "dick you wish you had". In my opinion, calling Becky's armbar fake isn't really all that helpful towards building the potential Wrestlemania match. It also looks bad on her since she has sold that armbar from her in the past, so it's basically exposing the wrestling business as fake. I don't have a huge problem with it personally. It is a little Russoish but hey, it's on twitter not on WWE TV so who really cares.

For people that may not know, in this tweet Becky took the pictures that Ronda used in the last tweet and photo shopped Ronda's husband Travis Browne's head onto it, basically calling him a dick. 

Here is where people started to think that this was more of a shoot than a work. It's possible that the WWE is giving them the freedom to come up with their own material here, but I still think that if it were going too far they would step in and put a stop to it. Maybe this caught Ronda off guard and legitimately pissed her off, but I feel like she used that as a way to advance the storyline and making people invested by making people believe that they are going off script.

Becky then says that Ronda went full Russo there. For the younger fans out there who might not be familiar with Vince Russo, he was the head writer during the beginning of the Attitude Era WWF and  later the near dying days of WCW. Basically, in his writing he sometimes had the idea to make stories seem more "real" by making people think that they were going off script. I won't go too far into it but I'd greatly suggest looking up more on Vince Russo and even checking out the book "The Death of WCW" by RD Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez. It's a good read. Anyway, back on topic.

Now Ronda is physically threatening to beat up Becky Lynch like for real for real. We're no longer on script now kids, this is for real now. In case that's not clear, that was heavy sarcasm.

They then finish up with both posting videos making fun of each other. Becky posted Ronda struggling with a promo and Ronda posted making fun of Becky's Irish Dancer gimmick that she had in her early days on NXT. 

In conclusion, they both seems to be doing a great job of keeping this feud going both on TV and on twitter. I can understand why some people might be confused and think that Ronda got legitimately upset and started going off script, but I feel like this is just the WWE giving them freedom to build the story. Over the past several years more and more the WWE have been open to advancing storylines on social media. I think it is smart. They shouldn't have Becky invading Raw every week between now and Wrestlemania as it would get repetitive and possibly exhaust the audience. This is a great way for them to interact to avoid that. I wish it was building to a singles match between, but it seems more likely that it will be a three way with Charlotte as well. Either way, it should be an interesting journey between now and Wrestleman.

That is my opinion and analysis of this Twitter war that has been going on between Ronda and Becky. If you would like to discuss this, feel free to leave a comment or tweet me @DevManeuver. Thanks for reading.

Articles

3:23:00 PM

The big news coming out of Monday night's Raw show was of course Roman Reigns making the announcement that his leukemia is back in remission. This of course is great news for Roman, his family and basically everyone. I just want to take a moment to address the, in my opinion, horrible "conspiracy theories" about his leukemia diagnosis.

There are people out there who have floated out the idea that this whole thing was a work. That the announcement of Roman's leukemia was a plan by Vince McMahon to get Roman over with the audience who has rejected him for so long. I personally feel like that is ridiculous. While the WWE has done it's fair share of shady marketing tactics in the past (using their participation in charitable causes as a way to promote their brand), this would be several steps further than I could see them going. As for the idea that the WWE announced ahead of time that Reigns would be on Raw to spike ratings, that's not out of the realm of possibility I suppose. However, I kind of doubt that was the why they did. While I'm sure that they didn't mind the publicity, I feel like one thing we have to consider is Roman's reasoning for wanting to make the announcement. He very well could have told the WWE that he would like to promote ahead of time that he would be making an announcement on Raw because it is important to him that as many fans as possible see it live. We simply have no idea what went on behind the scenes and it would be irresponsible to blindly speculate.

Many people have questioned how it is possible for him to be in remission and ready to return in such a short amount of time. As described by @LeukaemiaCareUK in a twitter thread (go ahead and click the link to go to their page to see the thread that is currently stickied at the top of their feed) , we have no idea the type of leukemia that Roman is dealing with. He never specified, nor does he have to. Something that people don't realize is that there are several types of leukemia. Without knowing the details of the type it is impossible to speculate on his specific situation. Just like with just about anything, recovery time can largely depend on a variety of factors such as age and the the type of physical condition that the person is in. At this time we also don't know the timetable for his in ring return. Some have theorized that he will be back in the ring immediately, but it is very possible that he is still a ways off from that.

In conclusion, the conspiracy theories about Roman Reign's leukemia diagnosis are, in my opinion, completely baseless. If you have an opinion about this, either in agreement or disagreement, feel free to either leave a comment or tweet me @DevManeuver. Until next time, thanks for reading.

Articles

8:57:00 PM