WWE Fastlane 2016 Review

The WWE World Heavyweight Champion in Triple H awaits who he will face at WrestleMania 32 as Brock Lesnar, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns face off in a triple threat match for a shot at the gold. The road to WrestleMania stops in Cleveland for Fastlane!

Match 1: Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch vs. Naomi and Tamina
Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch are going to have to coexist as they partner up in the opening contest of the night. Decent match here that saw the two work well together despite Naomi and Tamina not looking too shabby themselves. Good mixture of offense from the two teams with Banks being able to hit a Bank Statement on Tamina while Lynch locked up Naomi in the Disarmer to seal the win. Fine match to open the card, nothing too special but certainly good for the story leading into WrestleMania.
Winners: Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch
Rating: **1/4

Match 2: WWE Intercontinental Championship - Kevin Owens (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler
After winning the Intercontinental Championship on an edition of Monday Night Raw, Kevin Owens must defend it against Cleveland's own Dolph Ziggler. You always know that you will get a quality match whenever these two step in the ring and that is exactly what they gave us here. And credit to Owens for truly becoming a fresh heel in the WWE and being able to transition his style from the independent scene to the big leagues so smoothly.
After the match, Owens goes down to Michael Cole and points at him as he raises his Intercontinental Championship up high.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Rating: ***1/4

Match 3: The Wyatt Family vs. The Big Show, Ryback and Kane
How crazy is it to think that The Big Show and Kane have either been tagging with each other or feuding against each other for more than a decade. They were tag champs together in 2005 and again in 2011. They are once again partners with Ryback added in the mix to face off against Braun Strowman, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper as Bray Wyatt sits on the outside to watch. Decent match here with the crowd having trouble getting into the action, especially when Ryback or Kane were the main guys. Big Show managed to squeak some energy into the match and Ryback hit a Shell Shocked on Harper to seal the win for his team after Kane gave Bray a big boot on the outside. Very surprising to see The Wyatt Family take a big loss here, just a huge shame how the WWE continually booked them to look like chumps after their hot start.
Winners: The Big Show, Ryback and Kane
Rating: **1/2

Match 4: WWE Divas Championship - Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Brie Bella
Charlotte Flair continues to run rampant through the entire Divas division as she faces off against Brie Bella here. The story behind this one has Charlotte continuing to rub Brie's personal life in her face with Daniel Bryan retiring and Nikki Bella facing neck surgery. This was actually the last time the Divas Championship was defended on a PPV before being transformed into the WWE Womens Championship at WrestleMania 32. Decent match here that went on a little longer than it needed to be with Flair locking in her Figure Eight to submit Brie. Kind of bothered me that Flair straight up got out of a long submission hold prior to that and did not even sell it a tad bit. Either way, we move on to the rest of the show.
Winner: Charlotte Flair
Rating: **

Match 5: AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho
After facing off against each other prior to this, AJ Styles was adamant that the two compete against each other once more here at Fastlane. Of course, this is certainly a dream match of sorts and almost that that is hard to believe that actually happened, muss less in a WWE ring. Styles needs to adjust to the WWE style of wrestling and Chris Jericho is the perfect person for him to do so. Great action from the start of the bell to the finish with Styles being able to trap Jericho in his Calf Crusher submission that saw Jericho tap out after struggling to escape. Love the submission finish and love seeing Styles come to the WWE and make an immediate impact. No pun intended. The two certainly had some good chemistry together and while the match did not blow me away by any means, it was still a solid match on the card and certainly one that gives room for a bigger match down the road, especially with an intense show of respect afterwards.
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: ***1/2

Match 6: Curtis Axel vs. R-Truth
Prior to the match, the guys of Social Outcasts come out to accompany Curtis Axel and cut a cringe-worthy promo about comparing themselves to cars on the road to WrestleMania. Okay. Super quick of a filler match here that saw Goldust come out to corner R-Truth as he took out the guys of Social Outcasts before rolling in Adam Rose in the ring for whatever reason which caused Truth to leap over him as Axel was then able to roll him up for the victory. More of an angle than an actual match as Truth looked angry at an apologetic Goldust. This is a PPV?
Winner: Curtis Axel
Rating: 1/2*

Match 7: Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar
Billed as Brother vs. Brother vs. Beast, the winner of tonight's main event takes on Triple H at WrestleMania 32 for the richest prize in the business. As predicted and for good reason, Brock Lesnar starts off the match by steamrolling though the two other guys and suplexes them left and right with no regard for human life. Let's not forget to mention that the crowd was going bonkers for these guys and this could have passed off as a great main event for even a WrestleMania. Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns worked together to slam Lesnar through two tables to try and leave him out of the equation. They even buried him in the rubble afterwards as they made the match a singles bout between each other. However, Lesnar was able to come back in the right and wreck more havoc as he locked in a Kimura onto Reigns. Ambrose was able to come in with a steel chair as he drilled both Lesnar and Reigns before getting launched out of his boots with a Spear from Reigns. Reigns pins Ambrose and is going to the main event of WrestleMania to face off against Triple H. Reigns celebrates the accomplishment as Triple H then comes out to stare down his opponent. Great main event and great way to set up the main event of WrestleMania long with a match between Lesnar and Ambrose. Shame that only one of these guys was going to be the marquee match at WrestleMania because the pops that both Ambrose and Lesnar received were out of this world.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Rating: ****

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
While there was certainly a lot of filler compared to killer, I think the WWE pulled off a passable show leading into WrestleMania with the very slim roster. However, just a good couple matches isn't enough for me to recommend this show to someone to sit down and watch. But if there was really any doubt, nobody comes close to Brock Lesnar during this time. The dude is white hot.
Rating: 6.25/10