When looking at the context of the Fastlane event from a slightly larger perspective, in a way, this event is arguably unnecessary and WWE is simply orchestrating a Pay-Per-View for the sake of having one. Many of the matches appear as if they would be better suited on free television rather than being given away on a Pay-Per-View a few weeks before WrestleMania.
Personally, I romanticize back to the time in WWE right when I was growing up (2000 – 2015). The entire company moved at a much slower pace along with the rest of the world. As a result, much more importance was given to the events the company did have and the events were promoted in a stronger way as opposed to them being more spread throughout a given year as WWE has evolved.
The Tribal Chief – Roman Reigns – successfully defends his Universal title against Daniel Bryan, while Edge reaches a point of inner conflict as the Special Guest Enforcer
Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns may have indeed surpassed the quality of their epic singles match from Fastlane six years ago in February 2015. It was very complicated in the way we got there, but the money match between Edge and Roman Reigns is still intact, although one could easily make the argument that the match would be much improved if Daniel Bryan were to be added to the match to make it a triple threat.
It would be surprising if D-Bryan ended his full-time WWE career having only participated in the main event of WrestleMania only once, but that is the exact boat WWE is currently swimming in – assuming Bryan doesn’t main event this year. It is fully understandable why he is bringing his full-time WWE career to a close. Bryan recently did an interview with Bleacher Report and claimed the primary reason he was stepping away from full-time competition in WWE was so she could spend as much time as possible with his family.
Daniel talked about his daughter, who is now a toddler, telling him one day when he had to travel for work “Daddy, please don’t go”, and this caused him to reevaluate his work schedule about a year ago. Bryan currently travels for WWE three days a week consistently, and this would obviously go up in the future when the pandemic ends and WWE starts touring again.
Almost no WWE fan (or anyone who works for the company) would be able to conclusively say that the main event of WrestleMania 37 would not be significantly improved if Daniel Bryan was added to the match between Roman Reigns and Edge.
Edge looked excellent in his match on March 19 against Jey Uso (to become the special guest enforcer for this Universal title match. This entire scenario played out in order to create buzz surrounding the title match at Mania between Edge and the Head of The Table.
Daniel Bryan cut a promo on the March 5 episode of SmackDown stating how WWE conducted personality tests on the superstars at the time (this was in 2009 – 10, so right as Bryan was being signed to WWE). The results revealed that Daniel scored extraordinarily low in ambition, and when he was asked how he made it to WWE with such a low level of ambition, the only thing he said came to mind was that he loved wrestling and was so passionate about it (similar to the promo cut by Cesaro a couple weeks ago on Talking Smack).
Out came Roman Reigns to expose the more negative side of the coin. The Head of The Table insinuated that Daniel Bryan did not love wrestling because it was conditional love and based on him seeking validation. Maybe, from this perspective, this could have been the reason Bryan went into almost a depression when he was forced to retire in 2016, only to come back two years later. Roman insisted that he possessed unconditional love for the business because it was not based on need or obsession.
This is extremely important to not necessarily be needy of anything in life, be it a career, relationship, or anything else for that matter. Almost every truly successful person in life says this in their own authentic way, from Matty McCon (Matthew McConaughey, who claims in his recent book Greenlights that before making it big in acting he needed to take a trip to Europe with a couple friends to get his mind right and eradicate the neediness from his mind because Hollywood sniffs out neediness. Maybe all that naked bongo playing gives a healthy level of levity to Matthew’s consciousness – all natural).
This carries over to the Buddha, who claimed “desire and attachment are the root of all suffering.” The religion/philosophy of Buddhism was built out of this philosophy, and it combines ideas from the eastern part of the world with ideas from the West.
When examining the career of Daniel Bryan, this lower level of ambition is somewhat true if one looks through the appropriate lens. All we need to do is look at his five world title reigns (essentially four because he held two title belts in 2014, so that one counted as two). Bryan’s first world title in WWE came in December 2011 when he cashed-in his Money in the Bank contract on Big Show to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Bryan lost the title at WrestleMania 28 in 18 seconds to Sheamus. He won the second one from John Cena at SummerSlam 2013, after Cena chose Bryan as an opponent for the WWE championship. Daniel only held the title for a minute before Randy Orton cashed-in a Money in the Bank contract.
Daniel Bryan’s crowning moment in his career was the culmination of the Yes! Movement at WrestleMania 30 in which he defeated two other Hall of Famers in the main event to capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Even then, however, the only reason he was inserted into the main event was because the WWE universe essentially forced Vince McMahon to do that. He was scheduled for another Mania match with Sheamus until a couple weeks before the event.
As one can discern, a legitimate sense of ambition was never forcefully exerted by Bryan until 2018, when he turned heel and won the WWE championship after returning to WWE earlier that year after having been forced to retire due to concussion issues a couple years prior. Daniel held the title until WrestleMania 35 when he dropped it to Kofi Kingston. That level of ambition waned a little bit in 2019 and 2020, but fortunately it appears to be back in 2021 as a match for the Universal Championship was armed for the first time by The Planet’s Champion.
Drew McIntyre defeats Sheamus clean and will therefore challenge The All Mighty Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 37 at Raymond James Stadium
McIntyre and Sheamus may very well have delivered the best match of the Pay-Per-View, as McIntyre channeled his inner William Wallace with the face paint looking like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Every match Sheamus has participated in over the past decade plus in WWE has been extremely physical, and The Scottish Warrior is the exact same way.
This match was originally planned to be a last man standing match as of a few weeks ago, but it was abruptly changed to a no holds barred match – either way it worked beautifully in the form of brutal physicality. This was also essentially a number one contender’s match for the right to compete against Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 37 (although not in the main event as that spot is saved for The Tribal Chief) for the WWE Championship. Drew McIntyre will now be challenging for the WWE title at Mania for the second straight year.
The rivalry between McIntyre and Sheamus finally came to a high point in the form of a one-on-one Pay-Per-View match nearly 3 months after the rivalry officially got started. These two men have had a couple singles matches on Monday Night Raw in recent weeks, but they have worked together and have been best friends for about 15 years. They both have the utmost trust in one another, and that’s the primary reason why this match was so good – they both just click and can communicate very well nonverbally.
The Fiend finally made his return after Randy Orton burned Him to a crisp (dummy; it was not a real person) three months ago to the day. Alexa Bliss no longer needs to serve as a conduit for The Fiend, although she probably will still be affiliated with Him. WWE can now focus more directly on building toward a Mania match between the Legend Killer and Bray Wyatt’s alter ego.
Big E retains the IC title – which he plans on holding for over a year – against Apollo Crews
This was a solid match until the last minute when it began to feel clunky and the superstars were explicitly trying to execute a formula which was unnatural to both men. Having said that, I admire both of them for powering through it and making the best of a bad situation. Big E has successfully kept his character development intact throughout this feud so far, which very well may not be over and come to a head at WrestleMania.
Starting on the March 12 SmackDown, Big E began bringing a more aggressive attitude toward his presentation of his character, which the WWE universe can most likely peel into as being more authentic to E. He received the impetus for this change in attitude two weeks prior to March 12 courtesy of an attack from the steel staircase from Apollo Crews. Speaking of Apollo, he is still finding his way in WWE and trying to find a character that is more authentic to him and harmonizes with his personality.
This Nigerian Prince gimmick – which is still relatively new – feels more authentic to Apollo to a certain degree, but there are still question marks – at least in the back of my own mind – as to whether this is sustainable because the WWE universe could very conceivably see right through this gimmick after a while. The accent Apollo is using is clearly forced – just looking at how Kofi Kingston’s original gimmick in WWE in 2008 did not work because the WWE universe saw right through the inauthenticity of his fake Jamaican accent – and I feel this fate could wind up trending in a similar direction for Apollo Crews.
Going back to Big E, he finally enacted the more aggressive attitude that The Miz was attending to extract from him on Talking Smack around that August – September time. The Powerhouse claimed that he would be very willing to undergo a shift in attitude, but he would not just do it randomly for no reason.
Essentially a superstar would need to do something to him that brought the aggression out to provide continuity in the story so that it made sense to the WWE universe – and they would therefore resonate deeper with Big E’s character. As it turns out, six months later that impetus was given, and this will not only benefit E but also Apollo – at least in the short term – hopefully for the long haul.
That same night on Talking Smack, Big E laid out a long-term plan to Paul Heyman for basically the next year. His plan is to hold the Intercontinental Championship until WrestleMania 38 in 2022. Not only that, but E’s ambitious goal is to win the Royal Rumble match in January 2022 and go on to challenge Roman Reigns or whoever the Universal Champion is at that time and emerge from the event in Dallas as a double champion.
This might be an interesting avenue for WWE to explore in 2022 – because this has never been explored previously in a storyline. No superstar has previously laid out a long-term plan for himself or herself like Big E has done. He is essentially exerting the effort to speak his own greatness into existence – from the perspective of a good chunk of the WWE universe, this will resonate profoundly.
Seth Rollins gets a victory over Cesaro’s former tag team partner Shinsuke Nakamura
Seth Rollins simply cannot get out of this head the idea of Cesaro (one of Seth’s extremely close friends in real life) swinging him 22 times a few weeks ago on SmackDown. This is most likely going to result in a high-profile Mania match between Rollins and the Swiss Cyborg, who refused to Embrace The Vision. For now, Rollins chose to target Cesaro’s tag team partner for over a year, Shinsuke Nakamura. Rollins himself has had multiple classic matches with Nakamura in the past (notably at Survivor Series 2018).
The Architect has never worked with Cesaro before, which is unbelievable considering the talent level of both men. This was likely done strategically so the rivalry would have more meaning when it finally did happen; now it’s time to put the most critical part of the plan into action in the form of a Mania match between them. Rollins has made himself into a huge star and really connects with the WWE universe, but unfortunately the same can’t be said for Cesaro.
He is not nearly as big of a star as he could or probably should be – not because Mr. McMahon doesn’t like him or anything like that, maybe it’s because he is European and the WWE universe doesn’t identify as much with him. Hopefully this gets turned around after the match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 37.
Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler remained the Queens of the Women’s Tag Team Division for right now with another dominant victory
Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair were unable to become the first champion-challenger WrestleMania duo since John Cena and Shawn Michaels (2007) to enter Mania as tag team champions. Banks and Belair will make plenty of history at the biggest show of the year (by becoming the first two black women to have a title match at WrestleMania) without also being Women’s Tag Team Champions; Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax are doing a fine job of holding down the tag team division on the women’s side and seemed to have found their niche in WWE. The only question Is the overexposure of Reginald right now (he is functioning as essentially the updated version of James Ellsworth).
Reginald even started his run back in December 2020 as the assistant to Carmella. This also (ironically) happened to be the role that James Ellsworth settled into in 2017 after about six months of fighting his footing with WWE.
Shane McMahon is following in his father’s footsteps by giving other superstars opportunities to further their own careers while simultaneously accentuating the meaning of his own WrestleMania storyline with Braun Strowman by extending it
Shane McMahon suffering an injury immediately prior to Fastlane (kayfabe or not) will work in WWE’s favor, as this will open the door for the rivalry between he and Braun Strowman on the much bigger stage of WrestleMania. Shane is following in the footsteps of his father Vince by wrestling into his 50s.
This also benefits the company in the short term by giving the young and rising star Elias an opportunity to shine on Pay-Per-View, an honor he has not experienced in about a year (Elias won his Mania match against King Corbin last year).
It is somewhat ironic that WWE ran an anti-bullying campaign years ago, and now Shane McMahon is doing the very same to The Monster Among Men storyline. From this perspective, this is an ill-advised storyline to be doing for the company, similar to the one in June 2020 between Jeff Hardy and Sheamus surrounding Hardy’s shadowed past involving his struggles with alcoholism. From another perspective, it’s a positive thing that WWE is choosing to highlight these issues in society; even though the company will undoubtedly get some negative feedback for it. The issues are being brought to the forefront of the collective consciousness of society so they can be dealt with.
It’s about the lens through which one chooses to look at an issue. People should ask themselves before reacting to an issue unconsciously, “which response best serves me?” to avoid undue stress.
This match essentially did nothing to help further the storyline of either Elias or Braun; we are in the exact same place in terms of the primary storyline between Shane McMahon and The Monster, so the match did not even need to take place. Shane is still making fun of Braun, but at the very least the bottom line of a Mania encounter is still intact.
RETRIBUTION is finished and WWE has admitted that it did not work; and Matt Riddle will walk into WrestleMania as United States Champion
RETRIBUTION was officially done away with as the storyline has been dragged out about five months too long. Matt Riddle is a much better option than Mustafa Ali at this point to carry the United States Championship into Mania as his Spiccoli-inspired character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) is more over with the WWE universe currently, whether Mr. McMahon fully understands the dynamics or not.