This Sunday, #SDLive hosts the Fast Lane pay per view, headlined by a 6 pack challenge as AJ Styles defends his WWE Championship against Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin and John Cena.
Now I have no doubt that this will be a fast paced, actioned packed entertaining watch, however, is it really necessary?
Also on the card we’ll see The Uso’s defend the Smackdown Live tag team titles against The New Day, which will undoubtedly be another excellent contest in the chapter of these teams rivalry.
Bobby Roode defends the United States Title against Randy Orton, Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura will battle Rusev and Charlotte Flair defends the Smackdown Women’s Title against Ruby Riott.
My problem is this, what happens after the event? Wrestlemania will be 4 weeks away, which usually would be enough time, but this is going to be the biggest PPV event of the year.
So in 4 weeks Smackdown Live will showcase the best matches they can offer from their brand to appear on the main show of Wrestlemania, and realistically, they should have been set in stone already to allow a story to be told fully and the rivalry to heat up leaving fans desperate to see them in the ring at the New Orleans event.
Shinsuke Nakamura won the Royal Rumble, he should pick AJ Styles as an opponent for the WWE title, so fans know exactly what they’re getting and the Smackdown Live shows can slowly begin to build this rivalry which would end with fans so excited for their match. I mean, this WILL be a great match between Nakamura and Styles, but telling a good story beforehand excels the anticipation a lot, which they will have to do in just 4 Smackdown Live episodes before Wrestlemania.
Maybe I’m too expectant, but 4 Smackdown Live’s isn’t enough to set up a feud between a Royal Rumble winner and a WWE Champion. I want to have seen them team up beforehand, each take on a different member of a tag team to try and outdo each other, eventually coming to blows a few weeks before cranking up the heat.
It’s not just the WWE Championship match that concerns me, it’s the fact that yes the Tag Team Title match will be a great bout at Fast Lane, but then what? I would have saved that 2 on 2 match for Wrestlemania itself, which makes Fast Lane a bit of an inconvenience, because they have to include a title match on the show, which ends up in them being back into a corner and giving this match away early.
In classic WWE style, they’ll end up having to throw together a rushed match between a number of tag teams because they have nothing else, and they can’t have Uso’s v New Day again, because Wrestlemania is supposed to be for a big match to take place, not the rematch. The only way they could pull this off is by adding a major stipulation such as having a cage match or a ladder match which would bring the feud to the final chapter which could be told up until the event.
Charlotte Flair should also have a set in stone challenger for her Smackdown Women’s Title, instead of facing Ruby Riott beforehand. If it is in fact Riott that WWE are choosing as Flair’s next opponent, why not have a big build up and really create a story between the two, unfold each angle and build Ruby as a credible threat to her Women’s Title.
Right now it just seems thrown together and I can’t be alone in not giving the Riott squad leader a chance in hell of becoming the new champion,
Don’t get me wrong, Fast Lane might make the grounds of a match between Dolph Ziggler and someone, or Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens amongst others, but then what will happen with MoJo Rawley? What will Jinder Mahal do? He was WWE Champion only a few months ago let’s not forget. Surely WWE can’t just throw these top superstars into the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal? Bobby Roode and Randy Orton won’t have a 1 on 1 match again at Wrestlemania, do we expect they’ll add Mahal into the mix and make it a triple threat?
That feud between the 3 of them has been building up nicely, so that’d be a good pay off, and probably the only rivalry that’s actually been developing since Royal Rumble.
We’ll get AJ Styles v Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE title, but I honestly couldn’t tell you what we might see on the card alongside it representing Smackdown Live. So back to my main point there’s only limited weeks to put together a feud for a Wrestlemania match, which would be in danger of seeming rushed and thrown together.
I guess we’ll just have to watch Fast Lane itself and see how the story unfolds.
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