Note: The Day Late Review is written by Tommy “The Yeti” Cook. You can catch he and his cohort Alan Angel every other week on “Yeti Outta Nowhere” on iTunes, SoundCloud and Google Play.
Do you hear the wailing in the streets? After last night’s Fastlane PPV WWE fans everywhere have not been silent about their displeasure in regards to this show. And to their credit, it was a confusing show. Now, being the positive guy that I am, I have not taken to Social Media and instead slept on the confusion. Without further ado, here is the Yeti’s Day Late Review match by match on Fastlane.
Rich Swann & Akira Tozawa vs. The Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar
Cruiserweights on the Preshow? Eh. To be fair, the Division has been lacking direction as of late and this was a match that was thrown together as a result of a feud and not due to a lack of a Preshow match. Not much to take away from this other than a quality Phoenix Splash. A+ on that friend.
RESULT: SWANN & TOZAWA via Pinfall
RATING: 6.25/10
Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn
Going into the night, I thought there was no way this wasn’t going to be match of the night. It sort of set the tone for the night and started a long string of matches where I said the same thing: “That match was fine…but what was the point?” These two should’ve wrestled a better match. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but it could’ve been better. The ending was kind of unwarranted as well, but I digress. And I want a Muscle Buster, consarnit.
RESULT: SAMOA JOE via Technical Submission.
RATING: 7.25/10
The Club (C) vs. Enzo & Cass for the Raw Tag Team Championships
I’m going to say this a lot, but this match was fine. Scratch that: it was a little better than fine. Really, these guys went into this match with little build and with Enzo looking like crap and they had a decent little match. The ending was screwy (which usually isn’t good) but it did set the feud in motion properly. Top to bottom, it did its job.
RESULT: THE CLUB via Pinfall
RATING: 7.25/10
Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks
Let the record show that THIS is where the night began its slow and painful descent into oblivion. It’s been well documented on Yeti Outta Nowhere my thoughts on Nia Jax, so I won’t go into that too much. I was not ever in the slightest invested in this match. Was this match meant for me? Probably not. But I still had to watch it. It was the typical match for this feud: Clunky and Awkward. Other than an awkward 3 minute long Koala Choke and a weird bridge roll up at the end I don’t remember much about this match. Theoretically this should be the blowoff of the feud, something that should DEFINITELY be memorable.
RESULT: SASHA BANKS via Pinfall
RATING: 5.5/10
Cesaro vs. Jinder Mahal
Now I know what you’re thinking and you’re right: This was not on the card. I’ll recap as it is my job to do as such. On the Preshow, Jinder and Rusev broke up and said they wanted singles competition on the show. Mick Foley was very happy to give it to them. So this match and the next match were not on the card before the show. This match existed. It was a thing. I just feel bad for Cesaro. That’s the only thing I took from this match.
RESULT: CESARO via Pinfall; the end of Hardbody and Handsome
RATING: 6/10
Rusev vs. The Big Show
Yep. This was also a match. Mr. Show looks fantastic. Handsome Rusev got a haircut. I mean, what do you say? This was obviously two matches thrown in to kill time because the Main Event was going to run short (and boy did it). It was a match. It happened. It gets mega bonus points for Rusev saying, “Three Machka Kicks” but gets balanced out by the sorry looking WMD that KO’d RuRu. To his credit, however, he dished out three vicious Chokeslams.
RESULT: BIG SHOW via Pinfall
RATING: 6.5/10
Neville (C) vs. “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher
On an A-typical night where Wrestling made me sad, this match was on its own level. The match these two put on was master-class. It was the absolute pinnacle combination of hard hitting action mixed with Flippy “Stuff” and it is exactly what this Division needed. A great showcase of character development and storytelling. Even in defeat, Gallagher looks like the man. This will end of being one of my favorite matches this year. Go watch it if you missed it, and if you didn’t miss it then watch it again.
RESULT: NEVILLE via Pinfall (After a Red Arrow (FINALLY))
RATING: 9.25/10
Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman
I’ll start once again by saying that this match was fine. I made the prediction that the Undertaker would cost Reigns this match. Where was he? Nowhere. Not a bell to be tolled, not a light to be dimmed. Reigns beat Strowman clean as a whistle. I said that there wasn’t any way at all that they just built Strowman for 8 months to have him lose to Roman Reigns…but that is exactly what they did. Is Braun buried; no. But no run is as good as the first for big guys like Braun. They showed they actually knew what to do with him and I was confident that they would continue that trend. Not the case. It is a shame that they didn’t protect him because it tarnish a decent match.
On the flip side, Roman Reigns is laughable to me. Their stubborn booking of him makes me laugh and cry.
RESULT: ROMAN REIGNS via Pinfall
RATING: 7/10
Bayley (C) vs. Charlotte Flair for the Raw Women’s Championship
I cannot stress enough the level of disappointment that came with this match. First of all, this match was NOT fine. This was below subpar for these two. Botches galore. Such a clunky match ensued and I was not the least bit invested in the match after about five minutes. There was a lot on the line in the match! This was the match to extent Charlotte’s Undefeated Streak to Wrestlemania! AND SHE LOST! WHAAAAAAT?!?? They give away Bayley’s Wrestlemania moment on Raw. They gave away a 17 PPV match streak on the show BEFORE WRESTLEMANIA. It makes no sense!! AND, Sasha Banks attached Charlotte…and the REFEREE STOOD BY AND WATCHED!! WHAT?!?!
Bottom line is this: This Division is in shambles. There have been ZERO booking steps that have made any sense, since Roadblock. What really ticks me off is that this was used as a catalyst to lead to the firing of Mick Foley, who was told to not allow interference in this match or in the Main Event. This match couldn’t be more of a convoluted disappointment.
RESULT: BAYLEY via Pinfall
RATING: 5.75/10
Kevin Owens (C) vs. Goldberg for the Universal Championship
This is the match that is catching the most flack on the internet. Why? This was a match that was booked to perfection. You can be mad about part-timers all you want but they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t draw. First of all, One Minute and Twenty-Six Seconds is dead. Twenty-Two Seconds is born. This match:
Established Kevin Owens as a chicken heel
Established Goldberg as the dominant force in WWE going into Wrestlemania
Set the Chris Jericho/KO feud into motion
What more do you want?
RESULTS: GOLDBERG via Pinfall in 22 Seconds to Become Universal Champion
RATING: 7.25/10
This show had a lot wrong with it. A lot. There are some good takeaways as always, but there is a lot of bad that soured this show. But maybe Raw will sort out these issues. But don’t count on it.
What were your thoughts on the show? Let us know what you thought in the comments!
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