Last night, Monday Night Raw put on a pretty decent show with Fastlane. There were great moments, good matches, and some things you wouldn’t expect. Highlights included Goldberg becoming the WWE Universal Champion, and every other championship was retained. Looking back, what were the best moments, and what were the worst moments of the last Pay-Per-View before WrestleMania 33?
The Best
Chris Jericho Screws Over Kevin Owens
I’m not a huge fan of Goldberg holding the Universal, especially considering that he has only wrestled for about five minutes total since 2004. However, I do enjoy that the catalyst to Owens losing the belt was the return of his former best friend. Jericho showed his love for Owens by putting on a Festival of Friendship, and Owens ended it by assaulting Y2J and injuring him for a couple weeks.
Just as the championship match started, Chris Jericho’s music hit, leaving Owens distracted for the spear, leading to a title loss 15 seconds later.
Neville and Gallagher Steal the Show
For the last few weeks, the Cruiserweight Division has been kind of stale (on Raw, anyway). That was not the case at all last night when Neville successfully defended the Cruiserweight Championship against Gentleman Jack Gallagher. Both men started off with their usual set of moves, but as the match went on, they had to pull out all the stops until one man simply couldn’t go on anymore.
Neville came out the victor, but only by bringing back the move he refused to use as a heel: The Red Arrow. This match was a result of great in-ring storytelling and incredible athleticism. After the match ended, both men walked out looking better than they did walking in. Even though Gallagher lost, this helped solidify his spot near the top of the Cruiserweight Division.
Charlotte’s Pay-Per-View Streak is Over
Going into Fastlane, Charlotte was 16-0 in singles matches on Pay-Per-View. This led to her losing her title on Raw, then winning it back on the next Pay-Per-View almost every month. The Raw Women’s Championship has been around for a little under a year, and The Queen is already a 5-time champion. Thankfully, Bayley retained the Raw Women’s Championship last night and ended the pattern of flip-flopping the belt.
Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns
Somehow, there are still people out there that think both of these men are overrated. Roman Reigns can have a great match with a broomstick, and Braun Strowman has been getting better and better with every week. This was a great back-and-forth fight, which put the pedal to the metal from the very beginning. Strowman decided to change his gameplan and attempt a splash from halfway across the ring, but that was the opening for Reigns to hit one last Spear to end a good match.
The Worst
Big Show vs. Rusev
After Jinder Mahal competed against Cesaro in a pretty decent match, Rusev had his chance to face the Big Show. While neither match was announced, Cesaro and Mahal did a good job at giving the Swiss Superman a win without making the former 3MB member look like a total chump. Rusev and Big Show almost did it just as well, but the match seemed to be plodding.
Big Show can definitely have faster paced matches, with the recent example being against Braun Strowman a couple weeks ago. The match dragged on a little too long, and Big Show decided to hit the Bulgarian Brute with three chokeslams, before slowly dragging him to the corner for the WMD. These back-to-back matches made it seem like they were just killing time for the inevitable squash main event.
The New Day Advertise Their Ice Cream Bike
For weeks, The New Day have been trying to get some New Day Ice Cream Bars. CM Punk tried to do this at the height of his popularity, but to no avail. It seemed like we were going to finally get some new WWE ice cream, but instead, they just shows off a decorated bike with a freezer attached. This was just more filler content to add between the middle of the show and the last two matches and didn’t need to be there at all.
