Sunday, March 21, 2021

WWE Fastlane 3/21/2021

WWE Fastlane 3/21/2021

On the pre-show, we were told Shane injured his leg in training and can't wrestle tonight. I honestly wasn't even aware that Braun/Shane was happening here.

Seth is interviewed in the back. He is wearing a white and brown camo suit. Seth said he was disappointed in Nakamura, as he said he was better than this. He said Nak is standing up for Cesaro and will be taught a lesson in respect.

WWE United States Championship - Matt Riddle (c) vs Mustafa Ali with Retribution

Riddle took him down early, gutwrenched him then senton'd him. Riddle went for another senton but Ali kicked him in the head. Riddle was laying near the post and Ali spun him around hard into the post. Ali dropkicked Riddle into the buckles from behind. Ali then rolled through the ropes into a back stabber for 2.

Ali and Riddle traded shots and Riddle hit an exploder then a powerbomb into a pumping knee for 2. Riddle goes for the floating bro but Ali gets his knees up. Riddle hit a nice fisherman's buster but Ali came back with a Koji clutch. Riddle powerbombed Ali out of it. Riddle then hit a broderek from the top and won it.

As usual with Riddle, it was entertaining with some nice stuff and the finish was pretty cool.

Ali lashes out on Retribution after. He tells Mia Yim to get back in line and she leaves. Slapjack follows. Mace and T-Bar then double sitout chokeslam Ali and leave together to finally end this awful group.

WWE Women's Tag Team Championship - Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler (c) with Reginald vs Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks

Bianca hit a handspring into a moonsault early and took some hard knees from Shayna. Nia force tagged herself in to Shayna's dismay then bodyblocked Bianca. Sasha was able to hurricanrana Nia after Bianca dropkicked Nia in the back.

Bianca was dominated for a bit. Bianca did a nice roll into a tag. Sasha was on Nia's shoulders and came off to attack Shayna. Bianca did a top rope 450 and Reginald got on the apron. He distracted both Bianca and Sasha before getting kncoked off the apron. Sasha hit a nasty knee to Shayna's gut while Bianca held her up.

Bianca and Sasha argued with Sasha shoving her off then Sasha was rolled up for the pin as Bianca looked shocked. Sasha dropped Bianca with a slap after.It wasn't that great but it served its purpose of further splitting Bianca and Sasha. And at least we don't have to do the feuding partners as tag champs story.

Shane is shown walking on crutches with ice on his knee. Elias and Ryker try to pitch something to Shane for Wrestlemania but he's not interested. He later says he has an idea and turned his "Strowman Express" shirt into a "Stupid Express" shirt.

WWE Intercontinental Title - Big E (c) vs Apollo Crews

Apollo pretty much has to win here and why he deserves this shot is questionable at best. They pound on each other at the same time early and E spears Crews off the apron ont othe floor to start. E splashes Crews while he lays on the apron twice.

E really throws Crews on a belly to belly suplex but Crews comes back with a dropkick to the knee. Crews hits triple german suplex. Crews frogsplashes E from the top then hits some enzugiri's. E spears the post and they do a roll-up. The ref counts 3 even though she's not supposed to and they keep fighting. Crews slaps and olympic slams Big E and I guess that's it as Big E wins by pinfall.

We get an Old Spice commercials with R-Truth, Gulak and Tozawa. The Old Spice guy wins the 24/7 title and Truth wins it back.

We were shown Shane injuring his knee on a high knee attempt.

Shane brought out Elias for a concert and said Elias would take his place tonight.

Braun Strowman vs Elias with Jaxson Ryker

Elias gets beat up on early and Ryker throws him in the ring after he almost gets counted out. Elias gets a DDT on Strowman with some help from Ryker and then hits a top rope elbow for 2. Stroman really slammed Elias on a high backdrop then running powerslammed him for the win. This was all squash and was a waste of time bait and switch. My guess is Shane really did hurt himself somehow but they still want to do this at Mania.

Matt Riddle ran into Shinsuke Nakamura. He wished him good luck tonight and asked him if he wanted to go into business with him. He said he had some ideas for a scooter customization business. Riddle then went off topic and when he looked at Nakamura, he was gone. As Riddle left, Nakamura appeared from behind something.

Seth Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura

This is a weird one as you would think this was going to be Cesaro vs Seth Rollins since they've been interacting a lot. Nak gets the advantage early and Seth hits a running knee off the apron. Seth takes back control with a backbreaker then bearhugs Nak's ribs.

Seth goes for a giant swing but Nak armbars him then baseball slides him. Nak kneedrops Seth as he hangs off the apron. Nak sits on the top rope and gets pushed off onto the floor. Seth then tope's him and lands hard into the barricades. Seth then hits a slingblade for 2. They trade forearms and Rollins hits basically a 2 legged enzugiri. Nak responds back with a spin kick. Nak then hits his sliding german as Seth sits on the middle rope. Seth comes back though with a falcon arrow for 2.

Nak hits his reverse slam then gets caught with Low-Ki's reverse shining wizard. Seth then messes up a curb stomp and wins it. I didn't think this was really anything special. I couldn't find a real story in this and the selling wasn't that good.

Rhea Ripley debuts tomorrow.

No Holds Barred - Sheamus vs Drew McIntyre


Drew is wearing Scotland facepaint for this. Drew overhead suplexes Sheamus early then clotheslines him over the top. Sheamus gets a belly to belly on the floor then thrown int othe post. Drew finds some toys under the ring then gets thrown into the post. Sheamus then takes another belly to belly on the floor.

Sheamus then gets thrown into the steps and gets stomped on the steps. They go back in and Sheamus hits a brogue kick and some kendo stick shots. Sheamus puts the stick in Drew's mouth and pulls on it. but Drew comes back with headbutts. Drew then hits Sheamus with kendo stick shots and shoves the stick's end into Sheamus' eye.

Drew gets tripped into the steps then hit with the steps. They fight on the table and Sheamus is thrown shoulder first into the barricade.  Drew then gives Sheamus the Glasgow Smile near the monitors. Drew then gets suplexed onto the floor past the monitors.

Sheamus pounds on Drew on top of some scaffolding then they go into the stands. they punch each other up there and Sheamus does his rolling fireman's carry onto Drew. Sheamus gets thrown into the back of monitors and the monitors spark as he falls down a couple of feet. Sheamus gets kicked down a ramp and rolled on a box back to ringside. Drew then suplexes him again onto the floor.

They get back in the ring area then Drew gets a brogue kick over the barricade. Sheamus and Drew stand on a barricade then Sheamus hits the white noise through the announcer's table. They bring a piece of an announcer's table in and Drew ddt's Sheamus on it then wins with a claymore kick. The finish was lame. It was a hardcore brawl where they beat each other up with various weapons for 20 minutes or so. It was entertaining but it probably would have been just as vicious if they had a regular match.

Randy Orton vs Alexa Bliss

I think intergender wrestling as it is very low rent garbage. They never locked up or anything thankfully. Orton spit goo, basically chased Bliss around and all kinds of supernatural things happened like lights falling and flames being shot. Then The Fiend returned with a new charred zombie look and Bliss won. The Fiend's new look is kind of cool but there wasn't anything believeable or realistic about this. This also wasn't no DQ but the ref left after the flames were shot without disqualifying anyone.

WWE Universal Championship - Edge is the Special Guest Enforcer - Roman Reigns (c) with Paul Heyman vs Daniel Bryan


Roman took a good 5 minutes to get in the ring here. Edge isn't the ref, he is just standing outside watching. They get off to a very slow start here with nothing happening early.

Bryan sticks and moves early and then stretches out Roman's arm. Bryan picks at Roman a little more and takes a tilt-a-whirl slam. Roman has his way with Bryan for a little as DB tries to fight back. Roman knocks DB off the apron then throws him into the barricades. Roman bullied DB more and took a drop toe hold into the buckles. Roma blocked a hurricanrana in the corner and turned it into a boston crab.

Bryan got out, rolling the crab into a pin attempt then both men went down after he hit a flying elbow off the ropes. DB hit come kicks then he dove on Roman on the outside. Roman was supposed to catch him but didn't and what ended up being a cool slam wasn't really sold. DB then jumped off the apron with a knee on Roman.

DB jumped off the top with a knee onto Roman's shoulder then hit a missile dropkick off the top. DB hit some kicks and was beaten up in the corner again. DB reversed a powerbomb into a hurricanrana and high kicked him. DB stomped on Roman and put him in the yes lock. Roman powered out and powerbombed DB for 2.

DB went for a running knee and nailed the ref, knocking him out. Edge came in and made the count but it was only for 2 as the ref going down made him ref somehow. Roman gets mad at Edge for being slow on the count and starts pounding on DB, until DB triangles him. Roman tried to power out and got put in the yes lock. Jey Uso then came in and superkicked Edge and DB.

Jey threw Edge into the post and took a running knee from DB. DB then grabbed the chair and nailed Jey with it multiple times. DB goes to hit roman with a chair but nails Edge instead. Roman then hits a superman punch but DB puts him into another yes lock. Roman taps out but Edge awakes and nails both men with chair shots.

A new ref FINALLY comes in about 10 minutes after the original ref went down and Roman beats Bryan. Stupid finish here. Why wasn't Jey nailing Edge a DQ? What in the heck was the replacement ref doing all this time? And didn't he see any of what just went on?

The match wasn't too good early but picked up as DB got closer, but that finish ruined any good will it might have gotten.

Overall thoughts: Not a good one. We had a couple of bad finishes here with Orton/Bliss being a joke.

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