WWE Fastlane results: The Shield wins its final match and Becky Lynch is heading to WrestleMania
It’s WrestleMania season, but before the granddaddy of them all on April 7, there’s many storylines to address in the world of WWE.
Sunday night at Fastlane, the final pay-per-view event before WrestleMania, should answer some key questions. Six titles will be up for grabs, but perhaps the most notable showdown will pit Charlotte Flair against Becky Lynch, with huge stakes for the latter performer. If Lynch wins, she will be granted a spot in the WrestleMania Raw women’s championship against Flair and Ronda Rousey, making the likely main event that much more fascinating.
Daniel Bryan has a big obstacle against a returning Kevin Owens, while The Revival and The Usos hope to hang on to their respective tag-team belts.
How will it all play out? Tim Fiorvanti is live at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio and his coverage will be supplemented by Sean Coyle and Matt Wilansky throughout the night.
This story was updated in real time.
Billed as the in-ring return of Roman Reigns and a final reunion for The Shield, the trio found themselves matched up with three of RAW’s top heels in the main event. While Seth Rollins’ road to WrestleMania 35 is set in stone as he’ll battle Brock Lesnar for the Universal championship, the paths for other combatants in this match were unclear heading into Sunday night’s match.
Chaos ensued before the opening bell with all six participants throwing hands, but order was restored and the match began. Quick tags were made by the Shield early on as they controlled the beginning of the contest, but Rollins soon found himself in trouble after McIntyre caught him with a kick to the chest. The heels then rotated individual attacks on Rollins as the crowd awaited the hot tag.
Eventually, Rollins tagged Ambrose and one of the early highlights took place when he jumped off the top rope and drove an elbow into McIntyre to the outside of the ring. McIntyre eventually recovered, regained control and Ambrose found himself in the same situation Rollins was in earlier. This time, it was Reigns waiting to come in on the outside.
A patented Ambrose rebound clothesline cleared the way for Reigns to enter to the roar of the crowd and he began to put on an offensive show, which included a drive-by dropkick to Corbin. From there, everyone got involved as Ambrose and Rollins hit dueling suicide dives. However, as Reigns looked to follow, he was intercepted by Corbin who hit him with a Deep Six.
The chaos continued as Lashley, Rollins, Ambrose and McIntyre battled into the crowd while Reigns and Corbin squared off in the ring. Corbin connected with his End of Days finisher, but by that point Rollins and Ambrose had made their way back to the ring to break up the pinfall attempt.
The heels then tool control and proceeded to clear off the announcers table with hopes of sending Reigns through it. As McIntyre had Reigns up, Ambrose and Rollins made the save. Rollins then caught Lashley with a curb stomp onto the announcers table and the Shield shifted their focus as a group to McIntyre, who was power bombed McIntyre through the table.
That left Corbin alone in the ring as the Shield surrounded him. A super kick, superman punch and Dirty Deeds put Corbin on the mat, then they connected with a triple power bomb to claim victory.
After the match, the Shield celebrated. There were no heel turns, no swerves, no hints at future WrestleMania rivalries. Just three friends celebrating the end of an era as a faction and the triumphant in-ring return of Roman Reigns.
We’ve talked a lot about all of the meandering, excessive maneuvering and gimmicky storytelling that has happened since the Royal Rumble between Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. Lynch earned a WrestleMania women’s title match by winning the 2019 women’s Royal Rumble match, but everything since that point has been a head-scratcher.
The match was primarily focused on Lynch’s injured knee. Unfortunately, before the comeback story could begin, Rousey’s interference ended the match. This was very disappointing.
Storytelling: 0.25
In-ring execution: 0.25
Match psychology: 0.50
Timing: 0.00
Innovation: 0.00
— Sean Coyle
Since that late Sunday night in January, we’ve gotten suspensions, Twitter battles that broke the fourth wall, misleading title abdications that never came to fruition and all manner of questionable over-reliance on Lynch’s knee injury. Fastlane offered an opportunity to put all of that in the rearview mirror and allow the next four weeks to be focused on building up a triple threat main event at WrestleMania 35.
We got there in the end, as Lynch defeated Flair on Sunday, but the overbooked conclusion lined up nicely with all of the other missteps along the way. With Lynch in peril and Flair nearly locking in a figure-eight submission to lock Lynch out of the WrestleMania main event, Rousey charged down to the ring, punched Lynch and triggered a disqualification to push Lynch forward by technicality.
With Lynch hobbled and leaning on a crutch from the moment she walked down to the ring, Rousey’s involvement was a means to an end — but it once again left Lynch looking less than strong with only a few weeks to go until the biggest match of her career.
Flair dominated the match up until the DQ happened, other than a brief roll-up and a failed attempt at a dis-arm-her. The drawback of having a hobbled Lynch reared its ugly head in predictable fashion, as Lynch used every part of the ring to lean on and pick her spots, but simply didn’t have enough to overcome a healthy opponent.
Let’s hope Lynch can “heal up” that knee and be at least 60 or 70 percent, because without that mobility the WrestleMania match won’t be able to reach its maximum potential.
Fans still cheered “thank you Ronda” after the match, but the faster we forgot how we got to this triple threat match we can focus on the in-ring possibilities and the history that can be made.
So let’s get this straight. At one point, this match for the WWE championship was supposed to be Kofi Kingston against Daniel Bryan. Then in a controversial decision a couple of weeks ago, Vince McMahon decided it was best for business to swap in a returning Kevin Owens for Kingston — because of KO’s ostensible star power. Then earlier Sunday, it looked like McMahon had a change of heart, implying Kingston would be reinstated in the match as part of a triple-threat — but ultimately was not.
Despite being a late add, Mustafa Ali added a ton of excitement to an already exciting match. The crowd wanted Kofi Kingston, but this match was excellent as is.
Storytelling: 0.75
In-ring execution: 0.75
Match psychology: 0.75
Timing: 1.00
Innovation: 1.00
— Sean Coyle
So we were back to Bryan against Owens — until we weren’t. As the performers were about to be introduced, the ring announcer called for a triple-threat match for the WWE championship.Kofi, right?!?!
No.
Instead, Mustafa Ali came flying to the ring. Yes, the entire saga was a bit convoluted, probably more than it needed to be, but the underlying message was clear. This was all about the continuation of teasing, if not hoodwinking, Kofi and his passionate fan base to further build on his burst to superstardom. You need only to listen to the crowd, which yelled his name in unison for large pockets of time throughout the battle.
Despite the Kofi drama, the match went on, and it was impressive from start to finish. KO brought it early on. He was overpowering and dictating action. But then Bryan had his moments, unleashing a series of about 10 kicks on Owens, nearly pinning him until Ali broke it up.
Then it was Ali’s turn. The aerial genius converted a Spanish Fly, and then a few moments later, attempted an 054 on Owens, who was able to get his knees up just in time, leading to a stunner that nearly pinned Ali before Bryan broke it up.
Ali was hardly done, crushing Bryan with a 450 on the apron. At that point, Rowan got involved legally, since it was a no-disqualification match, but was handled nicely by Ali and Owens, who took out the big man with a flip over the top rope. Ali then struck Bryan with a splash on the outside, but Owens absolutely crushed Ali with a pop-up powerbomb on the apron.
A few minutes later, Ali was pinned after Bryan clocked him with a high-flying running knee to the head. The action was fast and furious. It was explosive and intense. All three men put on a fantastic show.
And amid it all, the crowd could be overheard singing the praises of Kofi Mania. Soon enough.