WWE Fastlane 2017 Predictions

It’s the last stop on the road to Wrestlemania and we’re in the “Fastlane”…get it? LOL I know thats cheesy but I’m pretty sure that puns like that were thrown around when they originally came up with the name of this PPV before Wrestlemania. I know I’m going into this event with low expectations just because I haven’t properly watched Raw the last two weeks. I mainly watched the highlights on social media and the segments I was most intrigued by in full. I feel like two of the biggest storylines I’ve been intrigued by on Raw don’t really have any guaranteed exposure on this show. Those two storylines being Triple H/Seth Rollin and Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho, although there is a chance that Jericho could be involved in the main event. Similar to what Elimination Chamber was for Smackdown this event  is really going to put the pieces together for what we should officially speculate for the Wrestlemania as far as the Raw brand goes instead of just the rumours. Maybe we’ll find out what the women’s division will look like going into Mania? Who will go into Wrestlemania as the cruiserweight champion? Will there be any progression to the Triple H/Seth Rollin storyline? Will Goldberg walk out as the new Universal Champion? Will Chris Jericho make an appearance? Well here are my predictions.

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This is another one of those matches thats thrown together to get more of the cruiserweight on the card and progress some of the minor storylines taking place on Raw and 205Live. All four guys are super talented and a handful of the cruiserweight talent that have had character development since the division was reestablished last Fall. Kendrick and Swann are both former cruiserweight champions as well, so you’d assume that they’d be pretty over. Noam Dar is best well-known for the way he says “Alicia Fooooooox”, but other than that hasn’t done much to really be over with the crowd. Tozawa has recently been making a splash on the scene and I expect him to shine the most in this match since he’s the newest character being introduced. Regardless who is over and is not over in this match, in complete honesty the Cruiserweight division on Raw overall kind of feels like it’s still not over. I personally don’t have that much interest in this match besides the fact that I like all the competitors in it. Don’t get me wrong, it could end up being a really good match that surprises me and if that is the case, I’ll be happy. I have to take the blame for not being that interested in this match because I havent properly watched 205Live in week. I’m hoping that at Wrestlemania we get the Cruiserweight’s to be the focus of a multi-man ladder match. I’m hoping that all of these guys are involved in that match. As for Fastlane, I’m going to say the babyfaces go over with Tozawa picking up the win to start getting himself over. Also, because my prediction for the second cruiserweight match on the card has the bad guy walking out victorious.
Prediction – Rich Swann & Akira Tozawa

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It almost felt like we were going to get Charlotte and her protege Dana Brooke against the Boss N’ Hug Connection or even Bayley vs. Charlotte while Sasha faced Dana Brooke. Nia Jax wasn’t on TV much (and if she was it was back to squashing jobbers) and after a short feud with Sasha Banks which had her looking dominate, she pretty much became an afterthought. Sasha became heavily involved in the Charlotte/Bayley feud and Nia just briefly stopped caring about Sasha until this last Monday when Charlotte chose Nia as her partner to face Sasha and Bayley instead on Brooke. Nia after weeks of not talking about it and also being victorious in her previous bouts against Sasha randomly claims that Sasha broke her. I hate to sound like a complaining mark here, but it just doesn’t make any sense but whatever. I was hoping the Nia/Sasha rivalry would have just continued following the Royal Rumble but the WWE went a different route to maybe foreshadow for Wrestlemania and then decided to throw Nia back in the mix when they felt it was the right time. When I did my Rumble predictions I said I wanted Nia to dominate and defeat Sasha so that the scrappy Sasha Banks could come back for retribution finding a way to beat Nia as the ultimate underdog. Maybe we’ll see that here which will give an angry “broken” Nia a reason to stay involved in the title picture following Fastlane, which will ultimately lead to a Fatal Four Way at Wrestlemania. Therefore, my prediction for this match is that Sasha Banks finally finds a way to dig deep and slay the monster known as Nia Jax to walk out victorious on the last stop before Wrestlemania.
Prediction – Sasha Banks

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The King of the Cruiserweights takes on The Extraordinary Gentleman Jack Gallagher in a match that I’m sure will be fun to watch. Since returning Neville has been this serious, angry character who has a chip on his shoulder while Jack Gallagher has been more of a comedic character over the past few months which has really gotten over. Therefore, I expect to see some humour and hi jinx by Gallagher to make a “strictly business” Neville get aggressive with him. Unlike the other cruiserweight match, I am looking forward to this match because these two guys are probably the two most over guys in the Division right now. Neville brought live to the Division that wasn’t really getting over and Gallagher has always been that segment or match you looked forward to because of his unique character. I don’t think this will be match of the night or anything but it won’t be the worst match. The cruiserweight title has changed hands a lot since its inception. I feel the self-proclaimed King of the Cruiserweights’ is the perfect person to have the first lengthy reign with the title to legitimize the title and as well as his catchy nickname. It would really be a bummer if the King got dethroned in barley any defences by someone who could be considered the court jester of the Cruiserweight division. Therefore, I see Neville finding a way to walk out of Fastlane as the Cruiserweight Champion and walking into Wrestlemania as the Cruiserweight Champion.
Prediction – Neville

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This is kind of interesting because the whole time The New Day were the tag team champions with the only goal of beating Demolition’s record, these were the two teams I thought lost out on getting a tag title reign while they were hot. Think back to when The Club first made their debut or helping Styles, imagine they won the titles back then but instead we saw them fail to do so time and time again which kinds of killed the momentum for them for a bit. Think back to last Summer, when Enzo and Cass were one of the most over act’s on the Raw roster only being equal with The New Day in popularity. Imagine they got a run back then? Fast forward 5-6 months and now Enzo and Cass seem to just randomly have dropped their rivalry with Jinder and Rusev to get a tag team title match against newly crowned tag team champions The Club. The Club finally winning the titles, which in my mind was long overdue, by defeating Cesaro and Sheamus are only weeks into their title reign. The Club have earned the right to have a dominant reign to regain that momentum they lost by losing matches for the belts so many times in the past year. Let’s not make this title reign be transitional or seem like the fluke. Enzo and Cass are still over and they’ve proven they’re more versatile as a unit to fit into other storylines that aren’t just focused on them being a tag team. Whether its singles feuds or more creative feuds Enzo and Cass can make it work as a unit whereas The Club are a tag team and need to be the head of that division right now. Enzo and Cass losing here doesn’t hurt them at all but in my mind The Club losing does hurt their reputation as a tag team. Quite frankly, I don’t want to see them as single stars either, at least not at this time in their career. The Club need to retain and walk into Wrestlemania as the tag team champions.
Prediction – The Club

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When Samoa Joe made his main roster debut attacking Seth Rollins on behalf of Triple H, the writing was on the wall and Fastlane was expected to be Samoa Joe vs. Seth Rollins. However, in that same segment Seth Rollins re-injured his surgically repaired knee. It left me pondering what Samoa Joe was going to do now. I mean they couldn’t have him just debut and disappear. Who would Joe fight at Fastlane now? How would it make any sense? Enter the most directionless man on Raw besides the brief storyline with Braun, Mr. Sami Zayn. The moment Zayn confronted Joe, I was intrigued. If anyone was going to step in for Rollins, Zayn is the perfect guy. They wrestle different styles but they’re both tremendous wrestlers who could put on a classic with Joe. The build up was basically Joe making Zayn out to be a chump and Zayn getting offended by it causing him to call out Joe. Following that it was a series of attacks on each other until this match. I have absolutely no idea what the plans for Joe or Zayn are for Wrestlemania. I wonder if that will become more clear on this show, such as possibly this match ending in a no contest or a shady DQ finish which results in a rematch at Wrestlemania. That sounds like something that could be possible. If anyone was going to walk out as a clear winner here, in my mind it would have to be Joe. It doesn’t make Joe look that strong or like a destroyer if he loses his first big PPV match to Sami Zayn. I expect the match to be great but I have no idea where they’re going to go from here but if I had to bet money on who would walk out the winner, I’d choose Joe.
Prediction – Samoa Joe

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If any match is going to end in a no contest or some sort of shady finish it would be this one. It would be ridiculous to build Braun up all this months just to have him lose to Roman Reigns cleanly right before Wrestlemania. However, playing devils advocate if you are planning to move forward in having Reigns face Undertaker at Wrestlemania, it doesn’t come off well if he loses the month before to a guy who might not even be involved in a big match. Therefore, regardless as entertaining it might be to see these two big men go at it neither man can just lose in my opinion so this match could end up being a cluster fuck or a really well orchestrated finish. A finish that officially starts The Undertaker and Roman Reigns feud. Although, I do think there is potential that Reigns could just walk out victorious somehow and the rivalry with Undertaker takes off the next night on Raw or something. I only say that because I feel like it would be weird to have Undertaker interfere in a match where Braun is clearly the heel and Undertaker attacks the babyface, helping the heel win. Then I remember a lot of the time real-life logic gets thrown out the window in the WWE so that is possible. There is no way in hell they’re going to go into Wrestlemania with Reigns facing the Undertaker and Reigns getting cheered like a babyface. If anything the fans are going to pop if Undertaker attacks Reigns because the fans will find any reason to boo the chosen one Roman Reigns. I really can’t predict how this match is going to play out, and thats not necessarily a bad thing because it means I’ll be more invested on how this match goes to the finish. All I do know is that if I had to choose, Reigns has to walk out the winner because he’s facing the WWE’s most respected star on the biggest show of the year and he has to go into that match looking strong so people get really invested in it. 
Prediction – Roman Reigns

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Charlotte wins. Why? Because Charlotte is still the Queen of PPV. Charlotte losing her PPV streak at Fastlane in a match trying to regain the championship isn’t a great story. A great story is Charlotte winning the title back, continuing her streak of PPV victories and losing the title and the streak at the grandaddy of them all Wrestlemania. Now that is a real good story. Plus, I don’t even fucking know why Bayley is the champion right now anyway? They dropped the ball huge on trying to get all the fans behind Bayley to win the title after falling short a bunch of times. Bayley is a character your supposed to feel sympathetic for and consider an underdog. Bayley is the one you enjoy seeing trying to pursue the title, cheer for when she wins it and then kind of get bored with when she actually is the champion. Bayley chasing the title is always more entertaining than her as actually being the champion. Instead they just put the title on Bayley in the continuous game of hot potato on a random episode of Raw for god knows what reason. Hopefully it wasnt for her to successfully defend it against Charlotte at Fastlane to end Charlotte’s undefeated streak. It just isn’t the story either one of these tremendous women deserve. Charlotte needs to win the title back. Charlotte needs to end this tremendous run she’s on at Wrestlemania defending what we’ve been conditioned to believe is truly her title and her undefeated PPV streak. If she loses the belt or the streak there, in my mind thats the better scenario. If Bayley has to chase for the title again going into Wrestlemania thats a better scenario. If Charlotte even loses the title at Wrestlemania but doesn’t get pinned or submitted because it’s a multi-person match, so she can carry forward her undefeated streak than so be it but it shouldn’t end here at Fastlane. I know we’re all sick of seeing the Raw Women’s Title being passed back and forth between women, but I predict Charlotte walks out of Fastlane as the Women’s Champion, further cementing her legacy and getting a proper finish to tremendous second chapter of her career before she moves onto the third one. (first chapter being the NXT run for those wondering) 
Prediction – Charlotte

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The match that will have everyone on the edge of their seats from the entrances. Will it be squash? Will Kevin Owens somehow win? Will Jericho show up? Will Goldberg work a match longer than 5 minutes? Will Lesnar make an appearance? Will Jericho and Owens wrestle for the Universal Title at Wrestlemania or will Goldberg walk into Mania as champion to defend it against Lesnar? What in the blue hell is going to happen? If I had to state my opinion, I don’t want to see Owens get squashed and I actually would like to see a somewhat competitive match. Do I WANT Owen’s to retain? Yes I do. Do I CARE if Goldberg wins? I’m okay with it, I don’t care that much but I just don’t think adding the title to match with Lesnar makes it any more of a draw than it already is. I mean it’s the Universal Title, does anyone think it’s that prestigious yet that it’s going to make Goldberg vs. Lesnar feel bigger? I personally think it fits in perfectly in the story with Jericho and Owens because Owens has held the title as long as he has with the help of Jericho, so wouldn’t it be poetic justice if Jericho was the one to beat him for it at Wrestlemania? If I had to make an educated prediction, I think WWE would rather have Jericho cost Kevin Owens the title at Fastlane by distraction and have Goldberg have his one last run as champion to face Lesnar at Mania. I just want everyone to stop and think really hard about what I’m about to say. If you were going to make a list of reasons on why one deserves one more title run over the other between Chris Jericho and Goldberg, which list do you think would be longer? If you’re thinking Y2J would have the longer list of reasons of why he deserves one more run over Goldberg than we’re thinking on the same brain waves. Regardless, our opinions and preferences I see Goldberg walking out as champion at Fastlane and I’m not going to let it bother me. Although, if Owens somehow does walk out as champion this Sunday, I’ll be extremely happy. Overall, I just pray it’s not a squash match.
Prediction – Bill Goldberg

What do you think about my predictions for the Fastlane? What are your predictions? Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts and ideas of what might happen on the show? Leave your comments and opinions below.