Rasslin’ Roundtable for WWE Fastlane 2018

Columns, Top Story

 


Six-Pack challenge for the WWE Championship

AJ Styles (c) vs. John Cena vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler

Spain: I am going to be a nervous wreck watching this, because anything other than an AJ Styles retention will kill so much of my enthusiasm for WrestleMania. And due to WWE’s track history, I can’t even say for certain that they’re not sane enough to not screw up the best WrestleMania main event in years. Aside from that, I’m excited for the match quality. We got a nice little taste on SmackDown of how fast-paced such a match could be, and I imagine adding John Cena to the mix will add even more to it. My prediction is part-certainty and part-hope that WWE will do the right thing, and AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura can get ready to put on the match of the year.

Winner (and still WWE Champion): AJ Styles

Widro – I don’t see a title change here.
Winner: Styles

 


WWE United States Championship

Bobby Roode (c) vs. Randy Orton

Spain: I still cannot puzzle my way through the logic of this. I’m glad as hell we’re not giving Jinder Mahal another chance to hold a belt and make literally the same promo every goddamn week, but this still feels weird. On the one hand, you risk making Bobby Roode a transitional Champion, which helps no-one. On the other hand, there’s the chance for homegrown superstar Randy Orton to become a Grand Slam Champion, which is apparently still a thing and still important. I’m calling interference by Jinder Mahal, leaving to a Triple Threat Championship match at WrestleMania which will pale in comparison to the effort put forth by the Miz, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor.

Winner: DQ ending due to Jinder antics; Roode retains

Widro – Randy has a nice beard in that pic!
Winner: Roode


WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and/or Xavier Woods)

Spain: One of two matches on this card I’m excited for. It seems like the Usos have two great reasons to keep the belts: their lack of WrestleMania placement and the goddamn Bludgeon Brothers. Expect the match of the night and for the Usos to retain.

Winners (and still WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions): The Usos

Widro – Should be a quality in ring match, Usos retain to get their match on Mania 34.
Winner: Usos


WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship

Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ruby Riott (with Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan)

Spain: One of the few matches where there’s not a super-obvious winner. Flair holding onto the belt makes sense if the plan is for Asuka to challenge for it; nobody’s going to care that much about the Empress of Tomorrow going up against Ruby Riott. If Riott takes the belt, then Charlotte gets an automatic rematch at WrestleMania, but there’s not a lot of tension in that. I guess the most sensible option is for Charlotte to retain: quite the exciting card we’ve got here.

Winner (and still WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion): Charlotte Flair

Widro – Ruby Riott has been better than expected on the mic, still can’t see a change here.
Winner: Charlotte


Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Rusev (with Aiden English)

Spain: There are no surprises to be had here. With the barest hint of a reason (though with some good comedy from Rusev), Nakamura and Rusev have a match because Shinsuke has to do something to remind the WWE Universe that he’s one half of the main event at WrestleMania. It makes more sense on all fronts to have Rusev and English give Bludgeon Brothers a hard-fought victory and find another solid opponent for Nakamura: get Tye Dillinger some PPV exposure and give Shinsuke a good tune-up match. Nakamura has to win because there’s no time to feud with Rusev following a screwy finish.

Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura

Widro – Impossible to believe that Rusev would lose on his own day, but here we are.
Winner: Nakamura


Becky Lynch and Naomi vs. Natalya and Carmella

Spain: This is match is perfectly emblematic of this whole show: it was thrown together with little to no justification and there’s not a lot of people who care about seeing it. Honestly, I feel like this is going to do very little than take time away from match which could benefit from it. Call it a win for the faces, because might as well try to make people happy.

Winners: Becky and Naomi

Widro – Because so many faces are winning I’ll go with a heel win here.
Winner: Natalya and Carmella

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs