WWE Fastlane replaces the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View (rumored to be done later in the year) as the penultimate PPV stop on the Road to Wrestlemania. After a lackluster Royal Rumble, WWE has created one of the least exciting atmospheres on the Road to Wrestlemania in recent memory. While a lot of this has to do with the Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns, it moreso is the issue of new talent not being pushed properly, popular talent being made fools of (see Ambrose, Dean) and a thin roster overall. The most interesting rivalries are HHH vs. Sting, Bray Wyatt against whomever he is talking about, presumably The Undertaker and Daniel Bryan vs. Reigns, which seemingly has a forced narrative after Reigns was booed out of Philadelphia at the Royal Rumble. Three of the six of those matches have legendary guys that don’t (or rarely) wrestle on any of the other PPVs, one is Wyatt, who while interesting, is interesting despite of the booking crew. Bryan of course should be the top guy in the company right now no question, and Reigns is the guy WWE wants to be the top guy.

This forced push of Roman Reigns has led to WWE spinning their wheels. Roman Reigns has an amazing look and a ton of charisma, and is even a bit underrated as a worker (not different than Kevin Nash in 1995 really) but his monster push has turned fans against him. WWE might be turning him heel here…in the long run him fighting Bryan is only going to lead to a heel turn where WWE intended it or not. This is the best route though. If Reigns beats Bryan at Fastlane and gets his WWE Title shot against Brock Lesnar, Lesnar would be just fine as a face. The strength of Lesnar’s character is that for all intents and purposes what you see is what you get. Lesnar is a prize fighter who doesn’t really care about the business and is out to make his money. He doesn’t pretend to like anyone. He is true to himself. And honestly, while the reasoning is quite heelish, as a fan I can cheer that. I want to see Lesnar destroy the “WWE’s golden boy” Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns would be better off doing the same in being true to himself, and aligning himself with the Authority.

My favorite scenario for Wrestlemania? Lesnar vs. Reigns vs. Bryan vs. Money in the Bank Winner Seth Rollins. Lesnar is the champ. Having both Reigns and Bryan there make sense given their storyline at the moment. Rollins would be a great guy to say “hey, I almost beat Lesnar and Cena at the Rumble. I deserve to be in the main event at Wrestlemania and I’ll force my way in”. Also make this an elimination match. If Lesnar is leaving, you can still have Reigns Superman punch him to take him out of the match and give him that rub. Let Bryan and Rollins steal the show. Put the belt on Bryan and have Rollins and Reigns chase him, then Wyatt and Rusev afterwards. And don’t tell me there isn’t money in another Bryan vs. Cena match.

The other matches at Fastlane don’t quite excite me. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro hopefully will get a nice run with the tag titles. They remind me a little bit of Razor Ramon and the 1-2-3 Kid. I really don’t care about The Bella Twins anymore and I’m one of the few who isn’t a huge Paige fan, although her appearance on Total Divas is making me one. Rusev vs. Cena is interesting in the sense that Wrestlemania won’t be the beginning of their feud, and hopefully will end it. I’m fine with Cena ending Rusev’s undefeated streak for sure, but I want Rusev to come out on top at the end. Bad Bews Barrett I think is a little past the point of where I really care about him. It’s a shame as I wanted Barrett to be the World Champ every year through 2013. Ambrose, good as he is, just hasn’t been the same since the Shield broke up. That’s another booking disaster. I can’t say I care about the Dust Brother feud. I like them both and as a face team I enjoyed them. This is the closest they’ll get to that dream feud Goldust wanted between him and his brother years ago at Wrestlemania. I assume Sting shows up and I hope they fix that music. At the end of the night, we’ll know where we are at for Wrestlemania. I just hope it’s a good place.