What do we know about WrestleMania after WWE Fastlane?
By Matt Black
The card for WrestleMania hasn’t become clear yet. Did WWE Fastlane help to connect any dots? Or are we left with more questions than answers?
We are officially four weeks away from WWE’s biggest show of the year, WrestleMania. Normally by now, we have a pretty good idea about what the entire card is going to look like going into the show of shows. This time around, however, not so much. It seems like WWE isn’t quite sure what they are going to do with a large portion of their roster going into MetLife Stadium this April.
What did we learn from Fastlane? Honestly, not a whole lot. The only thing we now know for sure coming out of the show is that the match for the Raw Women’s Championship is now officially a triple threat as Ronda Rousey will defend her championship against Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. While this storyline has been heavily overbooked since the Royal Rumble, the stage has finally been set. Let us hope that WWE doesn’t do anything stupid to further damage the hype going into their main event, as the women are set to headline the show as things stand now.
But beyond that, what did we truly learn about WrestleMania? We got teases, sure, but not much that is now set in stone. Here are the few things that happened at Fastlane that might be setting the stage to what we will see at WrestleMania.
One would certainly think that Shane McMahon and The Miz are on a collision course for WrestleMania after McMahon turned on Miz in front of Miz’s father after their loss to The Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team titles. A lot of people suspected it would be Miz that would turn on McMahon after their match but WWE flipped the script, making Shane-O-Mac the heel in this match. The fans reacted to this very well in Cleveland — The Miz’s hometown — and it will be interesting to see how crowds elsewhere take to The Miz as a full-fledged babyface going forward.
How will McMahon explain his actions on Tuesday? There are several different directions they can take, including the fact Miz told McMahon that he was using him weeks ago after they lost the titles Or was McMahon truly jealous that Miz found the support from his father that he never found in his own dad, Vince McMahon? SmackDown Live on Tuesday will most certainly be interesting when it comes to this story.
Jumping over to the Raw brand, after the Women’s Tag Team Championship match we saw Beth Phoenix, who was on commentary for the match, become physical with Tamina, leading to Nia Jax jumping Phoenix from behind. The two put a beat down on the Glamazon until her longtime friend Natalya ran down to the ring to try to make the save but got taken out as well, leaving Jax and Tamina standing tall and getting their heat back after failing to capture the titles.
Could we possibly have more than one women’s tag match at WrestleMania beyond the Boss and Hug Connection’s title defense? Because it certainly appeared that WWE set up Jax and Tamina against the team once known at Pin Up Strong to a match at WrestleMania. Will we see this start to play out on this week’s Raw? Or are they going forget about it and brush it to the side as WWE has with things like this in the past? We will probably find out sooner rather than later.
Finally, we jump back over to the blue brand as Kofi Kingston’s road to WrestleMania has seemingly gotten more clear. Once again, Mr. McMahon screwed Kingston out of a potential title match at Fastlane and instead put him in a two-on-one handicap match against The Bar. Kingston lost, but not for lack of trying, and the crowd clearly didn’t care as they hijacked the WWE title match later in the show with loud chants of “We want Kofi!” throughout.
The WWE Universe is making their voices heard and the company is apparently listening. It’s obvious Kingston’s time is coming on the grandest stage of them all. But how will they get there? What will he have to do to get the match? Will it be one-on one-or a multi-man match with the likes of Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali?
If we know one thing about the next few weeks of TV going into WrestleMania it’s that a lot of things have to take place in order for this card to come together. Get ready for some exciting episodes of Raw and SmackDown leading into WrestleMania. What are you hoping to see happen this year at MetLlife Stadium? Sound off in the comments below.