Fastlane 2021: Two Excellent Matches Rescue an Uneven WrestleMania Tune-Up

Riddle and Mustafa Ali give the Kickoff show a match with more substance than the slot usually receives. Ali wrestles with urgency because another loss threatens his authority over Retribution, while Riddle can absorb the pressure and wait for the athletic opening that changes the match. Ali repeatedly targets the champion's upper body and creates several believable counters, but Riddle survives and eventually hits a Bro-Derek from the ropes for the clean retention. The post-match collapse of Retribution adds storyline consequence without compromising the wrestling result, making this a useful and satisfying pre-show match.

The opener is more interested in the tension between Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair than in building a definitive tag-team championship match. Baszler and Jax work as the established team, while Banks and Belair repeatedly look dangerous enough to win without ever feeling fully synchronized. The finish makes that point explicit: Jax shoves Belair into Banks during the Bank Statement, Banks becomes distracted by the collision, and Baszler rolls her up. Banks then slaps Belair after the bell. The wrestling is competent, but the match functions primarily as a bridge toward their WrestleMania rivalry.

Big E and Apollo Crews receive less than six minutes for a rivalry that had been presented as increasingly personal, and the abrupt finish keeps the match from matching the intensity of the build. Crews attacks with more aggression than in his earlier title challenges, but the bout never develops a full rhythm before a pinning exchange ends with Big E retaining. Crews immediately attacks after the bell, which makes the segment feel like setup for another match rather than a destination. The story continues effectively, but Fastlane does not provide the feud with a satisfying pay-per-view chapter.

Braun Strowman versus Elias exists because Shane McMahon's storyline injury removes the advertised match and forces a substitute at the last moment. That context makes the result completely predictable: Elias gets a few moments of offense, Strowman powers through him, and the Running Powerslam ends the match in under four minutes. There is nothing technically disastrous about the wrestling, but there are no stakes beyond filling the hole created by Shane's angle. As a pay-per-view match, it is disposable and feels like a Raw segment that happened to land on Fastlane.

Rollins and Nakamura provide the card's best conventional singles wrestling outside the two major matches that follow. The feud is only days old, but both men have enough established credibility to make the match feel competitive without excessive setup. Nakamura's strikes and counter wrestling repeatedly interrupt Rollins' attempts to dictate pace, while Rollins gradually finds openings by attacking between Nakamura's bursts. The closing sequence is clean and decisive: Rollins lands the Black Magic kick and follows with the Curb Stomp for the pin. It is not a classic, but it is polished, focused and easy to recommend.

McIntyre and Sheamus wrestle like two former friends who have spent weeks proving that ordinary matches cannot contain the feud. The No Holds Barred stipulation gives them room to turn every section of the ThunderDome into a weapon without abandoning the physical style that made their earlier matches work. They trade heavy strikes, use the ringside environment and eventually fight near the production area, where McIntyre delivers a Future Shock DDT onto a television monitor. Back in the ring, the Claymore ends a violent, escalating match that feels far more important than Fastlane's place on the calendar suggests.

Alexa Bliss versus Randy Orton is staged as supernatural horror rather than a wrestling match. Orton spits black liquid before the bell, Bliss avoids contact while triggering fire and falling equipment, and the sequence is built entirely around waiting for Bray Wyatt's return. The Fiend eventually tears through the ring canvas with a charred appearance, attacks Orton with Sister Abigail and allows Bliss to score the pin. As an angle, it delivers the visual WWE wanted before WrestleMania. As a pay-per-view match, it contains almost no wrestling and depends completely on whether the viewer accepts the supernatural presentation.

Reigns and Bryan produce a thirty-minute main event that gives Fastlane the high-level championship match the rest of the card needs. Bryan attacks with movement and submissions, forcing Reigns to wrestle longer and more defensively than he prefers, while Reigns keeps returning to power and control. The final stretch layers the WrestleMania story onto the match without erasing the wrestling that came before it. Bryan traps Reigns in the Yes! Lock and Reigns visibly taps while no referee is available, but Edge eventually loses control and attacks both men with a chair. A replacement referee arrives, and Reigns steals the pin. The finish is frustrating by design and directly creates the WrestleMania triple threat.