On the very same night as the Oscars were disseminating from Hollywood, the WWE produced a live pay-per-view that looked intriguing on paper, especially from the standpoint of not knowing for sure who was going to win most of the matches. That is always a bonus. Here are my thoughts on the show:
1. Vince missed the boat again!!: Vince McMahon gave himself a mulligan after the Royal Rumble, where the crowd, to a man/woman/child, booed not only Roman Reigns, but the Rock out of the building, too, after choosing Reigns as the anointed future face of the company instead of crowd favourite Daniel Bryan. So, WWE called an audible and gave the fans what they wanted by putting Bryan in a match with Reigns at Fastlane to see who would take on Brock Lesner for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the show of shows: Wrestlemania 31. And what does Vince choose to do? Have Bryan win? No. Have a controversial finish so there can be a triple-threat match at Mania to keep fans happy? Nope. Piss fans off more by having Reigns win clean? Bingo! The match was good and both men are rising stars. Hopefully one day they can be the next Rock and Austin, but right now Daniel Bryan is a much better all-around performer and has the crowd on his side. Reigns is getting there, but it is too early for him and a push too early may ruin his chance to ever get over with fans. He deserves better!!
2. Impressive Tag Team: Cesaro and Tyson Kidd won the tag-team titles last night, the only belts to actually change hands, and they looked good doing it. Ceasaro has been on the upswing in terms of performance and fan love since last Wrestlemania, where he won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. After that, WWE's creative team tried to seemingly destroy his career by keeping him heel, pairing him with Paul Heyman and not being able to figure out that all they needed to do was turn him face and let him have a run on his own, so it was nice to see him win something last night. Tyson Kidd, on the other hand, is very good between the ropes and is finally starting to learn to develop a character that fans actually care about. Good on them for winning and hopefully they will stay together long enough to build a decent following.
3. STING: Obviously WWE is going back to Sting's glory days in WCW where he wouldn't speak and wielded the great equalizer, a black baseball bat, against his treacherous foes, with his WWE character. And I am fine with that. I like the eery supernatural elements and think that staying silent keeps him more mysterious and interesting. Triple H did a great job as the scheming businessman who wants to avoid a real fight at all costs and it was nice to see him actually take Sting down for a minute, just to show the audience that Sting wasn't going to just come in and destroy him every time they met. However, in the end, it was nice to see the baseball bat come out and for the Wrestlemania match to be officially set up. I have no doubt Sting will win the match, but with these 2 trading promos and competing in the ring, an exciting story should unfold over the next 34 days.
4. Cena finally puts someone over: As much as I want to see Rusev lose after a year of being a beast, I really like how Cena put him over in their match. Cena remained strong by passing out to the Accolade instead of tapping out and Rusev got a big rub from this. He has the potential to be the next great monster heel if they build him right.
