Opinion

Andrew’s WWE Fastlane 2019 Star Ratings & Analysis

Andrew drops in some ratings and analysis for Fastlane! How do we get to WrestleMania from here?

Published

6 years ago

March 10, 2019

Andrew Balaz

Andrew drops in some ratings and analysis for Fastlane! How do we get to WrestleMania from here?

Fastlane hasn’t really rattled the imagination on many. It definitely has that nearly house show feeling of the endings are a little obvious, let’s just get through it and onto Mania.

It would be nice if the show impressed, but WWE has a tendency to make the Internet crowd…pessimistic, at best. So I guess we should see where this lands?

Let’s go!

Ratings:

KICKOFF: Xavier Woods & Big E vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev: Woods wins via Up Up Down Down @13:20 – *** 1/4
SmackDown Tag Team Title Match: The Usos (c) vs Shane McMahon & The Miz: Usos retain via Inside Cradle @14:10 – *** 1/4
SmackDown Women’s Championship: Mandy Rose vs Asuka (c): Asuka retains via Crescent Kick @6:40 – ** 1/2
Handicap Match: The Bar vs Kofi Kingston: The Bar win via White Noise @5:15 – -* (yup that’s negative)
Raw Tag Team Triple Threat: The Revival (c) vs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs Aleister Black & Ricochet: Revival retain via Shatter Machine @10:50 – *** 1/2
United States Championship Fatal 4-Way: Andrade vs R-Truth vs Samoa Joe (c) vs Rey Mysterio: Joe retains via Coquina Clutch @10:50 – **** 1/4
WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles: Sasha Banks & Bayley (c) vs Nia Jax & Tamina: Bayley retains via Hurricanrana @7:05 – *
WWE Championship Triple Threat: Daniel Bryan (c) vs Kevin Owens vs Mustafa Ali: Bryan retains via Knee Plus @18:45 – *** 3/4
Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch: Becky wins via DQ @8:45 – *
The Shield vs Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre: The Shield win via Cerberus @24:50- ****

Analysis:

A surprisingly long and competitive match given the fact that Rusev and Shinsuke haven’t been positioned very well. Decent enough match, but I don’t think anyone is surprised or particularly cares. The most interesting thing to come from this was the McMahon’s wanted to see Kofi right before the match.

Miz came out in Browns colors and a Cleveland is Awesome shirt, he was insanely babyfaced. The match told a great story and had a bunch of nice moments including Miz doing more top rope moves since his dad preferred high fliers. Shane had a great Coast to Coast interception on the Uce Splash. Miz went to the top to try and win with a Frog Splash, but knees up and an Inside Cradle stopped that. BUT WAIT-THERE’S MORE! Shane turns heel with the rest of his family and lays into Miz hard, including a Triangle Choke right in front of Miz’s father. It’s an odd time in wrestling when Miz is a believable babyface and that cemented it with the hometown love and the style of beat down. Great stuff, perfect professional wrestling match and aftermath.

This was a decent match, granted nothing spectacular but the swerve at the end with Sonya lifting up the apron to grab a kendo stick, but Mandy slipped on the ring skirt and got caught by a Crescent Kick from Asuka.

So Vinny Mac tells Kofi the Championship match will be a Triple Threat and tells Kofi to go out to the ring. He figures it’s for the WWE Championship, but he gets screwed again and thrown into a Handicap match against the Bar. This just lasted too long. I get the screw Kofi angle, but this was unnecessarily long. The crowd even started chanting boring. I hope we don’t get 3 weeks of misdirection crap. So now the question is, will the beat up Kofi still be involved in the WWE Championship match tonight, or is this just leading down a Vince rabbit hole?

Elias is apparently playing the breaks between matches just to be on the show? A few snarky remarks about previous matches. He’s like exposition no one asked for…AND I LIKE ELIAS.

Raw Triple Threat went mostly as assumed. Spotty and Roode & Gable were thrown in to eat the pin. Car crash moment when Ricochet tried to Frakensteiner Scott Dawson into everyone else on the outside, and Dawson’s foot got caught…so it just looked rough. But the match was fine, just really nothing more than a good match.

Even though it was only announced earlier in the day, this 4 Way was better than the match on SmackDown. Little wrinkles with Carmella, Zelina, Andrade and R-Truth. They kept the heat with Rey and Andrade around, but also proved they have good chemistry working together, even if inadvertently. Joe retaining is fine and came about well. Oh, R-Truth made more John Cena references, so this match was just a treat for people who’ve been watching weekly.

Sloppy match. Numerous screwed up spots and stumbles. Just overall hard to sit through. Oh Nia and Tamina go after Beth Phoenix, Nattie tries to make a save, so I guess we’re gonna get that match. Cause that’s what people have been asking for…yup…

Well it did end up being a Triple Threat, but the third wasn’t Kofi, it was…Mustafa Ali? Oh for Christ’s sake. The crowd started with the “We Want Kofi” chants and took a while for them to engage in the match. It was alright enough, but I honestly checked out of it. A few cool spots but Ali was added to eat the pin, even Helen Keller could see that. So the suspension of disbelief was fractured, the story was awkward when both Owens and Bryan were telling Ali he didn’t deserve the spot, but Owens worked with him occasionally. So yea..bad psychology, but decent enough ring work. The finish was different as well, so that was cool, but not as good as it could’ve been without the shenanigans.

This wasn’t so much a match as a means to an end. Charlotte got cocky and was playing around with Becky the entire match. Then when she’s about to put her away with the Figure 8, Ronda shows up and hits Becky so Charlotte loses by DQ. It all makes sense, and now we get the Triple Threat we expected for WrestleMania.

Elias interlude again…these are really stupid. But at least he hasn’t been interrupted all night. Lacey Evans makes her usual appearance. Renee has a good line for Lacey of “She can knock you out and butter your biscuits”. Corey is confused, but it was funny.

OH! Randy Orton RKOs Elias out of nowhere (but he already said good night so it doesn’t count as being interrupted), but AJ is also there to hit Orton with a Phenomenal Forearm. So I guess this finalizes the Randy vs AJ for Mania angle. People need to stop hiding under the ring though, sheesh.

It started off simple enough, but at some point it breaks down intelligently. Corbin’s team try to split the members of the Shield up. The issue came from having to jump around from in the crowd back to the ring. But hey, as the Swan Song for The Shield, this was a hell of a spectacle. The story went well enough, they hit all the right beats, the crowd was invested and you could tell Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins were enjoying it. Nice moment, Shield winning was never really in question, but it was a fun way to send the Shield home.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Good show. Aside from the impromptu Handicap match and the awful Women’s Tag, this was a good show. It told the stories it needed to, things were moved along to the WrestleMania angles and the in-ring action wasn’t bad at all. Fastlane goes in the books as a solid last stop before the big show!

Admittedly it did feel a little overbooked at times, especially with all the match tweaks and inventing a match. But that’s neither here nor there since the show and competitors made it work, more or less. Shane turning made complete sense, granted I’m not sure where we go with Roman and the Women’s Tag Titles. IIconics made some noise during the Pre-show, but I’d still prefer the Trish and Lita match. So that gives us reasons to tune in this coming week.

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Opinion

Chairshot Staff Picks: Money In The Bank

Extra, extra read all about it… Chairshot Staff picks are in!!!

Published

2 weeks ago

June 6, 2025

PC Tunney

Sing it with me… money money money money moneeeeeeeeeyeeeeee… everybody’s got a price! MONEY IN THE BANK is here!!! How money will our staff picks be?!?

AJ – Roxanne Perez
Andrew – Stephanie Vaquer – *Bubba Sparxxx Impression* I don’t tell stories, I let them tell theyself.
Dave – Guilia – A stacked field but I just like her here.
DJ – Naomi
DPP – Roxanne Perez
Jason – Alexa Bliss
Patrick – Roxanne Perez
Rey – Naomi – If Naomi loses, we riot!
Rob – Naomi
Greg – Alexa Bliss – Bliss has had huge reactions since returning and is moving a ton of merch. While I can see them wanting to build Roxanne Perez, Giulia, or Stephanie Vaquer, I think Alexa Bliss.

Tunney’s Take: Rhea Ripley – I’ll make my case short and sweet… Mami in the Bank! You can’t leave that money on the table.

Chairshot Pick – Tie – Naomi 3 & Roxanne Perez 3 (Alexa Bliss 2, Giulia 1, Rhea Ripley 1, Stephanie Vaquer 1)

AJ – LA Knight
Andrew – El Grande Americano – Feels correct given his push and the fact he’s over.
Dave – Seth Rollins – Got to push that new faction.
DJ – LA Knight
DPP – El Grande Americano
Jason – LA Knight
Patrick – Solo Sikoa
Rey – LA Knight – Looks like another push, and he does have history with Cena.
Rob – Solo Sikoa
Greg – Seth Rollins – This company is extremely high in the El Grande Americano gimmick, but this match comes down to Seth Rollins or LA Knight. Given the Rollins storyline, it’s his briefcase to win.

Tunney’s Take: El Grande Americano – Picture this: Chad Gable wins the AAA Mega Championship and El Grande Americano wins MITB! WHAT A SATURDAY in LA!!!

Chairshot Pick – LA Knight 4 (El Grande Americano 3, Seth Rollins 2, Solo Sikoa 2)

AJ – Becky Lynch – Sadly
Andrew – Becky Lynch – I still don’t care about Lyra.
Dave – Lyra Valkyria – Starting to warm up to her and Becky has a lot to do with that.
DJ – Lyra Valkyria
DPP – Becky Lynch
Jason – Becky Lynch
Patrick – Lyra Valkyria
Rey – Becky Lynch – Put some fire on the Irish Beef.
Rob – Becky Lynch
Greg – Becky Lynch – I don’t think you do a rematch here just to have Becky lose again. Unless Bayley shows up to help Lyra.

Tunney’s Take: Becky Lynch – A big part of me feels that winning this title checks off a major box for Becks in her HOF career.

Chairshot Pick – Becky Lynch 8-3

AJ – Cena & Paul
Andrew – Rhodes & Uso – Easy way for Cena to lose without eating the pinfall.
Dave – Rhodes & Uso – Get the QB back on the winning track.
DJ – Rhodes & Uso
DPP – Rhodes & Uso
Jason – Cena & Paul
Patrick – Cena & Paul
Rey – Rhodes & Uso – Heels usually lose these kinds of matches. Logan takes the pin.
Rob – Cena & Paul
Greg – Rhodes & Uso – I hope Jey isn’t an afterthought here like Cody was last fall when he was paired up with Roman. I think Cody pins Cena to set up Cody-Cena 2 at SummerSlam.

Tunney’s Take: Cena & Paul – I don’t think Cena is involved in another loss until he loses the WWE Championship. I also think Logan Paul is NOT done trying to capture Jey Uso’s World Heavyweight Championship. …Travis Scott in the house?

Chairshot Pick – 6-5 Rhodes & Uso

In closing I want to thank everyone on the panel for participating with their picks! You can follow each prognosticator/podcaster on X @ the handles below. We all enjoy Pro Wrestling so remember three things… be respectful of others, comparison is the thief of joy and HAVE FUN!

AJ – @PhenomenalAJB
Andrew – @IWCWarChief
Dave – @AttitudeAgg
DJ – @TheMindlessPod
DPP – @itsmeDPP
Jason – @JediFett
Patrick – @WrestlngRealist
Rey – @itsreycash
Rob – @rbonne1
Greg – @gregdemarco44
PC – @PCTunney
TheChairshot.com – @ChairshotMedia

prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – a PLETHORA of GREAT designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE’s PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS…IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O’Dowd’s 5X5

Classic POD is WAR

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About Chairshot Radio Network

MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR

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Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

Opinion

Chairshot Staff Picks: Backlash St. Louis

Chairshot Staff picks!!!

Published

1 month ago

May 9, 2025

PC Tunney

May is upon us and with that, so is Backlash from St. Louis! What does the first PLE after WrestleMania have in store for the WWE Universe? Let’s see if the Chairshot Staff can properly interpret the crystal ball of rasslin’ future.

AJ – Pat MacAfee – Gunther has to start losing control and who better than an announcer.
Andrew – Pat MacAfee – Goldberg getting involved does seem correct here.
Dave – Gunther – He’s not losing to a broadcaster.
DJ – Gunther – Pat is sent to the shadow realm until football season is over.
DPP – Gunther – Post match beat down leads to Pat time off.
Jason – Gunther – One massive spot and or bump from Pat.
Patrick – Gunther
Rey – Gunther – RIP MacAfee, t’was a good life.
Rob – Gunther
Greg – Pat MacAfee – Why? Goooooldbeeerrrrrgggggg!

Tunney’s Take: Gunther – Seems like the right pick here. Pat may be getting some time off and Gunther needs more heat.

Chairshot Pick – GUNTHER 8-3

AJ – Lyra Valkyria – Becky’s hopefully putting her over, still mad about Dakota.
Andrew – Becky Lynch – I have no real interest in Lyra currently.
Dave – Becky Lynch – Lyra is boring AF!
DJ – Lyra Valkyria – Bayley interferes.
DPP – Becky Lynch – Becky cheats and steals the title.
Jason – Lyra Valkyria – Bayley costs Becks.
Patrick – Becky Lynch
Rey – Becky Lynch – Story needs to jump up a bit, Becky Charlotte’s Lyra.
Rob – Lyra Valkyria
Greg – Becky Lynch – It’s been fun, Lyra. (It kinda hasn’t)

Tunney’s Take: Lyra Valkyria – Bayley’s interference should set up some type of program with Becky as we head towards Summer(Slam).

Chairshot Pick – BECKY LYNCH 6-5

AJ – Jacob Fatu – Great way to put him over w/ two former WHCs and LA Knight.
Andrew – Jacob Fatu – He’s Jacob Fatu!
Dave – Jacob Fatu – Too soon to pull the belt off him.
DJ – Jacob Fatu – Priest and LA can’t decide who’s is bigger.
DPP – Jacob Fatu – Your hardcore match, tables and chairs involved.
Jason – Jacob Fatu – The Champ retains due to or in spite of Solo.
Patrick – Jacob Fatu
Rey – Jacob Fatu – All gas. No brakes. Ain’t losing.
Rob – Jacob Fatu
Greg – Jacob Fatu – Someone from The Samoan Dynasty ain’t winning a title just to drop it.

Tunney’s Take: Jacob Fatu – Uncle Mo is on Fatu’s side and other than Knight, I don’t see Drew or Priest holding the US title in the current circumstances of this title’s landscape.

Chairshot Pick – JACOB FATU 11-0

AJ – Dominic Mysterio – Judgement Day shenanigans just leading up to Finn turning on Dom later.
Andrew – Penta – Dom’s fine having a short reign, could also work for pushing AAA.
Dave – Dominic Mysterio – He’s probably more over than Penta.
DJ – Dominic Mysterio – Dirty Dom takes home the gold and the girl.
DPP – Dominic Mysterio – Big Head helps Dom pull out the win.
Jason – Dominic Mysterio – By hook and crook.
Patrick – Dominic Mysterio
Rey – Dominic Mysterio – Latino Heat keeps burning. Finn gets closer to the edge.
Rob – Dominic Mysterio
Greg – Dominic Mysterio – Someone from The Guerrero Dynasty ain’t winning a title just to drop it.

Tunney’s Take: Dominic Mysterio – That belt looks good with the king of chicken tendys. I can see Penta and Rey reforming as a tag team sooner than later.

Chairshot Pick – DOMINIC MYSTERIO 10-1

AJ – John Cena – Why? Cena wins, lol.
Andrew – John Cena – Shenanigans ensue so it’s not a clean win.
Dave – John Cena – The last time is now.
DJ – John Cena – Randy hears voices telling him he needs an Attitude Adjustment.
DPP – John Cena – Cena tries to cheat but the ref doesn’t call for a DQ.
Jason – John Cena – Nefarious means, Randy not ready for Evil John Cena.
Patrick – John Cena
Rey – John Cena – Cena just counting down the dates. Should be fun though.
Rob – John Cena
Greg – John Cena – You know they want Cody to be the hero in the end.

Tunney’s Take: Randy Orton – Once upon a time Randy got himself intentionally disqualified and it cost John. Saturday, history repeats itself with a 180-degree twist. Cena retains via Orton DQ victory. This time, Travis Scott’s appearance takes care of that task.

Chairshot Pick – JOHN CENA 10-1