Opinion
Bodeen’s Top 5 Moments: WWE Fastlane
Bodeen checks in with his Top 5 moments coming out of WWE Fastlane, the last PPV on the Road To WrestleMania!
Bodeen checks in with his Top 5 moments coming out of WWE Fastlane, the last PPV on the Road To WrestleMania!
After very little build, there wasn’t much hype heading into Fastlane this year. Even with this, Fastlane was a show of two halves. While the first half of Fastlane felt disappointing and dull, the second half of Fastlane was exciting as Drew McIntyre and Sheamus destroyed each other and Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan put on an amazing match. So with the one big stop on the road to WrestleMania now behind us, let’s look at the top 5 moments that stood out on Fastlane.
5. The Fiend returns to shock Randy Orton
After weeks and weeks of Alexa Bliss teasing Randy Orton and playing mind games on him, it was only a matter of time until The Fiend would return to get revenge on Randy Orton. Before The Fiend would return however Alexa Bliss would play more mind games on Randy Orton at Fastlane in their match, making Orton cough the black substance we have seen him cough lately as well as throwing a fireball at him.
The Fiend would then return from under the ring to grab Randy Orton’s ankle. The Fiend would then rise up from under the ring to the surprise of Orton, with The Fiend having a new look showing off his scars from being burnt alive from Randy Orton at TLC last year. Alexa Bliss would then kick Randy Orton into The Fiend, allowing The Fiend to hit Orton with the Sister Abigal giving Alexa the win.
While this angle has not been everyone’s cup of tea, personally I loved the encounter between The Fiend and Randy Orton at Fastlane, especially as I loved the Fiend’s new look. With WrestleMania now upon on us, it will be interesting to see if WWE give us another Firefly Funhouse match.
4. Riddle and Ali steal the preshow as Retribution break up
While the preshow may be boring to watch, especially as it feels repetitive and dull every Pay-Per-View sometimes we do see little glimpses of preshow greatness. We would see this an example of this greatness of the Fastlane preshow as the United States Champion, Riddle took on Ali in a solid match.
While their match wasn’t special it was still a great match that left me excited to watch the main show. After 10 minutes of great back and forth action, Riddle would eventually get the win over Ali, after hit a great-looking Bro-Derek from the middle rope to retain his United States Championship.
After the match, Ali would blame his loss on the other members of Retribution. Reckoning and Slapjack would then leave the ring to the frustration of Ali. Ali would then berate T-Bar and Mace, only for both men to hit Ali with High Justice, putting an end to Retribution.
3. Shinsuke Nakamura and Seth Rollins save the card
After the first half of Fastlane felt boring and slow due to the quality of matches being below average as well as bad booking, Fastlane needed something to save the show. Luckily Shinsuke Nakamura and Seth Rollins would put on an amazing match, saving the card and helping set up the second half of the show which was much better.
Shinsuke and Rollins would both trade strikes, with Rollins getting the upper hand early in the match. Rollins would then take out his frustrations on Nakamura and even attempted to send a message to Cesaro by performing the Cesaro swing. This would allow Shinsuke to get back into the match as both men continued to push each other.
Seth would eventually get the win over Shinsuke after reversing Shinsuke to kick Shinsuke in the back of the head. This would allow Seth to hit the curb stomp on Shinsuke for the win in a great match that made Seth look strong heading into WrestleMania 37.
2. Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns fight for the Universal Championship as Edge watches
After Seth Rollins, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sheamus and Drew Macintyre saved the card there was huge pressure on Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns to deliver a great main event that would leave a positive taste in the mouths of fans. Thankfully both men would put on a great match that helped set up the main event for WrestleMania 37.
Daniel Bryan would start off the match, teasing Roman Reigns hitting small strikes and staying out of Roman’s reach. Reigns would eventually get his hands on Bryan, punishing Bryan for teasing him early in the match. Reigns would continue to brutalize Bryan, only for Bryan to hit the running knee on the ref. Putting Edge in charge.
Bryan would put Reigns in the YES lock, only for Jey Uso to come out and attack Bryan and Edge. Bryan would then attack Jey with a steel chair and looked to attack Roman, only to hit Edge. Bryan would once again put Reigns in the YES Lock only for Edge to hit Bryan and Roman with a chair and leave with Roman getting the win.
1. Drew Mcintyre and Sheamus destroy each other
While it would have been better if this was a number one’s contender match Drew McIntyre and Sheamus still put on an amazing match with both men showing their brutality. The match would start off with both men trading strikes, bruising their backs. Both men would then trade kendo stick strikes, with the marks being left on the back of both men. Both men would then take the fight to the ThunderDome crowd area with Drew throwing Sheamus off the stage.
Sheamus would then get the upper hand after hitting a Brogue Kick on Drew McIntyre, sending Drew over the barricade. Sheamus would then pick up Drew and perform White Noise through the announce table. Sheamus would then pick up a chuck of the announce table, only for Drew to hit Sheamus with the Future Shock DDT, with Drew then hitting a Claymore on AJ for the win.
This was without a doubt the best match on the card. Special credit also has to be given to Drew McIntyre’s Scottish face paint which looked absolutely awesome, especially as it disappeared throughout the match.
These were my top 5 moments from Fastlane. What were your top 5 moments from Fastlane and what was your favorite match on the card? Let us know in the comments below?
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Opinion
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Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM
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About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
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Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
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Opinion
AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams
AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.
It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.
At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!
#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?
First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.
Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.
That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.
#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.
Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.
The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.
As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.
So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.
#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.
I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.
Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…
Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.
Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?
About Chairshot Radio Network
Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!
MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)
TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)
WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling)
THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)
FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)
SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast
SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast
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
Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!
Powered by RedCircle
Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!