10 Positives Heading Into WWE Fastlane 2017

Thanks to Michael Cole and his force-fed lines, anyone with a pair of working ears is likely well aware that we’re currently on the fast lane to WrestleMania 33. But, just in case there was any doubt, there’s a conveniently named pay-per-view to look forward to this Sunday to really drive the point home.

Still, putting aside the corny name, the important thing is that Fastlane 2017 has been promoted as an event to look forward to rather than one to suffer through.

With Raw not staging a PPV in February, that gave the brand five weeks to hype up Fastlane, and ultimately, they made good use of that time. While Kevin Owens vs. Goldberg pretty much sells itself, elsewhere on the card, the writers have been able to turn Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns into a hotly-anticipated showdown, and they’ve also done well to recover from a potentially derailing knee injury to one of the show’s biggest stars.

With this year’s WrestleMania build already well underway, there was always a risk of Fastlane being overshadowed by the bigger PPV. However, the Raw brand has done a solid job of ensuring that hasn’t been the case.

Though Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman have featured intermittently to hype Lesnar vs. Goldberg at ‘Mania, their appearances haven’t impinged upon Fastlane’s Universal Championship program between Goldberg and Kevin Owens. Plus, other probable WrestleMania feuds, such as Roman Reigns vs. the Undertaker or Chris Jericho vs. Owens, have been placed on the back burner for the time being - though they are rivalries that can easily be rekindled as soon as Fastlane is over with.

That kind of balance has allowed Fastlane to be afforded centre stage, while also ensuring that the pieces are in place to assemble a decent build to WrestleMania in the remaining four weeks until show time.

Pre-WrestleMania PPVs can often feel more like a detour than an actual destination, but thankfully that hasn’t been the case ahead of Fastlane 2017.