10 WWE Directions Following Fastlane 2017

WWE Fastlane was a mixed bag, or perhaps more appropriately, a bumpy ride. As a non-gimmick, early year PPV, it featured some well performed and exciting match-ups, and got down to business without too much stalling for time. As the last PPV before the ‘Grandest Stage of Them All’, it was fairly divisive, and seemed to squander an awful lot of opportunities to build up to an exciting WrestleMania.

Regardless of your feelings towards Charlotte’s PPV streak ending, Goldberg squashing Owens, Big Show beating Rusev, or Reigns besting Braun Strowman, those cards have been dealt and can no-longer be reshuffled. Our WrestleMania card is almost set in stone, but it could do with some extra build and narrative development before it comes close to resembling wrestling’s biggest night of the year.

With a lot more questions than answers hanging over WrestleMania 33, the event could turn out to be one of the most interesting, or most disappointing in recent years. After Fastlane, RAW has laid down the gauntlet with a big money main event, and it's up to Smackdown to respond with its own worthy competitor.

The World’s Largest Athlete must have been on the World’s Healthiest Diet of late. He’s trimmed down to remarkable shape, and is performing better than he has in years. After recent victories over The Shining Stars and Rusev, as well as a valiant and surprisingly entertaining loss against Braun Strowman on RAW, Big Show appears to be getting something of a push as we near WrestleMania.

A few months ago, we’d likely have attributed this to his long-awaited/dreaded match against former basketball star and Shaq-Fu practitioner Shaquille O’Neal, who faced off against Big Show during last year’s Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. But it seems as though negotiations between Shaq and WWE have gone cold, leaving Big Show with no opponent for Mania.

Having already won the aforementioned Andre Battle Royal, there’s no reason to have Show win it again - that honour should go to a younger talent who could really do with such an accolade. With less than a month to build anything resembling a feud, WWE either needs to shelve this Big Show push, or give him someone worthwhile to fight.

Perhaps Rusev is the answer – he’s similarly directionless, and following his defeat at Fastlane, a big win against a leaner, meaner Show at Mania could be the spark that ignites a more dominant Bulgarian Brute after WrestleMania.

Either way, simply relegating Big Show to the pre-show for a tag, squash, or exhibition match seems like a colossal waste of his physical transformation, particularly when it could be used to build the star of a younger performer.