5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Fastlane 2023 (Results & Review)

Downs...

3. A Couple Of Mist Opportunities

Wrestlers using mist in matches is almost always awesome. It’s a great little trick to rile fans and throw a match into chaos.

However, you would have thought that WWE would have made sure if they were planning to use mist in a title match, they wouldn’t then use it in a second title match on the same card. Both Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura sprayed the mysterious substance on opponents, with Asuka nailing Charlotte Flair to start the match, and Nakamura blinding Seth Rollins in the main event.

Both instances, by themselves in the moment, were really great spots. Asuka starting the match by misting Flair was a brilliant way to try to take one of the competitors out of a triple threat to increase her chances of winning. And Shinsuke spraying Rollins was a perfect move to try to capture the World Heavyweight Championship.

But in both situations, the victims recovered pretty quickly and went on to compete at a high level, with Rollins retaining his title, and Charlotte getting a visual tap-out that the referee didn’t see. Mist is supposed to be debilitating, and in both instances, it was more of a nuisance than anything else.

This wasn’t a tragic violation, but there definitely should have been more thought put into those spots.