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

by Scott Carlson

1. Getting That Sweet, Sweet Cena Rub

WWE Fastlane 2023 John Cena LA Knight
WWE.com

John Cena has officially morphed into the legendary veteran who is in the twilight of his wrestling career, looking to share his abnormally large spotlight with others.

The 16-time world champion tagged with rapidly rising star LA Knight (yeah!) to challenge the Bloodline B-Team of Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa. Cena spent the entire match being beat down by the heels, with Solo dominating large chunks of the contest. It wasn’t until fans had been sufficiently whipped up that he made the hot tag to Knight, who ran wild on everyone.

Knight and Cena had some decent chemistry as they confounded Sikoa and Uso before LA put Jimmy away with a BFT. But this match wasn’t about workrate or star ratings. It was about Cena making sure everyone else in the match looked strong and got some shine in his first televised match since WrestleMania 39.

Who knows how many more matches Cena has left in him before this latest run dries up, and then whether he returns to the ring again later on? It’s nice to see him giving Knight the stamp of approval and getting Solo across as a physical threat. Saturday can only help both of them.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.