5 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Fastlane 2018

3. One Man With A Clear Path

shinsuke nakamura wrestlemania
WWE.com

It’s understandable that the entire WrestleMania card isn’t filled out yet, but it was plain embarrassing when something was pointed out before the opening bout:

Going into Fastlane, Shinsuke Nakamura was the only wrestler with a guaranteed match for Mania.

Think about that: Four weeks before the biggest PPV of the year, only one person on an entire brand has a set match that can be promoted. And even then, his opponent wasn’t known because the WWE Championship was up for grabs. All titles were up for grabs Sunday, leaving the identity of the champion (and eventual challengers) up in the air.

That’s just embarrassing. Raw has three matches fully set already.

While you can give a bit of a pass because SmackDown had a PPV Sunday – and two matches were solidified by the end of the night – it’s still bad that there was only one blue brand bout even announced – Nakamura’s guaranteed title shot.

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Contributor
Contributor

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.