5 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Fastlane 2017

by Scott Carlson

1. Neville, Gallagher Deliver In Title Bout

Neville Gallagher
WWE.com

It’s been a while since a WWE Cruiserweight Championship PPV match got time to breathe, but when it did Sunday, it had fans chanting and cheering along.

Champ Neville and challenger Jack Gallagher put on a hell of a show at Fastlane, mixing in their usual spots with some nasty ones – in a good way – such as Neville’s snap German suplex, Gallagher’s top-rope belly-to-back suplex and some vicious headbutts, kicks and other maneuvers. In the end, Neville broke out his Red Arrow to hold onto the title, but by then, the fans were already won over.

Credit for this has to go to both men for their personalities and making fans care about them and the match, but also for turning in a really good performance Sunday. Combined with a decent cruiserweight tag match on the kickoff show, it gave some hope that WWE might yet figure things out with its lightest wrestlers. Might.

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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.