For years, its been argued that WWE should just do away with the pay-per-view between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. Major storylines are already in motion, so all the February PPV really does is advance angles for Mania. Occasionally, fans will get some classic moments, like Shawn Michaels popping up inside the Elimination Chamber to superkick Undertaker, or Eddie Guerrero winning the WWE Championship. But for the most part, the February PPV serves the same purpose as any three-hour episode of Raw, just on a Sunday night. The February PPV has been known by several names St. Valentines Day Massacre, No Way Out, Elimination Chamber but even in its new incarnation as Fastlane, Sundays special event made another strong case for eliminating this in-between PPV. Fastlane featured a seven-match card that delivered a couple solid moments, but by and large was forgettable as a PPV. Much of what happened at Fastlane could have taken place a day later and none would have been the wiser. Instead, we got a PPV that served more as a huge pothole on the Road to WrestleMania than the fast lane. Rather than being amped and ramping up for Mania, WWE could find itself in the ditch with this years event. So lets see what delivered and what was off-base at Sundays Fastlane.
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.
