Paige and Nikki Bella had a tough road ahead of them going into Fastlane. They were following an epic fourway NXT Womens Championship match at Takeover: Rival earlier in the month, and it was going to be a challenge to even approach that bout in terms of quality, storyline or fan interest. The two women gave it a go for a bit Sunday night, but when the basis for your rivalry is spray-tanning someone and stealing her clothes, then youre already starting at a deficit. Nikki hit some nice power moves, including an Alabama Slam and an Eddie Guerrero-esque powerbomb, but she couldnt put Paige away. So what toppled Paige? A rollup, of course, with a handful of tights (and Paiges belt). Its that type of finish that makes it impossible to take many of these matches seriously in any fashion. A vicious powerbomb cant put her away, but a simple rollup does the trick. It doesnt help that the rollup seems to be the preferred ending for most womens matches. (Compare that to Sasha Banks wrenching the crossface on Charlotte for a minute before rolling her spent opponent and pinning her.)
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.
