6 Ups And 7 Downs For WWE Fastlane

1. So Is Lesnar The Hero?

Don€™t laugh. There is a very good chance that Brock Lesnar will be treated as the conquering hero when he walks into WrestleMania XXXI in San Francisco now that it€™s set that he will face Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. WWE finally pulled the trigger Sunday night on Reigns as €œthe man€ €“ for the second time. It looked like the company was doubting its decision at the Royal Rumble by having Roman square off against eternal fan favorite Daniel Bryan at Fastlane with the Mania title shot on the line. Fans wondered whether we would get another triple threat, with a schmozz ending to send both on to Mania, or even have Bryan win outright. But unlike last year with Batista, WWE doubled down on Reigns Sunday, with Roman beating Bryan cleanly in the middle of the ring. This leaves the main event of WrestleMania wide open in terms of how fans will react. Will they turn on the match viciously (like they did the Royal Rumble match after Bryan was eliminated)? Will they show total apathy? Or will they turn Brock Lesnar into the hero and cheer loudly for him to win? It€™s entirely possible that Lesnar, who has done nothing but destroy opponents cleanly for a year straight, could be wildly cheered throughout the match, which would be an epic disaster for WWE if Reigns is to win the title as a supposed face. This could be a trainwreck waiting to happen.
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.