8 WWE Fastlane 2021 Impulse Reactions

3. Drew McIntyre Vs Sheamus

The Fiend
WWE

The WWE Universe weren't "showing their love", as the cretinous Byron Saxton noted during the looping of the This-Is-Awesome wav file, but they probably would have at least given polite applause for yet another hard-hitting clash between the former friends.

This couldn't quite reach the heights of their double-stairs Raw draw, nor the straight singles one from the week before, but that's the price the poor wrestlers have to pay for WWE's repetitive booking.

It was, however, extremely good and the best thing on the show up to this point by a wide margin. At the risk of sounding like a Samoa Joe commentary soundboard, the two seem to really enjoy convincingly beating the hell out of each other, and this was another mostly absorbing example of that.

WWE gave them the entire ThunderDome to work with, even loading some of those zoom screens with more explosives that AEW's ring at the end of Revolution. The bells and whistles were a welcome accoutrement, all the way through to the very end. McIntyre using a broken piece of table to hit his Futureshock DDT on was in keeping with the brawl's jagged vibe, even if the Claymore proffered the cleanest of wins.

Really, really good and in the face of having its stakes stolen just days earlier, both men should be commended for making this entire feud work as well as it did.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett