How WWE Fastlane 2019 Must End

Kevin Owens Rowan Daniel Bryan
WWE.com

SmackDown Live's last show before Fastlane was smartly dedicated to getting Kevin Owens over a) as a babyface and b) as a believable threat to Daniel Bryan's WWE Championship. The company briefly resorsorted to their worst selves with a gag about 'The Prizefighter's belly, d*ckhead Bryan's self-satisfaction with his zinger undid the sting before an unusually earnest Owens did the same. WWE achieved a lot with a little, reminding audiences that 'KO' had no friends to counter Rowan until Mustafa Ali returned with his own business with Bryan still unfinished.

Ali may be the tonic for Rowan at Fastlane, but the company were clever enough to leave Sami Zayn's name out of anybody's mouth ahead of Sunday's show. Owens has one friend, at very least, but a cursory look at the 'Underdog From The Underground's Twitter suggests that it'll be the very man he faced at last year's 'Show Of Shows' rather than former 'Yep Movement' compadre Kevin he elects side with upon his return.

As with Bryan, everything good he wants to do for the real world travels through the Vince McMahon filter as something awful in the WWE Universe. Sami For Syria's non-presence on the show in comparison to Susan G Koeman's annual pink carpet welcome could form his first fiery salvo against the capitalist empire. Echoing everything Bryan's said about everyman Owens would stoke the fires for their own WrestleMania match, but what about the WWE Champion himself? Bryan's vitality in the role has been vindicating for his fans, but a lack of clear direction for the 'Show Of Shows' as served as reminder how little his match matter compared to whatever bombast, b*llocks and ballyhoo might need setting up for Shane McMahon.

By accident or design, Bryan is the relied-upon-but-forgotten entity in all of this. He has more in common with Kofi Kingston than he'd care to admit...

CONT'D...

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Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he 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 on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. 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 music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.