WWE Fastlane 2018: Star Ratings For All 7 Matches
1. 6-Pack Challenge Match For The WWE Championship
You almost have to applaud the audacity of this berserk multi-man main event. WWE spins a company narrative that, in order to make it to WWE, you need to know how to work. You need to understand psychology. You need to know how to tell stories. You can't just get your easy sh*t in. Not in the big leagues.
This 6-Pack Challenge match was more of a spot-fest than anything you'll see promoted in Reseda, California. It began and ended with finishers. Cena floored four of his opponents with the AA in a dumb opening spot, portraying all bar AJ Styles as phenomenally dumb. The necessitated over-selling was psychologically jarring, at least until we were conditioned to simply forget about all that boring stuff and immerse ourselves in a match that, given its predictability, was written off before the bell rang.
Substituting psychology for ferocity, all six men simply and furiously threw their best shots at one another in a blast of a sprint. Who cared about Baron Corbin's general performance level and terrible wider booking, when Styles and Dolph Ziggler put his offence over as something both awesome and dangerous? Who cared about the lack of selling, when the finishers were struck so ferociously, and the subsequent pins were broken up with such brilliantly-timed last-gasp drama?
And Shane McMahon received a stiff superkick to the mush, finally acting as a smug, overbearing, fully-fledged heel. It was impossible not to love a high-octane war incorporating some storytelling in the midst of it all.
Star Rating: ****1/4