WWE Fastlane 2019: Star Ratings For All 10 Matches

6. The Revival Vs. Aleister Black & Ricochet Vs. Chad Gable & Bobby Roode - RAW Tag Team Title Match

Ali Bryan Owens STARS
WWE

In which a sort of pedantry creeps into this critique, which we're sure will go down well.

This was obviously really, really good. Any match involving Ricochet and his jaw-dropping aerial game guarantees a certain adrenaline-triggering excitement. Most WWE multi-man matches, with their assorted last-ditch tropes, guarantee a certain level of drama.

But shouldn’t it have been better?

It was a bit…spotty. The Revival won, but they seemed to be in the right place, at the right time, to escape—and that is the right word—with the RAW Tag Team Titles. All six of these men starred in NXT, but this match never reached the stratospheric heights of the black and gold brand standard. It didn’t blow your t*ts off, like Halftime Heat did, nor did it resonate as the sort of thoughtful, strategic triumph that Scott Dawson and Dah Wilder crafted at the peak of their powers.

It didn’t help, either, that they made a mess of the big spot, in which Ricochet looked to have hurt himself far more than the tumbling field following an ugly hurricanrana that took an eternity to set up. He recovered to land a breathtaking, over-the-ring-post plancha—but this was only excellent in patches.

The finish in contrast followed far too quickly, insomuch that it felt anticlimactic.

Star Rating: ***1/2

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!