Friday, March 29, 2024
EditorialSuperstars Missing from WWE Fastlane 2016 PPV Card

Superstars Missing from WWE Fastlane 2016 PPV Card

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In typical WWE fashion as of the past year or so, the card for Fastlane 2016 was missing the majority of its matches until this week’s go-home episode of Monday Night Raw. For some reason, WWE has had a tendency to wait until the last minute to make things official, either because of all the injuries forcing them to change plans or because the creative team doesn’t know what direction they want to go until they’re forced to make a decision.

Now that the list of matches has grown, many names that weren’t previously booked have been added to the mix, but there are still some noteworthy wrestlers left out in the cold. As we do with every pay-per-view, let’s take a look at which superstars don’t have a scheduled appearance at Fastlane.

The Miz

It’s a shame to see that The Miz is still primarily utilized only as a promo guy rather than a legitimate wrestler. For all of his detractors, he turned out to be a rather big player during a time frame where it was hard to break out. Despite this, he’s reverted back to his position from the start of his career and if he’s not doing a MizTV segment, he’s likely not doing anything at all.

Occasionally, The Miz will get in the ring, but when he does, it’s never in a way where we can take him seriously. During this feud with AJ Styles and Chris Jericho, he’s been the stepping stone for both of them to beat someone so they don’t have to face each other too many times (even though those two have already interacted in the ring far more than they probably should have).

Since the main event of this pay-per-view is already a triple threat match, it can be argued that bringing The Miz into the Styles vs. Jericho match to make it a three-way could have been overkill, but why couldn’t it have happened on Raw or SmackDown? What if The Miz was made the special guest referee of the match to incorporate him in some way? At best, he’ll be on commentary, but I wouldn’t even hold my breath for that to happen.

Booking like this is why nobody would expect The Miz to be a legitimate challenger to anything anymore, even though he’s held numerous championships. When you aren’t a priority, you cease being credible.

Neville

Where the hell has Neville been in general? This week was the first time he’s made an appearance on Raw in quite some time as far as I can remember. If he’s shown up in 2016 more than handful of times, then they must have been so forgettable that they slip my mind entirely.

Since Neville tagged with Sin Cara and Kalisto on Raw, there’s a chance he’ll show up to help even the odds on the outside of the ring in comparison to the other members of The League of Nations who aren’t scheduled to wrestle, either. That’s potentially even a stretch, too, as a brief association on Raw doesn’t always translate to being in someone’s corner at an event. Seeing as how Sin Cara is one half of The Lucha Dragons, he’s someone to expect to see much more than Neville, but WWE could just as easily want to keep Kalisto out there on his own to emphasize how much more important he is than Sin Cara and Neville.

The Dudley Boyz vs. The Usos

The Dudley Boyz have turned heel and appear to be feuding with The Usos, but nothing is coming to fruition at Fastlane. My suspicions are firmly rooted in the belief that WWE wants to have a multi-team match at WrestleMania that features these two teams along with The New Day and another pairing, but since they waited so long to finalize the card for Fastlane, they didn’t accommodate for a lack of time.

Now that they set themselves up for several other things, they’re backed into a corner where they either cut some other things short to insert a match between The Dudley Boyz and The Usos while running the risk of making it seem like a repeat at WrestleMania, or they just ignore it for now, stall, drag it out and hope people aren’t sick and tired of what could be a repetitive build for the next month.

Either way, these two teams aren’t officially scheduled to lock up here, so WWE will have to find a way to keep some intrigue going for several more weeks or the inevitable meetup at WrestleMania will suffer from overexposure and poor planning.

Alternatives to The New Day Promo

Speaking of the tag team division, instead of The New Day defending their titles, we’re getting a promo from them. Not only is this not the pre-show segment, it also is the third time something like this has happened. Yes, there have only been two Fastlane events in WWE history, but there have been three promos. That in itself is ridiculous and just proves that this show is just a glorified episode of Monday Night Raw.

Mark Henry has been somewhat involved in the antics of The New Day, so why can’t he and Jack Swagger get a title shot? Goldust is pursuing R-Truth as his new tag team partner, and despite how I can’t stand that storyline, I would have been okay with them losing to The New Day at Fastlane. Hell, even The Social Outcasts could have gotten a title shot!

Instead, Edge and Christian (two performers I’m a big fan of, by the way) are going to eat up time on the main program (again, not the pre-show) to shill the new WWE Network show they star in. The New Day hasn’t been as funny lately as they were for pretty much the entirety of 2015, and with jokes like “slap a donkey and call me Bertha” being the most highlighted thing about Edge and Christian’s Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness, let’s just say I’m not super excited about this segment’s direction.

So what are your thoughts on the people missing from the card? Do you think Titus O’Neil’s suspension should be lifted and he should compete? Should the other members of The League of Nations wrestle and not just Alberto Del Rio? Would you want Triple H to defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship?

Sound off in the comments below!

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