WWE Fastlane was surrounded by a significant amount of rumors heading in. At one point or another, we heard that there would be appearances by Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Triple H, Kurt Angle and the Undertaker. Of those, only Jericho showed up, but he certainly made his mark.
Jericho appeared during the main event of WWE Fastlane to help cost Kevin Owens the WWE Universal Championship in his squash defeat to Goldberg. A Lesnar appearance was teased by a Paul Heyman promo, but he will be featured prominently over the next four weeks, pitted against the new champion in what is expected to be the main event of WrestleMania.
Finn Balor is apparently cleared to return to WWE, but his WrestleMania plans are in flux. There is a proposed program for Balor to go up against Samoa Joe on April 2, but WWE officials are holding off on anything concrete until they know more information about Triple H and Seth Rollins. As noted, neither of those two appeared in Milwaukee Sunday night, but the WWE teased an in-depth look at Rollins’ rehab during Monday’s WWE RAW.
We reported on Sunday afternoon that Kurt Angle was supposedly spotted at a Milwaukee airport, leading to a ton of speculation that he’d be showing up at WWE Fastlane. We’ve yet to hear anything further and whether he was even backstage at the arena, but we were cautious in reporting it as fact that he was actually in the city.
But then there’s the Undertaker. On Saturday, a report surfaced that there was a possibility that the Deadman would be showing up at WWE Fastlane. The presumption was that he’d interfere during the match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman, costing Reigns the match in some fashion to set up the showdown between the two at WrestleMania. But Sunday night at WWE Fastlane, Reigns went over Strowman clean with no sign of the Undertaker.
During the most recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer indicated that WWE officials held off on an Undertaker run-in because they didn’t want to overdo the interference angles on the show. The Deadman is expected to be on RAW on Monday night, and it’s unclear whether he was even in Milwaukee on Sunday, but it’s believed that he was not. RAW is shaping up to be a memorable show despite the negative response to WWE Fastlane.
It can be argued that WWE officials face a similar issue on Monday that they had on Sunday. They didn’t want to bring Undertaker on to the pay-per-view so that it wouldn’t over-saturate the effect Jericho had on the main event. However, the lineup on RAW is stacked and could feature several big-name returns.
As noted, the Undertaker should be in Chicago for WWE RAW where its expected that he’ll confront Roman Reigns. Finn Balor may also return after being out of action since last year’s SummerSlam. Brock Lesnar will be back in what should be an interesting segment with Goldberg. As noted, Rollins will be featured on the show, but not live in front of the crowd and instead, on a pre-taped segment. It’s unclear yet whether Triple H will show up, but don’t expect Kurt Angle to be on WWE programming until WrestleMania weekend.
