Tonight we’ll find out if Daniel Bryan will go to WWE Fastlane to face Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship.
We began the night with a video recapping how Edge came to choose Roman Reigns as his Wrestlemania opponent.
Then Michael Cole welcomed Daniel Bryan to the ring. Cole then gave a run down of what tonight means for Bryan. If Bryan defeats Jey Uso in the steel cage match, he will face Roman Reigns at Fastlane. This would of course change plans at Fastlane, from a tag team match to a title match.
Bryan said no one even asked him if he wanted to tag with Edge and take on Reigns and Uso. No one ran that idea past him because Bryan has always done what has been asked of him with no complaints. Bryan said he is making a change. He gets that Wrestlemania right now is Attitude Era versus the Thunderdome, but he doesn’t want to see that. Bryan is going to do his best to make sure that doesn’t happen.
He then asked Cole to leave and Bryan showed a video of what happened at Elimination Chamber. DB said after the video that he knows he has gotten beat up and lost a lot in his career, but after winning his third Chamber match you’d think losing wouldn’t be a big deal. But after his valiant attempt at Elimination Chamber, he felt like a failure.
Apparently, Bryan doesn’t have a ton of ambition, at least according to tests, but he loves this business. For the last year he has had in his head he was going to step away from being a full-time superstar and more into being a full-time dad. He has taken the time to put another talent first, but after the Chamber, he’s done putting himself on the back burner. DB has more ambition than that test could ever show and deserves to be in the main event of Wrestlemania.
DB is ready to be the absolute best and main event Wrestlemania. Then……Reigns’ music hit.
As Reigns, along with Jey Uso and Paul Heyman, made his way to the ring we went to commercial break.
Upon returning from break, Reigns stared DB down. Reigns believes that Bryan can’t be driven because he is an underdog, a little guy. DB is not ambitious, but people like Reigns? They certainly are.
Then Reigns questioned DB’s love of the business. He said DB doesn’t love the business, but he needs it. For example, Reigns loves the business because everyone else needs him….love is acts of service. After Uso defeats DB tonight and he accepts that he needs Reigns, he’ll acknowledge him. DB tried to respond, but Uso grabbed the mic. Uso said he has to go through him to get to the Universal Championship.
Uso tried to attack DB, but he was ready for the attack. Then a staredown between champion and possible future challenger occurred.
After a rundown of what we could expect from Smackdown, highlights from last week’s tag team match between The Street Profits and King Corbin/Sami Zayn was shown.
Then The Street Profits made their entrance to the ring before we went to another commercial break.
Returning from the break, Sami Zayn made his entrance. Zayn said last week The Street Profits pulled off a fluke victory. Tonight Zayn said he and Corbin will prove it was a fluke. Then King Corbin came out and said he refused to be his tag team partner tonight. Corbin then laid out the challenge of a singles match with one of The Street Profits.
King Corbin defeated Montez Ford via Pinfall (End of Days)
Thanks to a distraction by Zayn, Corbin was able to pull off the victory. Up to Zayn’s distraction, Ford was able to gain offence on the King and look to be in good shape.
After the match, Corbin and Zayn had a discussion, or rather an argument. As Zayn was still arguing with Corbin he went to get in the ring, but Dawkins went on the attack. Zayn got pushed off the ring apron, landing on Corbin. Corbin then decided to leave Zayn on his own as we went to commercial break.
Angelo Dawkins defeated Sami Zayn via Pinfall (Roll up)
Zayn can not seem to catch a break. Dawkins was all offence from the very beginning, at least until the action went to the outside. Zayn was able to gain some control of the match by bouncing Dawkins’ head on the barricade. In the end, Ford distracted Zayn, which led to the end of the match.
After the match, Zayn yelled asking who was behind this. Then he beat up a man on his documentary crew that he apparently didn’t know.
Then backstage we saw Reginald walking backstage. Carmella stopped him. She accused him of being a snake and then fired him!
Dominik and Rey Mysterio made their entrance to the ring as we went to another commercial break.
Dominik Mysterio defeated Chad Gable via Pinfall
The Mysterios got a bit of retribution on Gable and Otis! After the match Rey attacked Otis! He hit Otis with a dropkick, then a senton onto the announcer’s desk!
After the match, we saw footage of what went down between Cesaro and Seth Rollins last week. Then Rollins was interviewed by Kayla Braxton. Rollins was not thrilled with being swung around by Cesaro last week for so long. He believes Cesaro is afraid to embrace the vision and wanted to embarrass Rollins last week.
Then Murphy interrupted and said he could help with the Cesaro situation. Rollins told him to get out of his sight.
Shayna Baszler made her entrance before we took another commercial break.
Bianca Belair defeated Shayna Baszler via Pinfall (KOD)
Baszler was in charge for most of the match. She even made a target of Belair’s left arm. This caused Belair to be off her game for a little bit. Belair almost lost the match due to Reginald’s presence but pushed him out of the way.
Reginald ended up in front of Nia Jax, who was not thrilled with his presence either. Jax took a run at him, but Reginald moved just in time which led to Jax taking out Sasha Banks (who was ringside for the match).
After the match, Belair told Banks to take care of the situation with Reginald. As Belair walked up the entrance ramp, Banks slapped Reginald! She told him to respect and stay out of her business.
Then we saw Jey Uso backstage with Roman Reigns. Reigns told him that he needs to understand the stakes of his match tonight. Winning means the Universal Championship is safe until Mania. Losing? Well, it’s fine, but it embarrasses the family. Uso said he had the match under control.
Then we went to another commercial break.
Cesaro defeated Murphy via Submission (Sharpshooter)
As Seth Rollins watched this match from commentary, Cesaro showed off against Rollins’ former apprentice. Murphy had some good offence against Cesaro, but Cesaro was able to gain control of the match with uppercuts! As Cesaro swung Murphy around, Rollins said Cesaro did it to mock him!
Backstage Reginald attempted to knock on Sasha Banks’ locker room door. Banks answered, told him no and then slammed the door in his face.
Reginald then ran into Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax. Baszler mocked Reginald a bit before Jax intervened and called Reginald cute. Then we took a commercial break.
When we returned from break Apollo Crews made his entrance. Crews was joined by what appeared to be bodyguards. These guards turned out to be his Nigerian Elite Guard.
Crews said people don’t like the new him, but this is the real him! He is a descendant of Nigerian Royalty. When his father told him the stories of his family he was ashamed. Crews just wanted to fit in, but he was never accepted. The truth is, his family was some of the most feared and respected warriors.
While Big E has tried to conquer him, Crews said he heard his ancestors telling him to claim his birthright. He is excited to see Big E return next week. Crews is no longer going to beg, but he is demanding an Intercontinental Championship rematch next week.
Then backstage Natalya and Tamina asked Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville why they do not have a Women’s Tag Team match at Fast Lane. Deville said Pearce made a different decision.
As Jey Uso was being interviewed by Kayla Braxton, Daniel Bryan attacked him! Then we went to a commercial break.
Returning from commercial break we were treated to a segment of Ding Dong Hello! In this edition of the show, Bayley read a few nice tweets about herself.
Then in the ring Corey Graves gave us a rundown of the rules of a steel cage match.
Before a commercial break we got the entrances of the competitors of the steel cage match. Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman also decided to watch the main event at ringside.
Daniel Bryan defeated Jey Uso via Submission (Yes Lock)
Bryan’s road to Wrestlemania is still alive! Uso tried to end the match early on, but to no avail. As Reigns looked on Uso was able to pull off an extremely impressive Samoan Drop from the top rope. The match between the two competitors was insane, but in the end Uso had no other choice but to tap out.