"Get in the fast lane, Grandma, the bingo game's ready to roll!"

-Legendary Pittsburgh Penguins announcer Mike Lange

Elimination Chamber is no more; hence the introduction of Fast Lane to bridge our way between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania.

Quick preview follows:




Usos (c) vs. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd (WWE Tag Team Championship)

Usos have been at or near the top of the Tag Division for the last 18 months, while Cesaro and Kidd are looking to jumpstart their careers after toiling in the singles midcard for the past several years. Kidd and Cesaro are elite workers who stand to breathe some life into an otherwise stale tag division.

Prediction: Cesaro/Kidd win the tag titles, setting up a WM rematch





Gold Dust vs. Star Dust

Will be a fun match...that should have been saved for WM. Assuming this isn't part 1 of 2 (part 2 happening at WM obviously) then Cody goes over and brings the Star Dust gimmick to singles competition, while Dustin takes a job backstage.

Prediction: Cody wins





Dolph Ziggler/Eric Rowan/Ryback vs. Seth Rollings/Big Show/Corporate Kane

Straight from the depths of Teddy Long's Holeonaminunt, tag team main event Smackdown GM days. Impossible to care about this hastily thrown together, substantially less compelling Survivor Series redux.

Prediction: Authority's boys win, probably on account of J&J securiference





Paige vs. Brie Bella (c) (Diva's Championship)

NXT has taught us that women's wrestling can be awesome if given the time and attention. We probably won't see a 15 minute classic, but these two should make some headway into disabusing us of the (often correct) piss-break characterization of Diva's matches.

Prediction: Brie retains dirty and sets up a WM rematch





Dean Ambrose vs. Wade Barrett (c) (Intercontinental Championship)

Two underrated workers battle it out over the WWE's version of the Old Maid Card (i.e. license to job to rest of the roster).

This match should be perfectly cromulent, but in my mind will be tainted by the ugly soiled mattress fire that is the contemporary IC title.

Prediction: Ambrose wins the title, and doesn't win another match until he loses it again at Wrestlemania





John Cena vs. Rusev (c) (United States Championship)

This rivalry presents a great opportunity for Cena to put over a younger member of the roster. It also gives WWE a chance for Cena to win the U.S. title and (somewhat) re-legitimize it. So there are a couple of decent directions to go here. Ideally, Cena wins the title and sets up a rematch at WM, where he can then put Rusev over on WWE's biggest stage. Unfortunately, I see the opposite happening: Rusev winning here at a minor PPV, with Cenawinslol happening at WM.

Prediction: Rusev wins





Daniel Bryan vs. Roman Reigns (winner to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania)

This match all comes down to asking how much WWE's faith has been shaken in Roman Reigns. If A) "completely shaken," then Bryan wins, WWE has egg on its face, yet we get potential for a 5 star classic between Bork and Bryan at WM. If B) "somewhat shaken," then we get a flukey no-finish that results in a Reigns/Bryan/Bork Triple Threat at Mania. Not terrible, but not great either. If C) "Vince is stubborn," then Reigns goes over. My preference if C is inevitable is that RR goes over dirty for the complete heel turn, thereby facing a babyface Bork at Mania.

Prediction: Reigns goes over clean, remaining a nominal babyface, while this capacity crowd in the Twoplustwo wrestling forum loses its collective mind.

Can't wait for Sunday Night Raw!

One bonus point for "cromulent".

excited for this ppv if only because i have no idea what direction they will take with the main event.

Nice OP, but isn't Nikki the Divas champ? Or did I miss a title change?

Yeah that's my mistake; I had Brie in my mind since the latest Total Divas where Paige takes her out to get sh*tfaced.

I thought you did it on purpose

In for reignswinslol and a horrible Memphis crowd

wait, this is tonight?

Yes, and it's even free on the WWE network for new subscribers.

WWE is so ******ed for putting this opposite the Academy Awards.

Shoulda put the Slammies on instead.

Looking forward to this and being an optimist tonight.

The show is all about Bryan-Reigns for me, though I'll watch the whole thing.

It's a huge indictment of the current bookers that somehow they have an Ambrose-Barrett title match and I have a really hard time caring about it. That should be the easiest sale in the world. But I am optimistic about Bryan-Reigns being a good match, and hopefully one with an interesting ending. The only way I would truly just throw my hands up in resignation is if they do a Reigns win AND the two hug it out.

i've been seeing this a lot and i don't get why people are all up in arms about cena going over rusev at WM.

over the last year, rusev has been one of the only beneficiaries of good, long term booking in the entire company. he's developed organically, gradually working through jobbers then midcarders and now main eventers and he hasn't been stuck in any ridiculously stupid feuds or angles. the IWC loves him and i like him too but he's not amazing in the ring or on the mic and his gimmick has a shelf life.

rusev getting a nice run with the US title and dropping it to the face of the company at the biggest event of the year which will hopefully inject value back into the US title is probably a top 2% outcome any of us could've hoped for.

Nice OP. You just left off the main event where HHH and Sting look at each other for 10 minutes.

DONT CALL HIM CODY

Looking back at the survivor contest, LKJ picked Rusev to win in Extreme Rules. So Rusev hasn't lost a singles match clean now in going on a year? Is that right?

yeah he's never lost other than by DQ and countout

I love Rene but this pre-game stuff that treats WWE like an NFL pre-game is so aids

Is this at 8pm eastern?

This applies to most situations where Cena goes over. The vast majority of the time it's just fine that he goes over; occasionally the way they do it is really bad (the blowoff match against Miz), but it's rare that the result itself is that bad.

I would rather just about anyone go over Rusev than Cena (even Reigns). But i'd actually prefer Rusev keeps his streak going on past WM32. It's a nice story and it's not like he has been burying a bunch of people whilst racking up wins.

if he doesn't lose to cena then who does he lose to?

Pretty nice promo by Ambrose on the pre-game thing about the IC belt. It gives me a tiny shred of unwarranted confidence that they're interested in fixing it.