3 interesting things about WWE’s Fastlane pay-per-view you probably didn’t know

Established in 2015, Fastlane has been one of WWE’s top pay-per-view event due to its strategic placement in the WWE calendar. The event successfully replaced Elimination Chamber in the February slot of WWE's pay-per-view calendar in 2015.

While Fastlane continued to be held in February 2016, WWE reinstated the brand split in July 2016, which moved it to March in the successive years.

This also led to the event being a Raw-exclusive pay-per-view and in 2018, it switched to being SmackDown-exclusive. This year around, the event will be a dual-branded event with matches from both Raw and SmackDown taking place at the event.

While Fastlane is one of the newer pay-per-views of WWE, it has seen some interesting storylines and matches in its short history.

Therefore, we have made a list of three interesting things about the event which you probably didn’t know. Take a look below and share your favorite moments from the event in the comments section below!

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#3 It was created to pave the road to WrestleMania

Matches at Fastlane usually establish WrestleMania storylines

Fastlane takes place in the second half of February or the first half of March each year. The reason for that is that the event works as the ticket to WrestleMania.

Since the period between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania is known as the “Road to WrestleMania”, Fastlane has been given the name as a reference to its position on that road.

In the 2015 main event, Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan to retain his WWE World Heavyweight Championship shot against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31.

In the 2016 main event, Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose in a triple threat match to become the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship to face Triple H at WrestleMania 32.

In the 2017 main event, Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens to win the WWE Universal Championship, thus making his clash with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33 one for the Universal Championship.

#2 The shortest match in the event’s history lasted only 22 seconds

The short match crowned Goldberg the champion

Speaking of Goldberg defeating Owens to win the WWE Universal Championship at Fastlane 2017, many of us will remember the match extremely clearly.

The reason for that is that the match between the two men lasted on 22 seconds! That’s right, WWE decided squash its champion to push a veteran who was getting extremely popular at that stage due to his clash with Brock Lesnar.

Goldberg had recently made his return to WWE and vowed to win the Royal Rumble, but failed to do so amid a scheduled match with Brock Lesnar. Goldberg later walked out on an episode of Raw to challenge Kevin Owens for his championship at Fastlane.

As the match started, Chris Jericho made an appearance to distract his former friend which allowed Goldberg to deliver a spear and a jackhammer to pin Ownes and snatch the Universal Championship from him.

Goldberg later lost the championship to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33.

#1 Kevin Owens could headline it for the third consecutive time

Will this match headline the event?

Kevin Owens has been one of WWE’s prime players since the past five years. He has held the Universal Championship once and also won the Intercontinental Championship and the United States Championship on multiple occasions.

This has helped him headlined many events and pay-per-views, and Fastlane is one event which has seen Owens headline more than once in the past couple of years.

In 2017, Owens competed in the main event against Goldberg to defend his Universal Championship. In 2018, Owens’ was part of a Six-Pack challenge along with Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and John Cena as the five men targeted AJ Styles for his WWE Championship.

This year, we could see Kevin Owens headline the event once again as he will take on Daniel Bryan for the SmackDown WWE Championship. Owens was awarded Kofi Kingston’s spot in the match by Vince McMahon on the February 26th episode of SmackDown Live.

Owens has had many unsuccessful outings at Fastlane events and would want to turn his fortune this time around.