WWE Fastlane 2019: 5 matches that should have been booked for the event

While the Fastlane card appears to be a mix of both exciting matches and intriguing storylines, not every storyline that is currently going on in WWE can have a match booked for the event.

The Universal Championship hasn't been booked regularly due to the part-time status of Brock Lesnar. It wasn't going to be defended on a PPV that wasn't one of the big four.

And although every title can't be booked on every PPV, there were some logical storylines that WWE could have followed through with rather than continually baiting-and-switching the opponents for two of the title matches.

The crowd was already hot for Kofi Kingston, so they could have capitalized on that by having him face Daniel Bryan now and Kevin Owens face Bryan later.

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Women's Tag Team Title Match: Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) vs. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville

The two teams that started and finished the Elimination Chamber match should have had a showcase match against each other.

While I understand that Asuka shouldn't go two straight PPVs without defending her title, the fact is that she has become secondary to the whole Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey program.

It's taken up her spot on SmackDown, hence the short and rushed build to her title match against Mandy Rose at Fastlane.

Had other women been allowed to appear, like Nikki Cross or the IIconics, things could have been handled differently. Instead, they put a champion of one show on the backburner so that the champion of the other show gets featured twice.

Bayley and Banks should be defending the titles at the next PPV after they won them, but the whole 'cross-brand defending of titles' would have made more sense against a team from SmackDown.

Instead of booking Rose in a title match, I would have had her and Sonya Deville challenge for the Women's Tag Titles. Perhaps they are being saved for WrestleMania. But the two teams had good chemistry in the Elimination Chamber and due to the run of each team, it wouldn't have been as crazy had Rose and Deville won.

Another team like the IIconics could have challenged here since they've been non-existent on SmackDown since the previous PPV. To be completely honest, the women's divisions of both shows have been criminally underbooked due to the overexposure of the Raw Women's Title program.

Had some other women been given time on TV over the last few weeks, things would have turned out differently.

That would have at least still given Asuka the match with Mandy Rose, but now Deville and the IIconics will be without matches again.

United State Championship Match: Samoa Joe (c) vs. R-Truth

The new champ should be defending his title, but he might be doing that on SmackDown instead.

They added Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade to Fastlane after SmackDown, so they could have easily given Samoa Joe a showcase match with his newly won US Title.

R-Truth has been entertaining in his role as comedic face champion but the shelf life on his reign was going to be short regardless of his ability.

Since they triggered the change on the SmackDown before the PPV, it would have been a slam dunk match for the PPV.

The US Title needs to be featured more and the matches that R-Truth had with the title were actually pretty good. But the whole 'no automatic rematches' is only true when WWE wants it to be.

It actually was a pretty easy way for them to book matches rather than have the challenger re-earn a title shot a la AJ Styles and Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble.

Joe's ability as a workhorse will continue the quality of the matches, but if it goes back to showing up once a month on SmackDown, it will not have changed anything with the title's booking.

SmackDown Women's Championship Match: Asuka (c) vs. Naomi

The two former tag team partners would likely have had a good match.

Although Asuka has already beaten her former tag team partner, a match between the two faces would have been easy to build rather than cram together a match with Mandy Rose in two weeks.

They could have played video packages on SmackDown if they didn't want too much in the way of in-ring encounters, but alas, Naomi was beaten in less than five minutes by Rose.

The former two-time SmackDown champ deserves better than a glorified squash match that someone like Dana Brooke is better suited for.

But a lot of what was booked for Fastlane was basically an appetizer for the main course that will be WrestleMania 35.

Perhaps Deville and/or Naomi get title shots in April or maybe Nikki Cross reappears. Some suggested that Lacey Evans might get a shot, but other than the Royal Rumble appearance, she's only walked down a ramp twice a week.

That doesn't signify a worthy challenger for a title match at the Show of Shows, but I'm not a WWE booker.

Raw Women's Championship Match: Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Charlotte Flair

Ronda Rousey is having a whirlwind month as Raw Women's Champion.

Although the spectre of Becky Lynch would have been looming over this potential singles match whenever it would happen, the fact is that Lynch and Rousey should be facing off one on one at WrestleMania 35.

But Flair is a favorite of the Chairman and has been one of the top performers in WWE over the last couple years.

Instead of all of the unnecessary twists and turns that creative has thrown our way, the easiest thing would have been to have Lynch suspended for 30 days. Then proper time could have been devoted to the SmackDown Women's title to build to matches and Flair and Rousey could have settled their beef before WrestleMania.

Fans might have been mixed as to who to root for regardless since a portion of the WWE Universe will always root against Rousey and for Flair regardless of heel/face alignments.

Had the suspension been upheld, the heel turn could have been saved for before 'Mania and Lynch could have had time to heal.

They run the risk of overexposing her before she even gets to WrestleMania. And just think how much TV the actual feud will take up. If it's taken up so much time prior to April, how much more time will be devoted to it going forward.

But one huge fork in the road of WWE's Women's Divisions was the injury to Ember Moon. WWE could have still gone with the triple threat for the Raw Women's Championship but with less convoluted storytelling.

Moon could have challenged Asuka due to the abundance of history of the women back in NXT. But Moon got hurt and here we are.

WWE Championship Match: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kofi Kingston

Kingston will likely return to SmackDown next week to confront the Planet's Champion.

Like the storytelling in the Raw Women's Title program, WWE decided to switch things up last minute by replacing Kofi Kingston at Fastlane with the returning Kevin Owens.

The iron was hot with Kingston's momentum, but unless this was the plan all along, it'll be doing a disservice to Kevin Owen's attempt to be a credible face.

He'll have to fight over chants for Kingston, but he seemed to be winning over the fans on SmackDown even though some will think he took Kingston's spot.

Technically, he did, but it wasn't his decision. Like fans do during any segment with Rousey or Flair in the ring, the fans will chant for Kofi Kingston until he receives a title shot.

Had they stayed with the original match they booked, the crowd could have gotten behind Owens more organically for WrestleMania rather than chanting for Kingston.

WWE is ultimately in a quest to raise its ratings and keep fans interested as other promotions are building steam, but baiting and switching opponents so close to events isn't exciting and worth watching. It's frustrating and sometimes confusing.