The WWE FastLane 2016 DVD is hitting the shelves on Monday, 25 April 2016.

    The pre-Mania PPV can sometimes be an odd one. Things have begun to be set up at the Royal Rumble (well, presumably) and something is needed to fill the gap until Mania. This year with Triple H taking the World Title in the Rumble match we at least had a main event that would ink in his challenger for the title at the biggest show of the year. Would Fastlane prove a fruitful stop along the Road to WrestleMania? Here’s our review of the WWE FastLane 2016 DVD.

    Fastlane 2016 DVD - Ambrose, Lesnar, Reigns

    Of course barring a curve ball, it seemed fairly obvious that it would be Roman Reigns who would survive the onslaught of Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar to book his main even spot at Mania. But at times wrestling should be predictable and if the outcome was certain we at least got a very good main event out of it. Some will have hated it purely for the result. Those of us with an open mind would have found a gripping and thrilling main event with heated performances from all three. If you let your “disappointment” with the result spoil your enjoyment of the match as a whole, more fool you.

    Nothing on the undercard could quite match the main event but there was still much to enjoy. Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler had a typically thrilling battle over the Intercontinental title in a match that should show the bookers the importance of giving talented wrestlers time in the ring. AJ Styles, in his first singles match on WWE pay-per-view, and Chris Jericho almost matched that one, with a very good match that was nevertheless perhaps a tad disappointing. In relative terms, anyway. Maybe expectations were a little too high. This marked what seemed like a natural end to the feud, but plans changed along the way by all likelihood which means that this match didn’t really give us a reason, apart from wanting to see a good wrestling match, for their feud to continue.

    Fastlane 2016 DVD - Owens, Ziggler

    The Diva’s Revolution continued with two female matches. Opening up things was the odd couple of Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch against Tamina and Naomi. With all the real talent on one side of the ring this was nevertheless a decent effort that entertained. Similar feelings met Charlotte’s Diva’s Championship defence against Brie Bella. Despite Brie obviously being a good step below the “real” workers in the division she had put the effort in over the years to improve as a performer. She was able to hold her own here in a perfectly respectable bout that just lacked the drama or spark that would have seen it stand out more.

    Fastlane 2016 DVD - Sasha

    The baffling booking of The Wyatt’s continued here as they were sacrificed to the young, up and coming trio of Kane, The Big Show and Ryback. Now I like all three of those to some extent and appreciate the long careers of the first two. But is anybody really served well by having them go over on young talent that could actually go on to make some real money for the promotion? Still even that was better than a pointless Curtis Axel and R-Truth match. If you’re going to have blatant filler you could at least try and have some point to it. Again, what their short match achieved is beyond me.

    In non-wrestling action the thought of The Cutting Edge and Peep Show formats hosting the super-entertaining New Day had a lot of people salivating prior to the show. In reality it was a mix of good and bad that might have made for a more diverting segment of Raw than something worthy of a PPV.

    Fastlane 2016 DVD - New Day

    Although the card as a whole was inconsistent, it delivered where it mattered for my money. The three way main event, the Intercontinental title and the AJ/Jericho matches offered up some great wrestling and entertainment. Treatment of the Wyatt’s and a pointless Axel/Truth match aside, everything else was at least watchable.

    The DVD adds the Pre-show match between Kalisto and Alberto Del Rio. The Two out of Three Falls match was good and surely deserved to be on the main show instead of where it was. The BluRay adds a couple of matches, including Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns taking on the Dudley Boys from Smackdown and a number of segments such as the Contract Signing for the Fast Lane main event.


    Photos courtesy: Fetch, Fremantle Media

    Format reviewed: Blu-Ray

    FastLane 2016 DVD Review Score
    Thank you to our partners, WWEDVD.co.uk and Fetch for providing our review copy of Fastlane 2016, which is available on DVD & Blu-Ray in the UK from Monday, 25 April 2016. You can buy your copy from WWEDVD.co.uk now by clicking here