The main event for WrestleMania appears to be set. Let's look ahead to how we're going to spend the next six weeks.
The road to WrestleMania has powered through its penultimate stop. Sunday's WWE Fastlane pay-per-view event was mostly great with some incredible highs. We now know who will face Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania, what Sting will be doing and even who the Undertaker's next challenger will be.
So where does that leave us, with over a month to get from here to WrestleMania? Let's find out.
Big Show, Kane and Seth Rollins def. Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback
The Authority-aligned heels used interference and chicanery to get the win over the good guys. Dolph Ziggler ate the pin and is still the best in the business at taking a sudden-death move while seemingly on the verge of victory. After a post-match beatdown of Ziggler's team, Randy Orton returned from exile OUTTA NOWHERE to chase off the Authority hangers-on.
What we learned: Randy Orton is back! This likely sets up a match between him and Rollins at WrestleMania, although a multi-man match at the biggest show of the year isn't out of the question. Orton had been on fire before his lengthy hiatus, so giving him a good number of weeks to do a slow burn on whoever he's going to be feuding with is going to be a good thing. In theory, anyway. Rowan, Ryback and Ziggler continue to tread water, but there's plenty of time to give all three of them something to do.
Goldust def. Stardust
In a battle between real-life brothers, the crafty veteran bested his younger brother with a surprise crucifix pin when Stardust went for his finisher.
What we learned: THIS FEUD WILL CONTINUE. Later in the show, Stardust attacked Goldust backstage to be a true sore loser and set up a potential career-ending match for Goldust at WrestleMania. Stardust debuted a new evolution of his look tonight, going with tights (no bodysuit) and a sort of half-makeup job. Odds are good that he'll be reverting to plain old Cody Rhodes soon as he delves further into heelishness.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Tyson Kidd & Cesaro def. The Usos (c)
Kidd and Cesaro continued their stretch of great matches and picked up the biggest win of their short tag-team life, winning clean after Kidd hit his finisher.
What we learned: Team UpperCat (please use that name and tell everyone I invented it, even if that may not be true) will (probably) head into WrestleMania as the tag team champs, which is a great, great thing. FACT. The match was short and sweet and they likely don't have anyone to feud with from here other than trading the titles with the Usos for a while, but let's enjoy this while it lasts. Cats and chocolate, y'all!
Sting confronted Triple H
Triple H came out and called Sting out. Then they talked. Then they brawled. Sting got the better of Triple H, proving that, at least for tonight, baseball bat trumps sledgehammer.
What learned: Triple H wears his street fight clothes and tapes his fists for "confrontations," which is smart when you think about it. The match between Triple H and Sting for WrestleMania is now official, so Sting WILL have his first WWE match ever. Get pumped!
Divas Championship Match: Nikki Bella (c) def. Paige
In a match that was actually pretty terrific, Nikki Bella retained her title after pulling Paige into the new, weird turnbuckle camera and some tights-pulling chicanery.
What we learned: Paige will probably challenge for the title once again at WrestleMania, although there's a trend of having a big multi-Diva match at the Grandaddy of Them All. Paige was already a world-class talent, but Nikki just keeps getting better and better. And yes, I'm going to keep typing that until you all believe it.
Intercontinental Championship Match: Bad News Barrett (c) def. Dean Ambrose
Well, no one expected this match to be quite so bad. In a match that appeared to be rushed and disjointed, Ambrose was disqualified after refusing to stop whomping on Barrett. Ambrose left with the Intercontinental title, leaving Barrett lying in the center of the ring.
What we learned: THIS FEUD WILL ALSO CONTINUE. These two will almost definitely head to WrestleMania for the belt, possibly in a no-disqualification match. Let's just all hope they get a lot more time to do a better job next month.
Bray Wyatt challenged Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania
In an ultimate troll move, there was an elaborate Undertaker entrance, with druids and fire and everything, but when the coffin opened up, it was Bray Wyatt. WWE's two supernatural powers will face off on the grandest stage of them all. Expect mysticism and fell magicks.
United States Championship Match: Rusev (c) def. John Cena
These two had an epic match in every sense of the word. They clobbered the Dickens out of each other, yet still didn't have the hardest-hitting match on the card. In desperation toward the end of the match, Lana distracted the ref while Rusev kicked Cena in the dick, kicked him in the head and put him in the Accolade. Cena, although unconscious, stayed true to form and never gave up.
What we learned: THIS FEUD WILL ALSO, ALSO CONTINUE. I feel as though Rusev would have been better served taking the loss here and getting his win back against Cena at WrestleMania, but this match didn't do a disservice to either man. Rusev finally did something truly dastardly and Cena showed his ultimate weakness: getting booted square in the wedding tackle.
No. 1 Contender Match: Roman Reigns def. Daniel Bryan
This was phenomenal. These two guys absolutely beat the hell out of one another. Bryan helped Reigns to easily the best match of his career and allowed Reigns to give him shockingly brutal forearms and punches. Both men made the other look like a world-beater and Reigns picked up the win when Bryan went for a second running knee and ate a spear in the process.
What we learned: Reigns will now face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania for the world title, after proving that he can, indeed, look like a million bucks, look vulnerable and look like a powerhouse all at the same time if he's in the ring with the correct opponent. Daniel Bryan is one correct opponent right now. Brock Lesnar should definitely be another. It's still certainly possible that Bryan could be added to the match to make it a triple-threat, but if you're still doubting Reigns after this match, it may be possible you just don't like being happy.
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