WWE FASTLANE 2021 WAS THE FIRST SUCH EVENT SINCE 2019

The sixth Fastlane event and the first since 2019 was held at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and broadcast from the WWE Thunderdome. Fastlane 2021 was the first event to also stream via Peacock’s WWE Network channel in the United States.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. During the Fastlane Kickoff pre-show, Riddle defended the United States Championship against Mustafa Ali. Riddle retained the title, leading to Retribution turning on Ali and attacking him.

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defended and retained the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship against SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair. After a Shane McMahon/Elias segment, Big E managed to retain the Intercontinental Championship against Apollo Crews and was attacked by Crews after the match.

Elias was quickly defeated by Braun Strowman in a throwaway match. In the following match, Seth Rollins faced Shinsuke Nakamura. In the climax, Rollins performed a Black Magic Kick and a Curb Stomp on Nakamura to win the match.

Then, Drew McIntyre faced Sheamus in a hard hitting No Holds Barred match where it was McIntyre who managed to trump his old friend yet again.

Randy Orton faced Alexa Bliss in an intergender match, with the former spitting up black liquid beforehand. After a match full of fireballs and lightning, The Fiend returned and attacked Orton, leading to Bliss pinning him for the victory.

In the main event, Roman Reigns, accompanied by Paul Heyman, defended the Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan, with Edge as the special match enforcer. In the middle of the match, as Bryan tried to attack Reigns with the chair, Reigns ducked and Bryan accidentally struck Edge. Bryan then applied the Yes! Lock on Reigns again and Reigns tapped out, however, an enraged Edge attacked both Bryan and Reigns with the steel chair before departing backstage. A second referee came down and Reigns pinned Bryan to retain the title.

Roman Reigns had donned black shoes with white soles

Roman Reigns has one of the unique attires in WWE and he generally wore a tactical vest, gloves, combat trousers, and nine-inch boots as part of his regular WWE attire. At Fastlane, he had made a change to his footwear and also sported the white trim on his black vest and gloves by wearing black shoes with white soles.

He further explained that he had to wear ankle braces to perform in the six-inch Nike SFB Canvas shoes during that match.

He said: “No, I didn’t expect all the sneakerheads to come out and really kind of see that and talk about it. The main thing for me is the regular boots that I wear, they come up a bit higher. They’re like an eight-inch, nine-inch that comes up right below the calf.”

He added: “I had to kind of put in ankle braces and make it work for me for the performance. But, man, they felt good, they felt lighter. The sole was a bit more cushiony. Those Nike boots are nice, too, that I wear. But, man, the white soles, I think that’s a classic look. I don’t think it’s ever going out of style.”

Roman Reigns reveals why he switched to his old attire

Roman Reigns has revealed tha the enjoyed wearing the shoes but he had to get back to wearing the regular black wrestling boots without a white trim following the event.
While speaking on NotSam Wrestling, The Tribal Chief said that “a very important person” in WWE did not like his change of appearance and wanted him to get back to wearing the old attire.

He said: “I pretty much matched up my soles because I’ll wear different colors with the black. I had white on the vest and gloves and stuff, and they had a white trim on it. I matched it up [with white soles] and I thought it looked sweet! One person didn’t and he’s a very important person, so…”

When Reigns made his return last year he started wearing t-shirt, dropping the vest and also started wrestling bare chested, first time since his days in NXT.

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FASTLANE WAS INTRODUCED AS THE LAST STOP DOWN THE ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA

Fastlane was introduced as a replacement for Elimination Chamber, in what was the final stoppage down the “road to Wrestlemania.” The name of the event is a reference to its position on. It occupied the February slot of WWE’s pay-per-view calendar.  In 2015 and 2016, Fastlane was held in February until after WWE reinstated the brand split in July 2016, which moved it to March in the successive years.

In 2017, Fastlane was a Raw-exclusive pay-per-view and in 2018, it switched to being SmackDown-exclusive. In 2020, Fastlane was replaced by Super ShowDown on the pay-per-view calendar, but now, according to reports, it is back. WWE Fastlane 2021 will be held at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, Florida.

WRESTLEMANIA 37 WILL ALSO BE A FLORIDA-HOSTED EVENT

Tied to this information is the recently revealed news that Wrestlemania 37 will now be held at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The stadium was the planned spot for Wrestlemania 36, but in a last-minute change necessitated by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the location had to be changed.

The 37th iteration of the event was originally announced to be held in the city of Inglewood, California at SoFi Stadium on March 28, 2021. It would have been the first since ‘Mania 21 to be held in Greater Los Angeles, and the seventh held in the state of California (after 2, VII, XII, 2000, 21, and 31).

The SoFi Stadium has now been announced as the planned host of the 39th edition of WWE’s mega-event, with the 38th edition scheduled to be held at AT&T Stadium at Arlington, Texas.

The confirmed upcoming WWE pay per views are following:

January 31 – Royal Rumble from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL

February 14 – WWE NXT Takeover from Capitol Wrestling Arena in Orlando, FL

February 21 – Elimination Chamber from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL

March 21 – Fastlane from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL

April 10 and April 11 – WrestleMania 37 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL