WWE Fastlane 2017: Ranking Every Match in PPV’s History

3. AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho – Fastlane 2016

Perhaps the most anticipated match at Fastlane 2016 saw AJ Styles make his WWE pay-per-view singles debut — even more so than a main event with WrestleMania 32 implications. This came against Chris Jericho, who had built a friendly rivalry with Styles after the Royal Rumble. However, more often than not, the Phenomenal One got the better end of Y2J.

Styles and Jericho had four singles matches during their feud, but Fastlane may have been their best one. These two stepped up their game from Raw and SmackDown, putting on entertaining action that mostly felt grounded. This wasn’t a bad thing, however, as it teased what was to come with Jericho and only made Styles look stronger when he overcome the assault.

It’s arguably interchangeable with No. 4 and 5 on this list, as all three were solid matches that received a fair amount of time and provided maybe the second-best action on the card — only being outdone by the main events in both 2015 and 2016.

What puts Styles vs. Jericho ahead is the big match feel around it, going back to it being the former’s WWE PPV singles debut. This made the action something you never wanted to take your eyes off and having more invested in this, as it had been built up for weeks. That hadn’t been the case for the 2015 WWE Tag Team Championship match or Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler.