WWE: Fastlane is back on the company’s PPV schedule

WWE is once again stacking their annual pay-per-view lineup with the return of Fastlane, which is scheduled to air in late March.

It looks like WWE is once again placing a bunch of unnecessary rest stops on the road to WrestleMania 37.

According to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, the company has brought Fastlane back to the 2021 pay-per-view schedule, with an air date scheduled for March 21. The company did not produce a Fastlane PPV last year; they aired Elimination Chamber in early March of 2020 (it will now air in February this year) and another of their morally questionable Saudi Arabia shows, Super Showdown in February).

With the global COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, it’s likely that Fastlane is filling in for a KSA show that the company can’t put together right now.

WWE last aired a Fastlane PPV on March 10, 2019. That show, which emanated from the then-named Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, was headlined by The Shield defeating the trio of Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre in what was the former’s final match as a group. The show also featured then-WWE Champion Daniel Bryan facing Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali in a triple threat match, which ended with Bryan retaining his title.

Thoughts

At this point, it isn’t surprising to see WWE overfill their PPV schedule, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing, especially when it means shoehorning in a supercard three weeks before a two-night WrestleMania event. Like all the other B-PPVs, Fastlane will probably contain the usual WWE mix of good and bad, but siphoning precious time away from promoting the biggest show on WWE’s calendar to gin up interest for a non-descript show seems like a miscalculation at best and an unearned display of hubris at worst.

Eventually, WWE has to realize that it isn’t 2000 anymore; the product isn’t nearly hot enough to get away with having a big show every month that people will gladly watch simply because it’s a WWE show. Until that day comes, though, it looks like fans will be stuck with these stuffed yearly lineups.