The February event in the WWE is an unnecessary burden for the company.
WWE Fastlane Predictions & Preview
Every year starts off astoundingly for the WWE as the Royal Rumble is one of the most exciting events and kicks off the road to the biggest spectacle of the year, WrestleMania. On that road, Fastlane has turned into more of a road block than something that increases the buzz for the "Show of Shows."
This year, the event airs on Feb. 21 and emanates from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, but the WWE should seriously consider doing away with it for multiple reasons.
Booking Decisions WWE Needs For Fastlane
1) Rumble Of Ruins
In order to make the Fastlane event actually matter, the WWE altered one of its best gimmicks: the 30-man Royal Rumble Match. Every year since 1993, the winner of the bout has emerged as the No. 1 contender for WrestleMania. That already built-in stipulation was enough to make the Rumble Match exciting, and there was absolutely no reason to change it.
However, in an effort to make Fastlane feel important, the WWE decided to put the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line at the Royal Rumble for the second time in history and first since 1992. Though this year's Rumble Match was one of the best in recent memory, there was no reason to alter the rules.
If the WWE has to change one of its best matches of the year in order to accommodate Fastlane, maybe putting on the February event in the first place isn't a great idea.
2) One Champion
The February event was necessary during the brand extension because there were two heavyweight belts in the WWE. If a Superstar won the Rumble Match and decided to go for the RAW title, the WWE needed a way to determine who would compete for the SmackDown belt at WrestleMania and vice versa.
This necessitated a February event, which used to be the exciting Elimination Chamber, to determine the second No. 1 contender. The Triple Threat Match between Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose should be good, but it's a far less exciting way to determine the No. 1 contender than the Rumble Match.
3) Event Overload
In 2015, the WWE had 16 pay-per-view and/or WWE Network specials, which includes Network-only events like Beast in the East. Throwing in the five NXT specials, that's 21 "big events" the WWE put on. At some point, the company needs to trim its calendar a little bit so that memorable moments can take shape through all the clutter. Taking out February's big event would provide a nice gap for the WWE to build WrestleMania up for over two months.
4) Other Specials
If the WWE is hell-bent on having some sort of special event between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, it can always dust off Saturday Night's Main Event or a similar show and air it on the network as a way to generate buzz. By doing this, they won't have to alter the Royal Rumble formula and can simply add some buildup to the matches that are announced for WrestleMania.
