The 2019 Fastlane was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the fifth annual Fastlane and took place on March 10, 2019, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The event's name was a reference to its position on the "Road to WrestleMania".
Ten matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns) defeated Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre in a six-man tag team match that was promoted as The Shield's final match together before one further match was scheduled at The Shield's Final Chapter in April. In other prominent matches, Becky Lynch defeated Charlotte Flair by disqualification, adding her back into the Raw Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 35, and Daniel Bryan retained SmackDown's WWE Championship by defeating Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali in a triple threat match. This event marked the final WWE pay-per-view appearance for Dean Ambrose, who left the company in April 2019 after he declined to renew his contract; he then joined All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in May 2019 under his pre-WWE ring name Jon Moxley.
This was the second Fastlane held at the Quicken Loans Arena after the 2016 event. An event was not held in 2020 due to the scheduling of that year's Super ShowDown, but Fastlane returned in 2021. After the 2018 event was held exclusively for SmackDown, the 2019 event was held for both Raw and SmackDown as brand-exclusive PPV and livestreaming events for the main roster under the second brand split were discontinued following WrestleMania 34 in April 2018. This made it the first Fastlane to feature multiple brands during a brand split.
Production Background
Fastlane was an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event first produced by WWE in 2015. The name of the event was a reference to its position on the "Road to WrestleMania", being held in the two-month period between the Royal Rumble and WWE's flagship event. The first two Fastlane events were held in February before moving to March. Announced on November 22, 2018, the fifth Fastlane was scheduled for March 10, 2019, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, and was the second Fastlane held at this venue, after the 2016 event. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, it was livestreamed on the WWE Network. While the 2018 event was a SmackDown-exclusive event, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive PPV and livestreaming events for the main roster following WrestleMania 34 in April that year, thus the 2019 event featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brands, which made it the first Fastlane to feature multiple brands during a brand split.
Storylines The event comprised 10 matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live.
At Elimination Chamber, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Miz and Shane McMahon to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. On the following episode of SmackDown, The Miz, who had been pinned, apologized to Shane for costing them the match and begged Shane to schedule a rematch. The Usos interrupted and insulted Miz, after which, Shane scheduled a rematch for the titles at Fastlane.
On the February 12 episode of SmackDown, The New Day's Kofi Kingston was a last-minute replacement for an injured Mustafa Ali in a gauntlet match to determine who would enter the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match last; Kingston pinned WWE Champion Daniel Bryan and lasted over an hour before being eliminated. At Elimination Chamber, Bryan retained the title in the titular match, with Kingston being the last wrestler eliminated. On the following episode of SmackDown, Kingston was granted a WWE Championship match at Fastlane after pinning Bryan in a six-man tag team match that featured Kingston, AJ Styles, and Jeff Hardy against Bryan, Samoa Joe, and Randy Orton. The following week, however, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon interrupted the contract signing between Bryan and Kingston. Although Vince praised Kingston, he replaced him with a returning Kevin Owens, stating that Owens was more qualified and more deserving of the opportunity.
At Elimination Chamber, The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) defeated Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose, The Riott Squad (represented by Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan), The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), Naomi and Carmella, and Nia Jax and Tamina in a tag team Elimination Chamber match to become the inaugural holders of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. The following night on Raw, their championship celebration was interrupted by Jax and Tamina, and Jax taunted Banks about not being able to retain a championship in her title defenses. The following week, The Boss 'n' Hug Connection were scheduled to defend the titles against Jax and Tamina at Fastlane.
On the February 19 episode of SmackDown, during a backstage segment, SmackDown Women's Champion Asuka was interrupted by Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. Rose challenged Asuka to a non-title match and defeated her after Rose feigned an eye injury. The following week, Rose was granted a championship match against Asuka at Fastlane.
At the Royal Rumble, Becky Lynch was unsuccessful in regaining the SmackDown Women's Championship, but later entered the women's Royal Rumble match and won by last eliminating Charlotte Flair, despite injuring her own knee. The next night on Raw, Lynch confronted Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and chose to face her at WrestleMania 35. Lynch then refused a medical examination on her knee after a brawl with Flair on SmackDown. Stephanie McMahon gave Lynch an ultimatum: have her knee examined or be suspended until she does. Lynch still refused and attacked both Stephanie and Triple H. The following Raw, it was revealed that Lynch had been medically cleared; after she apologized for the attacks, the suspension was lifted, however, Vince McMahon overruled Triple H and Stephanie by suspending Lynch for 60 days and replaced her with Flair as Rousey's WrestleMania opponent. On the February 25 episode of Raw, Lynch was arrested after attacking Rousey; Rousey then demanded that Lynch be reinstated and left the championship in the ring. The following week, Stephanie declared the title vacant, reinstated Lynch, and scheduled a match between her and Flair for the championship at Fastlane. Later on, however, Rousey protested that she did not vacate the title and was only trying to send a message, prompting Stephanie to hand her back the title belt and change the stipulation of the Fastlane match: if Lynch won, she would be added back into the championship match at WrestleMania to make it a triple threat match.
On the October 22, 2018, episode of Raw, Roman Reigns went on hiatus due to leukemia and subsequently vacated the Universal Championship. Later that same night, Dean Ambrose turned on Seth Rollins, feeling that the trio's stable, The Shield, had made him weak. Rollins and Ambrose then fought over the next couple of months, with their feud culminating at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, where Ambrose defeated Rollins. Reigns returned on the February 25, 2019, episode of Raw and explained that his leukemia was in remission and that he would return to action. Later that night, Drew McIntyre defeated Ambrose in a no disqualification match after interference from Elias. Afterwards, Baron Corbin and Bobby Lashley joined Elias and McIntyre in their attack on Ambrose until Reigns and Rollins made the save. The following week, Reigns called out Rollins, wanting to reunite The Shield one more time. Rollins reluctantly agreed since it meant having to team with Ambrose again. Later, after Ambrose was defeated by Elias, Reigns and Rollins came out, but Ambrose exited through the crowd. Corbin, McIntyre, and Lashley then ambushed Reigns and Rollins, after which, Ambrose returned and aided his former Shield brothers. After gaining the upper hand, Ambrose joined Reigns and Rollins for the signature Shield fist bump and a six-man tag team match pitting the reunited Shield against Corbin, McIntyre, and Lashley was scheduled for Fastlane.
On the February 11 episode of Raw, The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) defeated Bobby Roode and Chad Gable to win the Raw Tag Team Championship. The following week, NXT call-ups Aleister Black and Ricochet made their main roster debuts, and then defeated The Revival in a non-title match on the February 25 episode. On the March 4 episode, Black and Ricochet were granted a Raw Tag Team Championship match against The Revival, but it ended in disqualification after Roode and Gable attacked The Revival. A triple threat tag team championship match between the three teams was then scheduled for Fastlane.
After several weeks of feuding, a match between Andrade and Rey Mysterio was scheduled for the Fastlane Kickoff pre-show.
On March 8, a tag team match between The New Day (represented by Big E and Xavier Woods) and Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura was scheduled for the Fastlane Kickoff pre-show.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael Cole Corey Graves Renee Young Tom Phillips Byron Saxton Beth Phoenix Spanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraMarcelo RodríguezGerman commentatorsCarsten SchaeferTim HaberCalvin KnieRing announcersGreg Hamilton Mike Rome RefereesDanilo AnfibioJason AyersMike ChiodaJohn ConeDarrick MooreChad PattonCharles RobinsonRod ZapataInterviewersCharly CarusoKayla BraxtonPre-show panelJonathan CoachmanBeth PhoenixSam RobertsDavid OtungaChristianAJ Styles
Pre-show Backstage during the Fastlane Kickoff pre-show, R-Truth's manager Carmella was attempting to get people to sign a petition so that Truth could have a rematch for SmackDown's United States Championship, as Truth had lost the title on the previous episode of SmackDown in a fatal four-way match to Samoa Joe, which also involved Andrade and Rey Mysterio. Joe interrupted and said that he had no problem facing any of them. It was then announced that Joe would defend the United States Championship in a fatal four-way match against Truth, Andrade, and Mysterio on the main show, subsequently canceling the pre-show match between Andrade and Mysterio.
Also during the pre-show, Kofi Kingston was told that Vince McMahon had wanted to see him in regard to the WWE Championship match on the main card.
In what then became the only match on the pre-show, The New Day (represented by Big E and Xavier Woods) faced Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. In the end, Big E and Woods performed the "Midnight Hour" on Rusev to win the match.
Preliminary matches The actual pay-per-view opened with The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defending the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The Miz and Shane McMahon. The climax saw Miz perform a frog splash on Jey. However, Jey countered into a roll-up on Miz to retain the titles. After the match, a disappointed Miz and Shane hugged Miz's father, who was in the front row. After Shane consoled Miz and his father, Shane then attacked Miz from behind, turning heel.
Next, Asuka defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Mandy Rose, who was accompanied by Sonya Deville. In the end, Rose tripped on the ring apron, which Deville had moved prior to obtaining a kendo stick, allowing Asuka to perform a kick to the face on Rose to retain the title.