The year is almost over, which means wrestling fans are gearing up for the Royal Rumble and the ensuing Road to WrestleMania. In 2018, the Road to WrestleMania will begin with the Rumble — which features two Rumble matches for the first time ever — and then goes to the Raw brand-exclusive Elimination Chamber, and finally to Smackdown’s Fastlane pay-per-view before WrestleMania 34 touches down in New Orleans.
(Yes, there are a couple of NXT TakeOver events in there as well, but let’s stay on target here.)
The Rumble will determine a challenger to one of the two world titles at WrestleMania, the Elimination Chamber should determine who will be Universal Champion and challenger in New Orleans, and Fastlane should firm up the match for the WWE Championship and solidify WrestleMania 34’s two world championship bouts.
But it looks like we might already know who will be in the mix at Fastlane for the world title, thanks to the website for the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, where Fastlane will be held. If you don’t want to be potentially spoiled, you should stop reading right now!
According to the Nationwide Arena site — which as always, notes that the card is subject to change — the main event at that show will be a Fatal 5-Way Match for the WWE Championship. The combatants in that match are listed as AJ Stles, Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn.
Arenas have advertised accurate main events in the past, and they’ve also advertised placeholder matches which indeed did change by the time the card rolled around, so it’s important to take this advertisement with a grain of salt. But there’s a good chance that we know who will be in the mix for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Not surprisingly, it’s … well, all of the current main eventers for Smackdown Live, more or less.
There’s a loooooot that can happen between now and then. And regardless of who holds the title both going into and coming out of Fastlane, we still don’t know who is going to win the Rumble, and whether they’ll be a Smackdown or Raw star. Regardless, this is pretty interesting, and you can feel free to start fantasizing about your dream WrestleMania 34 main event.
(We know it’s Styles vs. Nakamura. That’s okay. Us too.)
