John Cena’s road to Wrestlemania 34 hit another roadblock as he was unable to register a victory at Pay-Per-View (PPV) Fastlane, on March 11, 2018. It was AJ Styles who defended his World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Championship in the Six-Pack Challenge against John Cena, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and Kevin Owens. Another highlight of the night was Randy Orton’s United States title win against Bobby Roode.

The SmackDown brand’s PPV, Fastlane, took place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The pre-show saw Mojo Rawley, Shelton Benjamin, and Chad Gable pitted against Tyler Breeze, Fandango, and Tye Dillinger. Both the teams talked trash as Gable lands the first punch on Breeze. After a lot of back and forth in the ring, Benjamin entered the ring dropped knees on Breeze. The fans hurled taunts (You Can’t Wrestle) at Rowley as he entered the ring. Breeze made a tag to his partner Dillinger. He drops Mojo with a shot to the face covered Mojo for the win.

The show opened with a gruelling match between Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. The fans chant for both the superstars. It is Rusev who began the duel and tried to pin Nakamura unsuccessfully, early in the match. Nakamura and Rusev trade holds, as now Nakamura taunts the Bulgarian Brute to bring it on! Rusev tries to his finishing move The Accolade, but Nakamura blocks. Then the King of Strong Styles hits Rusev with his finishing move Kinshasa and pins him for the win.

Randy Orton defeated Bobby Roode in the United States title match and became the 18th Grand Slam champion of the WWE. After a duelling contest, Roode goes on the top of the ring to hit his finishing move, but Orton catches him midway and hits an RKO instead. The fans cheer as Orton stands tall as the new US Champion.

The team of Becky Lynch and Naomi locked horns with the team of Carmella and Natalya in the first women match in the night. In the ending moments of the gruelling duel, Natalya tried to cheat by handing over the ‘Money In The Bank’ (MITB) briefcase to Carmella to use it on Becky, while the referee was being distracted by Naomi at the ringside. Becky fended off Natalya but turned around to be kicked by Carmella in the face. Carmella covered Becky for the win!

The tag-team of ‘The New Day’ was out next to compete against the Tag-team Champions ‘The Usos’ in the title match. The two teams have had an engaging rivalry in the past. The teams made the most of their experience and tried their level best to one-up each other. However, the match is interrupted by ‘The Bludgeon Brothers (Eric Rowan and Luke Harper)’ and it results in a ‘No Contest’.

Smackdown Women Champion Charlotte Flair was out next to compete against Ruby Riott in the Women’s title match. Ruby Riott was assisted by her team members Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan as they appear on the ringside in middle of the match. Becky Lynch and Naomi ran to the ringside too, to even the odds. However, the referee had the last laugh as he ejected both the teams from the ringside after repeated distractions caused by them. Ruby failed to take advantage of the distraction, and instead, Flair locked her in Figure Eight submissive move; Ruby conceded!

The main event of the night saw six superstars John Cena, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and WWE Champion AJ Styles competing in the title match. Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon was at the ringside too. All eyes were on John Cena if he will be the 17th time WWE Champion or not.

As the bell rang, Cena seemed all fired up, as he hit his finishing move Attitude Adjustment (AA) on Zayn, Owens, Corbin, and then Ziggler. Both Cena and Styles face-off in the ring amidst huge pop from the crowd. Both the superstars tried their finishing moves on each other but fail eventually. Owens and Sami face off now and drew huge crowd applause again. Owens tried to superkick Sami, but he moves out of his way and eventually, Owens kicked Shane McMahon. After a lot of back and forth in the match, it was Cena who seemed to have an upper hand in the match. Cena tried to cover Ziggler for the pin, but Ziggler broke it by two-count. Ziggler tried to superkick Cena but he instead hit an AA on Ziggler. Cena tried hitting another finishing move but Owens stops it. Owens now hits the pop-up powerbomb on Cena. AJ Styles flies out of nowhere and hit the Phenomenal Forearm on Owens for the pin.

It will be AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestlemania 34, finally!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 12, 2018 12:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).