Predicting the match order at Fastlane 2023

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at Fastlane 2023, but how about taking a guess at the match order for the event?

Fastlane takes place tonight (Sat., Oct. 7, 2023) from the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. It begins at 7 pm ET with the Kickoff show leading right into the main course at 8 pm ET on Peacock in the U.S., WWE Network everywhere else, or your local cable pay-per-view provider.

WWE has only announced five different segments for the main card of this event. Here is my subjective view of how important each of these five segments rank, ordered from most important to least important.

1. John Cena & LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa
2. Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
3. The Judgment Day vs. Jey Uso & Cody Rhodes
4. IYO SKY vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair
5. Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar & ??? vs. Bobby Lashley & Street Profits

Main event

Shinsuke Nakamura and Seth Rollins main evented last month’s Payback card, but John Cena didn’t wrestle that night. Cena is back in the ring tonight at Fastlane for his first televised match since WrestleMania 39. LA Knight is arguably the hottest star on the current roster, and WWE is sticking him with John in this tag team match. When you add it all up, while also acknowledging the absence of Roman Reigns, it sure looks like the face that used to run the place will take back his old spot in the main event, at least for one night.

Opening match

The Last Man Standing gimmick can produce very long and slower matches, so it’s not a good fit for the opening match. Therefore I’ll rule out Rollins for the opener, but the other three undercard matches are all fair game.

With only five matches on the card, WWE may very well choose to begin the night with the least important match (LWO vs. Lashley & Profits) and naturally work its way up to the most important match in the main event. In this case, the least important match still has the hook of an exciting mystery partner reveal, so it could make sense for the opener.

However, I’m going with Cody’s tag match for the opener. A fast-paced tag team match with more star power is a great way to kick off a show. There’s also a good chance The Judgment Day will be involved in other matches or segments throughout the night, so I’d like to get their match out of the way early on.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: The Judgment Day vs. Jey Uso & Cody Rhodes
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5: John Cena & LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa

Everything else

The Last Man Standing match works well in Segment 4 right before the main event, and should be quite different from what we get from Cena and Knight afterwards.

I’ll place Rey Mysterio and the mystery partner reveal before the women’s match, mostly just because that’s how I have them ranked relative to one another in importance.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at Fastlane 2023, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times:

Segment 1: The Judgment Day vs. Jey Uso & Cody Rhodes (19 minutes)
Segment 2: Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar & ??? vs. Bobby Lashley & Street Profits (14)
Segment 3: IYO SKY vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair (17)
Segment 4: Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (22)
Segment 5: John Cena & LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa (16)

I’m adding a few more minutes than I normally would to some of the matches due to the fact that there are only five matches. These times add up to 88 minutes, which means this show could still approach three hours in length if WWE just adds one more segment or extended angle.

That’s my prediction for the match order at Fastlane. What’s yours?