WWE Fastlane - IC Championship; Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler

[Dave]

Listed on the matches segments for Fastlane on WWE.com

Personally, I think the WWE have did a good job of building this match. I have a feeling this match would have gone ahead regardless of the title win for Owens last night on Raw. These two have been trading wins and losses back and forth for a few weeks now and it is all going to come to a head at Fastlane seemingly.

That said, with Owens winning the title last night, I don't see any way that Dolph comes away with the win. It just doesn't make any sense to gift Owens the Championship and then take it from him 6 days later. As much as I think Ziggler could be doing with a high profile Championship run to get his career off and running again, I don't think that he wins on Sunday.

But what do you think?

 

[Coco]

Ziggler is Mr 50/50 Booking.

Owens, until the last couple weeks where he's been put into a rivalry with Ziggler, has been untouchable unless he was working Cena, Balor, or Ambrose (and he also handed those first two some of their only clean losses in the fed). Owens also has the most protected finish in the WWE.

Ziggler's a speed bump for a guy the company seems to actually view as a star.

Fight Owens Fight.

 

[Sexcellence of Sexecution]

Ziggler is Mr 50/50 Booking.

Exactly. Ziggler got the upper hand on Owens last time they met. Time for Owens to avenge the loss. Owens retains the IC Title.

Here's the scarier thing though. If Kevin Owens is the Intercontinental Champion at this point, he'll probably put the belt on the line against AJ Styles at Wrestlemania. Now you might be saying, "wait a minute that sounds like a great match for the IC Title." And you're right. Owens vs. Styles is a potential show stealer, it's going to be great. But it's also something that could be saved and doesn't need to happen right now.

The problem is, if we get Owens vs. Styles for the IC Title at Wrestlemania, we won't get Owens vs. Undertaker. Which means that Undertaker vs. Braun Strowman becomes more of a possibility. If we have to sacrifice Owens vs. Styles to not get Undertaker vs. Strowman, it's worth it. Owens is seemingly the best opponent for Undertaker at this stage of the game.

Holy shit.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Poor Owens. Already in the cycle of multiple IC title reigns and a feud with Ziggler. Welcome to mid-card purgatory.

The title stipulation is irrelevant. Owens only just won it and won't be losing it this week.

 

[JoeMallard]

Kevin Owens will do what Lesnar did to Cena, Ziggler will flop like a fish and hurt his leg like he usually does. Hopefully Ziggler gets powerbombed on the ring apron and gets taken off tv, so he can come back as a heel.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Exactly. Ziggler got the upper hand on Owens last time they met. Time for Owens to avenge the loss. Owens retains the IC Title.

Agreed. I was surprised when Ziggler won the last match against Owens, not taking the time to realize there was a purpose to Dolph coming out on top. As the OP said, the company was building toward a PPV confrontation between these two guys.....and they did a pretty good job of it. Problem is, I still don't really care about the upcoming match or it's result, beyond the enjoyment of watching them work.

Still, I can't see why they'd give a comer like Kevin Owens a 6 day reign. The announcers can talk up what a dangerous opponent Ziggler is.....on the strength of having won cleanly against KO before.....and then have KO win the contest.

Had Daniel Bryan remained active, I wonder if he would have been allowed to hold the IC title this past year, eliminating all the title changes in between and raising the prestige of the belt just with the consistency of having one title holder.

Either way, figure Owens wins while Dolph maintains his midcard career as a human pinball. **BONGGG**

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Ziggler is Mr 50/50 Booking.

Owens, until the last couple weeks where he's been put into a rivalry with Ziggler, has been untouchable unless he was working Cena, Balor, or Ambrose (and he also handed those first two some of their only clean losses in the fed). Owens also has the most protected finish in the WWE.

Ziggler's a speed bump for a guy the company seems to actually view as a star.

That is until his five match losing streak, which ended just as abruptly and senselessly as it began.

Poor Owens. Already in the cycle of multiple IC title reigns and a feud with Ziggler. Welcome to mid-card purgatory.

Exactly. This has potential for bad, bad, BAD things.



Please, for the love of all that is good, let the last few weeks of Ziggler being effective be used to put Owens over strong in a title defense, and then move on.

 

[ShinChan]

I see no way of Ziggie winning the strap from Kevin Owens this soon. And I dont wana see him defeating Owens anytime in the future. So logically, Owens should decisively win this match and end this feud.

As for the Wrestlemania 32 feud for IC Title with Owens, What about:

Kevin Owens(Face) VS Chris Jericho (Heel)​

Yeah I know He is a great heel but what about a face turn? Jericho is a good choice to put Owens over as a face.

​

 

[kadroan]

Logic says KO will win since it's too soon for him to lose the title. I just wonder would this mean Ziggler/KO will have another match at WM or will they have KO in a multi man match for the IC title.