WWE’s premium live event schedule for the rest of 2023 continued to take shape Tuesday.
On the Pat McAfee Show, the former SmackDown commentator and Paul Heyman — who appeared on the show instead of the pre-planned Seth Rollins interview — announced that WWE Fastlane will return on Saturday, Oct. 7 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
This comes on the heels of WWE announcing the return of the Payback premium live event which will take place at the PPG Paints Center in Pittsburgh in September.
WWE first introduced Fastlane as a bridge event between WrestleMania and either the Royal Rumble or Elimination Chamber in 2015. They used the PPV name until 2019 before bringing it back in 2021.
Fastlane will now link up Payback and Survivor Series, building up to the annual fall show that pits brands against each other. It should provide important pieces of WWE storytelling, just like it did before WrestleMania.
The original Fastlane is perhaps the most memorable of the bunch, having featured Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship in an instant classic. WWE followed it up six years later at the 2021 event with another fantastic match. Other notable bouts in this show’s history include Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose and a Shield reunion at the 2019 show when they faced Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre.
WWE continues to buck its own trend of hosting premium live events at American stadiums or international locations by having its second consecutive premium live event at a domestic, smaller-scale arena. This may be a blip with Survivor Series the next show after Fastlane and Royal Rumble 2024 not far after, but it is still interesting considering the success WWE has found this year.
How will Fastlane shape up? The next few months of WWE storytelling should map this out.