Brock Lesnar To Challenge For The WWE Universal Championship At ‘Royal Rumble’?
We’re a little under two weeks away from Brock Lesnar’s return to WWE action as he’s scheduled to take on Randy Orton at SummerSlam on August 21. Most are predicting that Lesnar will defeat Orton in two weeks, but there is some question as to what WWE does with “The Beast” following their biggest event of the summer.
On Sunday, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer appeared on the Live Audio Wrestling podcast to discuss all things WWE, and one of the topics that was brought up was WWE’s plans for Brock Lesnar coming out of SummerSlam. In Meltzer’s opinion, WWE should begin a Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe feud after next Sunday’s show. However, he said that it’s probably a lot more safe to assume that they’ll have him take on the winner of the Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor match, where the winner will be crowned the first WWE Universal Champion.
Paul @HeymanHustle does NOT think @RandyOrton will be able to stay afloat at #SummerSlam… @BrockLesnar https://t.co/MIszxdalzr
— WWE (@WWE) August 8, 2016
“To me the destination for Lesnar is Samoa Joe, but I doubt it is to [WWE]. Dean Ambrose is now the World Champion, and Brock basically squashed him, so if nothing else, Brock should be wrestling Dean Ambrose if they’re using any kind of logic. But Dean Ambrose is on the other brand, and Brock never got pinned to lose the Championship, so whoever wins between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor, Brock should be going after them.”
Typically, after SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar doesn’t appear on WWE television again until the build-up for the Royal Rumble, which means he won’t be coming back again until either late December or early January. So if Lesnar is going to challenge for the Universal Championship, he’ll likely do so at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
We’ve already seen Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar as the two men wrestled back at last summer’s WWE Battleground show. The match itself was pretty underwhelming, however, the ending of the bout was quite memorable because The Undertaker made a surprise return right when it looked like Lesnar was going to get the win over Rollins. Since then, Lesnar has not gotten another shot at Rollins or the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Rollins’ opponent at SummerSlam, Finn Balor, has never been in the ring with Brock Lesnar. So a match-up between the two would be something new and fresh. It would also be a bit of a dream match. As of this writing, it looks like WWE is building towards Balor becoming the very first WWE Universal Champion, which may mean that we’re heading for a Lesnar vs. Balor showdown at the Royal Rumble.
Will Lesnar win the WWE Universal Championship when he challenges for it? That remains to be seen. But, we do know that, prior to his USADA failures, “The Beast” was supposed to be the first overall pick in the WWE draft, but his failures forced WWE to drop him down a few slots. Also, after his win over Mark Hunt at UFC 200, there was some talk about making Lesnar the WWE Champion upon his return. But if WWE was planning on making him the Champion, his USADA failures may have forced them to change their mind.
Due to the lack of depth on the Raw roster, there really aren’t that many options for Lesnar coming out of SummerSlam. Of course, WWE has been wanting to do a Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns rematch ever since their first encounter back at WrestleMania 31, so they could begin building towards that following SummerSlam. There’s also a chance that WWE could call up Samoa Joe and do Joe vs. Lesnar, but as Meltzer said, that seems highly unlikely.
[Image via WWE]
