With the road to WrestleMania moving forward, WWE is making sure that they are being as strategic as possible with the storylines of their main event matches for New Orleans. Currently, the top feud on Raw , following the Elimination Chamber main event, is Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending his title against Roman Reigns. This will be a rematch from WrestleMania 31 in Santa Clara, California, as the bout between the two was altered by Seth Rollins entering the main via Money in the Bank cash-in and subsequently winning.
On the previous episode of Raw in Anaheim, California, Brock Lesnar was scheduled to go face-to-face with Reigns to further hype their match for WrestleMania. This was also confirmed by Paul Heyman, who was interviewed on the Elimination Chamber pre-show. Moreover, it was advertised on Raw that the face-off was scheduled to occur. Roman Reigns appeared to cut a promo, with the feeling that Lesnar was going to eventually join him.
Instead, Reigns cut a scathing promo on Lesnar not being in Anaheim, and how Lesnar does not care about the business. In addition to reminding the WWE Universe of his family pedigree, Reigns also mentioned how Lesnar was in Las Vegas the night before – which was also the city where Elimination Chamber was held – but instead spent his time hanging out with UFC President Dana White.
— danawhite (@danawhite) February 26, 2018
Among the many attempts WWE has made to gain the adulation from the fans to Reigns, this may have been the most successful one, as fans erupted in affirmation when he cut arguably the best promo of his WWE tenure. To add more fuel to the direction of this storyline, Lesnar competed against Kane at a WWE Live event this weekend in Chicago, Illinois. Despite Kane cornering Lesnar with a series of punches and setting up for a chokeslam, Lesnar executed multiple German Suplexes on Kane before hitting his F-5 finisher on the Big Red Machine. The total time of this match was a mere 35 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgOwFeNUI-Y
Apparently, this “squash” victory from Lesnar was also a part of the storyline. According to the Wrestling Observer Radio , this quick Lesnar win was a “ company directive ” set in place to continue to draw heat on Lesnar. This decision worked, as Lesnar received a series of negative flack after this match. Moreover, per attendance reports, Lesnar was heavily cheered entering the match, but booed when the match was over.
