On Tuesday night’s episode of SmackDown Live , fans of the blue brand were shocked to witness the unexpected arrival of Brock Lesnar, who, through his manager Paul Heyman, challenged WWE Champion Kofi Kingston to a title match on Friday Night SmackDown’s FOX premiere on October 4. This, as noted by Cageside Seats , marks Lesnar’s first time to wrestle on the blue brand’s weekly programming since 2004. And with many predicting that this could likewise herald the end of Kingston’s six-month reign as SmackDown’s top champion, there has also been some speculation about what this could entail in the long run for WWE and its fans.
In a post shared on Tuesday night, the WrestleVotes account tweeted a similar prediction that Lesnar would defeat Kingston for the WWE Championship on Friday Night SmackDown’s debut episode. The post, however, also suggested that Lesnar could hold the title for the next several months before dropping it to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 36 next April in Tampa, Florida. This would also be an effective rematch of the WrestleMania 34 main event last year, which saw “The Beast” retain the Universal Championship against “The Big Dog” and continue an unprecedented title reign that lasted well over a year.
“As long as he’s willing to appear regularly, a title run for Lesnar throughout the winter as SD debuts on FOX is a smart idea,” WrestleVotes added.
Should this prediction be accurate, it might not sit well with a number of WWE fans, who have frequently criticized the company for allowing Lesnar three mostly lengthy runs as Universal Champion despite his status as a part-time competitor. As noted by Forbes , Lesnar often tended to hold this title “hostage” by only defending the belt at major pay-per-views such as WrestleMania and SummerSlam .
. @BrockLesnar is BACK and wasted no time in challenging @truekofi to a BATTLE for the #WWEChampionship on the FIRST #FridayNightSmackDown on #FOX ! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/lWTqLPsIP2
— WWE (@WWE) September 18, 2019
Meanwhile, Reigns has largely been absent from the WWE Championship picture for quite some time, given how Daniel Bryan and Kingston have held the title for the better part of the last 12 months. If he ends up defeating Lesnar and winning the belt at WrestleMania 36 , this would start him off on his first WWE Championship reign since 2016 and his fourth overall.
On the other hand, WrestleVotes’ tweet about the possible Lesnar vs. Reigns WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 36 may be one that’s best taken with a grain of salt. According to a report from The Inquisitr , the account predicted last week that Universal Champion Seth Rollins’ next major feud would be against Drew McIntyre, who is currently out due to injury but expected to return soon. However, as Comic Book noted, Rollins will officially be facing “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view next month, just as it was teased last Sunday at Clash of Champions .
