The rumored WWE Universal Championship match between Brock Lesnar and Finn Balor at Royal Rumble could be happening after all. Over the past few weeks, it has been quite clear that Balor is no longer considered a top candidate to compete against The Beast come January. Aside from getting demolished by Kane on a recent episode of Raw , and subsequently laid out by him the following week, he also was destroyed by Samoa Joe. As a result, Lesnar is left without an opponent for one of the “Big Four” pay-per-views. Ever since being a part of the Universal Championship match at Extreme Rules , Balor has not been in the best position as far as contenders for the top prize. In fact, he has spent most of the year in meaningless feuds with Bray Wyatt and Elias, even making “The Demon” character a part of a storyline. Balor would defeat AJ Styles in one of the best matches on the TLC card.
WWE recently polled the fans to see who the next competitor for Lesnar would be. Despite reportedly not being “over enough” with Vince McMahon, he received nearly two-thirds of the vote, with Braun Strowman in second place at a distant 10 percent. Balor even commented on the poll, making it known that he supports the fans’ decision to vote him as the top candidate. This, along with the clear intention of WWE to gauge the audience with their polls, is why the decision to nix the rumored main event is possibly being reconsidered. If there is any positive momentum that Balor can hang on, he assisted Kurt Angle in pinning John Cena due to executing his Coup De Grâce finishing move.
According to the Wrestling Observer Live , the significance of poll results could have been due to fans pasting the link to hardcore fan-heavy sites like Reddit, which would grossly affect the numbers. However, even if this was the case, there cannot be any argument of who the website audience want to see compete against Lesnar. Moreover, because of this, has also been reported that WWE may discuss having Lesnar vs. Balor main event Royal Rumble after all.
During Balor’s interaction with Paul Heyman, Lesnar’s advocate made it very obvious that he was building up Balor to be a star and a worthy contender to compete against The Beast. Whether the audience will change Vince McMahon’s mind is ultimately up to The Chairman, but the poll could have others backstage lobbying stronger for the match to occur.
[Featured Image by WWE]
