Predicting Brock Lesnar's WWE Universal Championship Reign
(Image from Sportskeeda)
Brock Lesnar is coming off of a big win against Goldberg at WrestleMania 33, where he became the first WWE Superstar to win both the WWE Championship as well as the WWE Universal Championship. As I am sure many are aware, this means the title will be on RAW sporadically. What baffles me is this in no way seems to be any different from Lesnar's last WWE Championship reign that ultimately ended when Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank Contract at WrestleMania 31 while Lesnar was in a title defense against Roman Reigns. The rest, as they say, is history.
Cut to 2017, where Lesnar is now the holder of a title that will not appear on its show for some time. It irked me to no end when Goldberg was put into a WWE Universal Championship match against Kevin Ownes, though that is mostly because I knew what the inevitable conclusion was. Of course Goldberg was going to win. Of course Goldberg was going to drop it to Lesnar. And in 4:46, my thoughts were confirmed. I have my own grievances with this situation in and of itself, the chief of which being that The Undertaker's entrance was longer than a World Championship match.
The current title picture is in a state of flux, as it is unclear as to when 1) Lesnar will actually be defending the title and 2) who Lesnar will be losing the belt to.
Latest reports that have come out seem to indicate that Lesnar will not be defending at Payback, so that leaves Extreme Rules as the next choice. Traditionally, the Main Event of Extreme Rules has been a match of the same name, but for Lesnar the only thing that really suits him in my mind is a Steel Cage Match.
Extreme Rules: Brock Lesnar def. Braun Strowman
Bad Blood: Brock Lesnar def. Finn Balor
SummerSlam: Brock Lesnar def. Roman Reigns
The time between SummerSlam and Survivor Series is hard to determine, as those PPVs haven't been announced yet, but that's okay because it doesn't really affect my thoughts. Honestly, I don't feel like Brock is losing the title until WrestleMania 34, where it is speculated that Lesnar will face Roman Reigns. A big problem though, is I really don't feel as though the fans will embrace Roman by that time. Frankly, that will never happen at the rate Roman has been and is being utilized. On the most recent episode of RAW, Braun Strowman attacked Roman Reigns, going as far as injuring him. During this, fans were chanting "Thank you Strowman" and #ThankYouStrowman was even appearing on Twitter. This doesn't really bode well for Reigns.
Lesnar will carry the title for awhile, but in a title that has severely devalued, thanks to Lesnar as well as Goldberg, I can't find myself caring about this title. This feeling primarily comes from the feeling as if I know what will happen. Since Roman is being put in prime position to be a World Champion again, he need to "look strong" and in a fan base that seemingly turned on him awhile ago, don't look for the New Orleans crowd to embrace Reigns suddenly.
The Universal title picture is so uninteresting to me at the moment 1) Because Reigns isn't exciting to watch. 2) Brock is absolutely closed to working with people. "Eat. Sleep. Suplex. Repeat." has been taken a little too literally, as German Suplexes are virtually Lesnar's only two moves. Every Lesnar match has simply become a cut and paste formula in such a way that "Call of Duty" games could be put to shame.
Regardless of whether I am right or wrong though, I will be partially glad when Lesnar's reign is over; however, I will not be glad at the next one if it is who I think the next champion will be.
I think Lesnar's next PPV match is going to be SummerSlam, and I think it's Strowman.
I guess Lesnar will hold it until Mania where he drops it to Reigns. They're going to do the "two men who beat The Undertaker" angle.