If you’re not a fan of Brock Lesnar’s “part time” run as
Universal Champion and de facto face of the franchise, then take a deep breath.
Calm yourself, because that belt isn’t going anywhere else for a long time.
Go ahead, breathe in. Breathe out. Do it again if you have
to. Come to grips with the reality that the Beast Incarnate is going to
continue conquering for many months to come.
Many have speculated that WWE’s big picture plan is to have
Lesnar break CM Punk’s record for longest championship reign in the modern era,
but that probably is more of a side effect of the booker’s medication rather
than the sole prescription. The fact of the matter is WWE doesn’t have anyone
that can feasibly beat Lesnar right now. Not in storyline, anyways.
Roman Reigns is out of the Universal Championship scene
after numerous failures to beat Lesnar one-on-one on big stages for the title. We
were all certain that he would be the final shot at WrestleMania and Lesnar
would be staring at the lights with his back on the mat. The exact opposite
happened. WWE doubled down on Lesnar and pulled the rug out from underneath
Reigns, so now the bookers need time to build a suitable victor.
It wouldn’t make sense for Lesnar’s next opponent to beat
him clean at his next title defense at some throwaway pay-per-view, would it?
Bookers need to construct the proper successor, and that won’t happen
overnight. It’s going to take time. Furthermore, the WWE (foolishly)
established in the most recent Reigns storyline that fans are supposed toresent the champ for not to show to work every week. He’s the big bad heel, and
if he didn’t do the job for Reigns, the guy who does defeat him has to be a
big-time crowd favorite babyface.
That character doesn’t exist yet on Monday
Night Raw.
Seth Rollins is on a helluva roll right now with the
Intercontinental Championship, electrifying crowds from coast to coast as more
and more audiences are slowly forgetting his dastardly heel run and embracing
his good guy shtick. However, to challenge Lesnar, he’d have to lose the I.C.
Title first, then engage in a fierce program with Lesnar to make the victory
feel gigantic. That’s going to take until SummerSlam minimum.
Physically, Finn Bálor just doesn’t stack up to Lesnar for
casual audiences to buy that he could beat the former UFC Heavywieght
Title-holder. However, he does have “The Demon” gimmick in his back pocket, and
we haven’t seen “The Demon” since his impromptu showdown with A.J. Styles last
year. A shot at Universal Championship would be the perfect big stage for “The
Demon” to arise again, but Raw writers will have their work cut out for them in
the interim trying to get fan support back in Bálor’s corner like it was two
years ago to justify him taking the belt away from the Beast.
Braun Strowman is obviously the most imposing opponent
Lesnar could face, but he already dropped a showing to Lesnar last year. More
time probably needs to pass for people to forget that if this is going to be
the Monster Among Men’s coronation moment.
The bottom line is that the WWE designed Lesnar’s Universal
Championship run to have a special feel. He beat Bill Goldberg to win the
title. He vanquished chosen boy Roman Reigns to extend his reign beyond a
calendar year. Also, you can never forget that Lesnar was the one to beat the streak… WWE didn’t put all this investment and continually back Lesnar for him
to lose the title in ho-hum fashion. When that time comes, it has to be big.
For it to be big, that’s going to take time.
Comments
Post a Comment