What’s the story?
At WrestleMania 33, Brock Lesnar defeated Goldberg to win the WWE Universal Championship. On the subsequent episode of Raw, a major force stood up and presented a challenge to The Beast Incarnate. Braun Strowman interrupted Lesnar and Paul Heyman’s victory address to put the new champion on notice, and a battle between the two behemoths seems inevitable.
In case you didn’t know...
Brock Lesnar became only the fourth man in history to win the WWE Universal Championship when he defeated Goldberg in under five minutes at WrestleMania 33. The match seemingly represented the culmination of the Lesnar/Goldberg rivalry, with the former champion seemingly moving into retirement and Brock moving on to new challengers in the immediate future.
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Braun Strowman’s WrestleMania didn’t go quite as well as Lesnar’s as he was eliminated early from the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Despite the setback, he will have a significant role to play on Raw going forward.
The heart of the matter
Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar headed to the ring last night to address the WWE Universe and lay out something of a mission statement. Heyman began to speak about Roman Reigns and the necessity for a match between Lesnar and Reigns, only for his challenge to be interrupted by Braun’s now-recognisable roar.
Also read: 5 booking options for Brock Lesnar as WWE Universal Champion
Strowman and Lesnar stood toe-to-toe, and Strowman told the champion that it was he and not Reigns that posed the biggest threat to Brock’s new crown. The manner in which Strowman was speaking suggested another battle between him and Roman Reigns is set for the immediate future, and with Reigns rumoured to take on Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 it could well be Strowman that jumps ahead in the queue for now.
Strowman and Lesnar did not come to blows last night, but the tension between the two was palpable. A collision between the two juggernauts now seems inevitable.
What’s next?
This was purely a meeting between the two, with no challenges and no official moves made towards a match. A Strowman/Lesnar bout has been heavily rumoured for some time now, but as of yet their only physical interaction came during the brief Lesnar/Wyatt Family feud in early 2016. Strowman is an entirely different beast more than a year later, and a showdown between the two could prove highly entertaining.
Author’s take
If Lesnar/Reigns II is inevitable for WrestleMania 34, the least we can hope for is an interesting road to that point for Brock. A number of fresh matches await, and a bout with Braun Strowman represents the first of these. It is unlikely that Strowman will come out of this as the fifth Universal Champion, but if WWE plays their cards right, he could still gain a lot from the potential feud.
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