5 options for Brock Lesnar at WWE Royal Rumble 2018

#4 Finn Balor

Finn Balor has previously spoken of his desire to face Brock Lesnar

This is the one that has the most speculation, but also seems to be the most shot down idea.

I might be in the minority, but I wasn’t familiar with Finn Balor when he first came into WWE and during the first few matches he had in NXT, I wasn’t particularly impressed.

Eventually, I warmed up enough to him and saw him as a top guy for the future, but as time has gone on, I’ve circled back around to find him underwhelming.

For me to put enough stock in him, or to put him on the mantle of being the top guy on Raw or SmackDown, he’s going to have to show me more personality than he’s ever done, as the Demon King makeup alone doesn’t help forget his shortcomings.

With the way he’s been booked since his return from injury, Balor hasn’t been consistently treated like a Universal Championship contender. And what makes me concerned about this potential match is the size disparity, coupled with the downward trend in his credibility.

This would be more one-sided than the AJ Styles affair at Survivor Series, which turned out much better than I had anticipated. In the Balor vs. Lesnar clash, it should be The Beast Incarnate steamrolling him.

But is that necessarily a bad thing?

Don’t get me wrong—just because I think Balor is overrated doesn’t mean I’d particularly book him in a match to get destroyed out of the thrill of it. I have no ill-will to the guy and I actually want to see him hold the Intercontinental Championship very soon. But that IC title isn’t the Universal title, is it?

Balor, from my point of view, needs to work his way back up, rather than just be slotted into the top position based on the technicality of being the first-ever Universal Champion for 20-some hours.

I would actually be quite interested to see a story where everybody knows he stands no chance against Lesnar and we don’t see him get the upper hand on any episode of Raw leading up to their match, where, as expected, he would get his backside kicked.

That would be realistic, it would give Lesnar something to do, the fans a match they haven’t seen yet, and it would give Balor a reason to show a little bit more character other than just saying he has a lot of heart and determination and will get back up when knocked down.

I’d love to see him come out of it with a bit of a shaken up motivation where he realises that the climb back to the top is going to be much harder than he anticipated and he might not have what it takes, so he has to challenge himself over the next few months to get back into the limelight.

That, in my mind, sets Balor up for a more triumphant return to the main event in the later part of 2018 where, by the 2019 Royal Rumble, he could be one of the favorites to win, and it would all start with a humbling (but not humiliating) loss against Lesnar here.