Opinion: Brock Lesnar no-showing for RAW is a work - and Dana White is in on it too

So, this week on RAW, Brock Lesnar was advertised to go face-to-face with Roman Reigns ahead of their WrestleMania match for the WWE Universal Championship.

But as anyone who watched the show will know, Lesnar "did not show up" and Reigns had to "shoot" on him instead.

Now, the whole segment was very believable and WWE has done "real" well this time around, something they've been criticised for in the past - but don't let yourself think this isn't all part of one genius plan.

WWE is treating Lesnar’s absence as a "no-show" and had a full segment scripted for Lesnar and Reigns' interaction, with The Big Dog boasting that The Beast Incarnate's absence was only confirmed 30 minutes before he cut the scathing promo which played out much better than the last Lesnar v Reigns face-to-face...

So, the first question is, why wasn't Brock Lesnar on RAW?

Well, the smart answer is "to get Reigns over."

WWE loves work-shoot angles, especially around WrestleMania and, while it's been reported that The Big Dog's promo was not originally in the script and only had verbiage approved with him filling in the gaps.

All of the important stuff was pretty much certainly approved and laid out backstage.

Just because it was "off-script" does not mean it was a shoot, although you wouldn't begrudge Reigns or anyone else for harbouring some ill feeling towards Lesnar.

The current Universal champion picks up the biggest cheque to attend the least dates when the rest of the roster is making the small towns and bumping a lot more.

The promo, which you can see below, was reminiscent of John Cena calling The Rock, a part-timer when he didn't show up several years ago before their WrestleMania clash.

There's no official reason yet why Lesnar wasn't on RAW, with WWE even tweeting out that they had reached out to Kurt Angle and Paul Heyman about the issue.

Dave Meltzer reports that the plan is to get Reigns over as a babyface ahead of WrestleMania 34 on April 8, adding that “the most likely scenario” is WWE told Lesnar and Heyman to not appear on RAW to put heat on the Universal Champion.

Well, it 100% worked with Reigns' “shoot-style” promo seemingly doing the impossible and getting him over with the hardcore fans.

I'm actually prepared to go one further than Meltzer and say that even Dana White and the UFC are completely and 100% in on this and helping WWE play it off as reality.

Relations between WWE and UFC are at an all-time high after Lesnar's last return to UFC which saw both companies mention each other on air and even cross-advertise. In fact, Ronda Rousey's appearance on Sunday even saw several UFC talents in the building too.

Dana White posted a photo of himself and Lesnar, with The Beast Incarnate sporting a UFC shirt, during the Elimination Chamber.

Lesnar had allegedly met with White in Las Vegas, the same town as WWE's pay-per-view. The former UFC star was not booked for the Elimination Chamber, but was not backstage despite being in the area, and was allegedly booked for the night after in Anaheim - just a short drive away.

😃 pic.twitter.com/2AVR6HmAjR

— Dana White (@danawhite) February 26, 2018

Well, I believe white may have not even met with Lesnar and the photo posted was an old photo to try and make it seem like Lesnar's no-show was to show that he's angling for a move back to UFC.

This would make him a heel at WrestleMania 34 for essentially being contractually forced to compete while trying to make his way back to the Octagon.

It's no surprise that Lesnar is very passionate about returning to MMA at every possible opportunity, so the recent rumours aren't surprising as his contract with the WWE runs out before he's eligible for a UFC return too, with September being the earliest point.

The Beast Incarnate could be back in the Octagon and he may already be in the USADA testing pool for such a return.

It may seem like a drastic measure to take to get Reigns over as a face but, if so, it's worked! And it makes the rivalry seem more realistic than ever, so I love it!

If it is a work, and if the worked parts of it also include White playing along, it's all the more impressive on WWE's part. I can't wait to see how it all plays out.