What if Brock Lesnar Carries the Universal and UFC Championships into WrestleMania 35?

The worlds of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts faced a unique situation when Brock Lesnar, as the reigning WWE Universal Champion, stormed the Octagon at UFC 226 to get in Daniel Cormier’s face.

The moment not only signalled Lesnar going back to MMA himself but got people wondering if it were possible he’d hold onto WWE’s top prize as a set up for him to conceivably become the first person to hold championships in WWE and UFC simultaneously.

That scenario seemed to fizzle when Lesnar dropped the Universal title at SummerSlam and looked as though he’d focus on his return to UFC for the time being. Times change, though, and WWE had an influx of cash from Saudi Arabia to justify booking Lesnar again, and then Roman Reigns had to relinquish the Universal Championship. While WWE could have put the belt on Braun Strowman at Crown Jewel, they instead opted to revisit the familiar scenario of Lesnar as part-time champ, reigning over Raw.

Lesnar taking back the Universal Championship reopened the question as to whether he might hold top prizes in pro wrestling and MMA simultaneously. With few credible challengers on his WWE horizon for the immediate future, this article speculates, what if Lesnar does succeed in holding both titles and carries them both into WrestleMania?

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5. UFC promotes WrestleMania

UFC may, for the first time, actively push a WWE event.

UFC has had an uneven relationship with WWE over the years. Early on, things were quite contention, as UFC and its fans dismissed WWE as play-fighting in contrast to their very real violence. While there are still those fans who hold beliefs along those lines, the crossover between UFC and WWE has grown, particularly for the number of top stars who have worked for both promotions under their own terms, including Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey, and CM Punk.

UFC hasn’t outwardly promoted any WWE events before, but Dana White was in attendance for WrestleMania 34 to support Rousey in her WWE debut. If UFC were to have an active champion working a match at the Showcase of the Immortals? We can only assume UFC might go a step further in actually helping to promote the event, recognizing it as mutually beneficial to get Lesnar over as as big of a star as possible.

4. Daniel Cormier: corner man

Daniel Cormier may not wrestle but could still have a presence at WrestleMania 35.

There is a possibility of Daniel Cormier crossing over to WWE. His success in the Octagon has made him a big star, and his talking and beef with Brock Lesnar have helped raise his profile with wrestling fans. Just the same, he presents a bit of a conundrum as a prospective WWE performer given his beef with Lesnar makes the Beast Incarnate his only logical opponent, but his lack of sports entertainment experience makes it difficult to imagine WWE featuring him in that high profile of a match.

A good compromise, especially if Lesnar is a UFC champ, and Cormier is, as we can only assume he would be, in line for a rematch, would be Cormier standing in the corner of whomever Lesnar defends his Universal title against at WrestleMania. This could call attention to Lesnar’s UFC rivalry while still mostly keeping Cormier out of the pro wrestling fray.

3. Braun Strowman wins the Royal Rumble

Braun Strowman is one of the few guys WWE has situated as a reasonable challenger to Brock Lesnar

With Roman Reigns presumably still out of the mix come WrestleMania 35, there are not very many WWE Superstars who could credibly be positioned to challenge Brock Lesnar for his Universal Championship.

Guys like Seth Rollins and Finn Balor could conceivably be put in that role, but have credibility gaps in terms of, if nothing else, their size, and WWE would need to go all in pushing them ASAP. AJ Styles will presumably have had two matches with (and more than likely two losses to) Lesnar in that time. Daniel Bryan would have to cross brand lines, only to face similar challenges to Rollins and Balor, besides no one being especially eager to see him against one of the most physically punishing guys in the business so soon after being cleared from his previous head injuries.

In the end, Braun Strowman is the most likely guy to challenge Lesnar if he is still champion come ‘Mania. Yes, Strowman has lost to Lesnar in four title match scenarios already, but only one of those was a one-on-one bout in which Strowman wasn’t thoroughly protected, and that was over a year ago at No Mercy 2017. There’s reason to believe that the main reason Strowman didn’t win at Crown Jewel was to set him up for the full star treatment in a Royal Rumble win and WrestleMania coronation.

2. Lesnar loses

Brock Lesnar may leave WrestleMania with just one title

One of the big risks WWE would assume in letting Brock Lesnar carry the Universal Championship into a UFC fight would be the chance of him not only losing, but losing in such a way that diminishes WWE’s credibility. While most fans understand wrestling works on predetermined outcomes, it would nonetheless be more difficult to buy Lesnar as an unbeatable monster in WWE if he were, for example, to tap out or get knocked out in the first round of a high profile MMA fight.

While UFC would probably rather not have its champ lose in a WWE ring either, it’s understood that would be less Lesnar's fault than Vince McMahon’s decision, besides which mechanisms like outside interference allow for a more thoroughly protected loss in WWE.

Having Lesnar drop the title at WrestleMania would both protect the Universal Championship in the long term and add a nice feather to the cap of the guy who beat him for not only having won a top title but also pinned a UFC champion.

1. Lesnar focuses on MMA for a while after

Brock Lesnar may take a moment to focus on his UFC career after dropping the Universal title.

All indications are that Brock Lesnar is not invested in his WWE career at this point, but rather to get paid as much money for as few dates as possible. WWE’s choice to put the Universal title on him, in turn, seems less grounded in either side particularly wanting that outcome, and more so in needing a credible champ to fill in for Roman Reigns and not wanting to put the title on Braun Strowman (at least not yet).

If Lesnar does walk into WrestleMania 35 with championships from both WWE and UFC, it will arguably mark a new high water mark for his decorated career in combat sports. When he drops the Universal title, that will also probably mean that he makes good on his expected sabbatical from wrestling, focusing more fully and earnestly on MMA, at least until he drops his UFC title too.