What If Brock Took The MITB Briefcase with him after his SummerSlam 2018 loss?

In a pivotal, dramatic moment of the SummerSlam 2018 main event, Brock Lesnar pummeled Braun Strowman at ringside and picked up the Money in the Bank briefcase. As it was, things played out in an interesting fashion.

Lesnar flung the briefcase out of Strowman’s reach, thus precluding him from cashing in even if he had felt physically up to it.

Additionally, the distraction of the Strowman interaction clearly took the Beast Incarnate’s eye off the ball, setting him up to eat one last spear and lose his Universal Championship.

But what if that moment had played out a bit differently? Lesnar has, for the time being, disappeared from the WWE landscape, which was probably inevitable coming out of the SummerSlam loss and as he prepares for his return to UFC.

But what if rather than tossing the briefcase out of sight, he had instead taken it with him on his sabbatical from the WWE Universe? This article takes a look at five potential outcomes of that scenario.

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#5 The Monster Is Neutered

Braun Strowman would be largely neutralized without his briefcase.

Braun Strowman was heavily rumored to walk out of SummerSlam as the Universal Champion, by cashing in on Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns post-match, or by adding himself to a triple threat scenario.

Things worked out differently, with him announcing his intention to cash-in, only for Lesnar to head him off and both incapacitate him and get the briefcase away from him so he physically couldn’t cash-in.

Accepting the logic that Strowman couldn’t cash-in without the briefcase in hand—which WWE had ironically played with before when Seth Rollins was Mr. Money in the Bank and Dean Ambrose thwarted him—Strowman would be a lame duck briefcase holder for as long as Lesnar stayed away with the contract.

While Strowman could still quite reasonably be a part of the Universal title scene, he’d lose any element of surprise or the hint of a heel turn that come with Money in the Bank.

#4 Brock Lesnar Returns

We'd know for sure we hadn't seen the last of Brock Lesnar if he stole the briefcase.

The night after SummerSlam, WWE hinted heavily that Brock Lesnar isn’t entirely done with the WWE Universe.

Paul Heyman approached Kurt Angle about Lesnar invoking his Universal title rematch clause, even teasing Lesnar might take it at Hell in a Cell. Angle laughed off the suggestion, acknowledging there was a rematch clause, but no timeframe attached to it.

So it is that the door remains open, and Lesnar could come back—and even return straight to the title picture—but there’s no guarantee.

Lesnar walking with the briefcase would have suggested a more definite intention for Lesnar to eventually return, if only for just one angle to resolve the Money in the Bank situation.

Now, we will have to wait and see what becomes of Lesnar’s latest foray into mixed martial arts, and how eager he and WWE are to work together again, starting without a pre-existing storyline in place.

#3 Braun Strowman Vs. Brock Lesnar For The Briefcase

Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar wrestling again would be an inevitability if Lesnar had taken the briefcase.

Had Brock Lesnar rode off with the Money in the Bank briefcase, he would have a hook to re-enter the WWE landscape sometime in the next year, probably after he finished up this round of business with Dana White and the UFC. Inevitably, the first person in line to square off with him in that scenario would have been Braun Strowman.

Strowman wouldn’t just have a beef with Lesnar and motivation to blow off a feud, but the more practical concern of getting his briefcase back to cash it in before it expires. Simply taking the physical case wouldn’t give Lesnar the right to cash it in, but WWE does have a spurious history with possession being nine-tenths of the law.

At a minimum we could have expected Strowman and Lesnar to have had a match with the contract on the line before Money in the Bank went back into play from there.

#2 No Shield Reunion

Without Money in the Bank in play, the Shield reunion would have made less sense.

The Shield reunion offered WWE fans an electric moment, and WWE may have steered toward something like it even without the threat of the Monster in the Bank to guard against. However, Braun Strowman coming at Reigns with the contract setup an entirely logical storyline of Reigns calling on his old running buddies to have his back and head off cash-in attempts.

Perhaps most importantly of all, Reigns reassembling The Shield around him without an imminent threat to protect against could have felt like a pretty heelish move.

While one could argue that having Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins help ward off Strowman is still a bit of a heel move, it’s counterbalanced by The Monster Among Men’s attempts to cash-in post-match when Reigns isn’t at a hundred percent.

So, everyone involved comes off like a bit of a tweener, but still acceptable as faces.

#1 WWE-UFC Crossover

Lesnar bringing the briefcase to UFC might have created a crossover opportunity.

While UFC ostensibly doesn’t want anything to do with WWE and its sports entertainment approach, as opposed to real fighting, the company has undeniably embraced pro wrestling style antics to get attention.

That most notably includes the buzz of Brock Lesnar storming the Octagon at UFC 226 to challenge Daniel Cormier in dramatic fashion that we have to believe was preplanned, given Lesnar’s access to the cage, and Dana White seeming to have things so under control.

It would go a step further than UFC has show comfort with before, but particularly if UFC wanted to cash in on the WWE audience, and the two sides want to maximize the bang for their buck with Lesnar, Lesnar bringing the briefcase to UFC could have created monster attention.

No, they wouldn’t go so far as to have Lesnar try to cash-in in UFC, but it wouldn’t be out of the question for Braun Strowman to show up and confront him at a press conference or even a fight to take back his briefcase.

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Should Lesnar have left with the MITB briefcase? Sound off your opinions in the comments section below!