We are almost there to enter the Wrestlemania season. Royal Rumble marked the beginning of the road to the biggest event of the year. This is that most hyped season where we can expect biggest arrangements on WWE TV to boost up the ratings. The creative team reshuffles the desk to bring out the best possible scenario to entertain the fans.
Update on Brock Lesnar’s contract negotiation with AEW
This brings us to one of the main events of the show that will take place for the Universal Championship. Brock Lesnar is the current holder of the title who had his first title defense at Royal Rumble. Finn Balor was his opponent setting up a fresh matchup. He replaced Braun Strowman who was the original challenger for the beast.
The monster among men competed against Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel. Baron Corbin took a cheap shot on him costing the title opportunity. Later Braun Strowman defeated Corbin at WWE TLC to win back another title opportunity. But he was dealing with an elbow injury ensuring that he was not 100 percent fit.
This might have been the reason why Vince McMahon removed him from the title picture on a permanent basis. Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar was ‘earmarked’ for WrestleMania 35 over the Universal Championship. The earlier plans featuring Braun Strowman is not there anymore on the card.
Apparently, McMahon himself decided to keep the behemoth off the title picture following his elbow surgery. The promotions around Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman at Royal Rumble was on for a long time. But the actual plan was always ready to insert Finn Balor to replace the monster. There’s a valid reason behind doing this.
Braun Strowman has previously faced Brock Lesnar twice in PPV events. Both the times he had to suffer pinfall losses just to put the champion ever. The outcome was not going to change, the third time considering the upcoming Wrestlemania season. These clean shortcomings can extremely harm the strong character of the monster among men.
So Vince McMahon did not want to recap the same thing at Royal Rumble. Fans have already become bored of not seeing Brock Lesnar on WWE Raw. They expected him to be the champion, the least. Finn Balor competing against the beast incarnate would at least offer something fresh for the audience. This could make up the expected loss of the challenger.
