WWE officials are indeed trying to come up with fresh equations going forward. This is why we are getting several first-ever title matches in the first PPV of 2019. One of them is going to be Finn Balor vs. Brock Lesnar over the Universal Championship. Even a week ago we barely had clues of getting this lineup. But the dream match is happening at Royal Rumble.
Finn Balor replaced Braun Strowman in the Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble on this week’s WWE Raw. He won a fatal-4-way match in the main event of the show to capture the spotlight. Afterward, John Cena endorsed him to be the next Universal Champion, potentially.
The sudden inclusion of Finn Balor is indeed a shocker for some of the fans. Vince McMahon was never a fan of the former NXT Champion. So a quick opportunity is what the least that he can hope for. But things have changed big time during the end of 2018. The plans were indeed long enough to bring Finn Balor into the Universal Championship picture.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the creative team had big plans over Finn Balor. They finally went forward with this on this week’s WWE Raw. So Braun Strowman’s injury is not the real reason for him getting the sudden opportunity. In fact, the Monster among Men himself declared that he was fit to compete.
Now it makes sense why Finn Balor picked up a huge win against Drew McIntyre at WWE TLC. This brought the momentums by his side. But WWE continued to advertise Strowman vs. Lesnar for a specific reason. They had to sell out at least 40000 tickets via this match in the Chase Field, the baseball stadium that is home for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Later Brock Lesnar also favored Finn Balor as an opponent as stated below courtesy of wrestlingnews.co,
“Lesnar likes Balor because he feels like he can work better with smaller opponents like AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan. The original plan for last year’s Royal Rumble was for Lesnar to face Balor but, as is usually the case in WWE, plans changed. McMahon felt at the time that Balor was not over enough to warrant a match with Lesnar.”
Meanwhile, Braun Strowman may have to remain out of action until Royal Rumble. Officials can use him minimally at the Royal Rumble 2019 match itself. With the title match slipping from his fingers, he might try his luck by entering this prestigious match.
