When Vince McMahon pulled the trigger on having Brock Lesnar end Undertaker’s legendary undefeated streak at WrestleMania XXX earlier this year, many fans were outraged. WWE followed that up by having Lesnar become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion by having him completely destroy John Cena at SummerSlam in what amounted to a glorified squash match.
Many wrestling fans, including myself, wondered what the hell was going on. Why would WWE end Undertaker’s streak and give that rub to a part-time talent? Why would they have that same part-time employee bury the company’s top Superstar? How is this supposed to be a good thing when they’re ruining legacies and top stars’ credibility all for a guy who is only going to work two or three shows a year?
On Wednesday, we finally got our answer.
As it turns out, WWE reportedly restructured their deal with Lesnar where they can now use him as often as they would like. While it will cost them a pretty penny to do so, according to reports, they can literally have Lesnar work every pay-per-view from now until WrestleMania 31 next year.
It looks like WWE is doing all of this to build up one guy, and no, it’s not “The Beast Incarnate.” It’s Roman Reigns.
According to multiple sources, WWE’s entire plan is to spend this entire year building up Lesnar as the most unstoppable force in the history of pro wrestling, all-the-while slowly building Reigns up as the next “face of the company.” At WrestleMania 31, their paths are reportedly going to collide.
Lesnar does the unthinkable and ends Undertaker’s streak. He goes up against the top star in the company and destroys him in a completely one-sided beat down. He takes him out in the rematch just for good measure, which is what I’m assuming is going to happen at Night Of Champions. Then, for the rest of the year, however often they have him work, he dethrones each man that is put in front of him until the company rolls into Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on March 29, 2015.
Very similar to the rise of Goldberg in WCW, Reigns will be under the radar and slowly but surely, rise through the ranks until he gets his championship opportunity. Much like Goldberg beating Hulk Hogan at the Georgia Dome, on Nitro instead of a pay-per-view (why did WCW go out of business again?), the company crowned their new champion and the new face of the company. Bill Goldberg was a made-man from that point on.
I expect the exact same thing here in WWE this year. I expect Lesnar will take out every person put in front of him, in dominant fashion and then at WrestleMania 31, it’s the two unstoppable forces colliding in the center of the ring. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
If WWE plays their cards right, and they have been thus far in the sense that Lesnar looks invincible. He’s an unstoppable force that truly conquers anything that is put in his path. Meanwhile, Reigns is slowly rising to the top of the company and is basically the babyface version of Brock Lesnar. The WrestleMania 31 main event will likely see the heel monster Lesnar defend his championship against the babyface monster Reigns. Reigns beats Lesnar and we crown the new face of WWE.
Of course as is always the case in the world of sports entertainment, there are intangibles. Daniel Bryan could return and screw up WWE’s plans, especially if the plan is for Reigns to win the Royal Rumble to earn his shot at Lesnar at WrestleMania. We all saw how this year’s Royal Rumble turned out, so the company better prepare as best as they can to make sure that doesn’t happen next year.
They need to be very careful in how they handle Reigns’ ascension to the top of the company. He’s decent, but not great on the microphone. In the ring, he’s getting better every time he goes out there, but he’s still not quite the performer he needs to be to carry pay-per-view main events on a regular basis. There is plenty of time between now and WrestleMania to work on these issues, it’s just a matter of WWE not exposing his weaknesses along the way to WrestleMania 31.
And one of the key intangibles is the dreaded injury bug. This is something WWE can’t really control, as freak injuries happen — and quite often — in professional wrestling. The only thing they can do is avoid putting Reigns in risky spots, especially in unimportant matches like SmackDown television bouts or even RAW main events. Minimize the amount of risks and chances Reigns and Lesnar take in the ring to ensure, as best you can, that they are as close to 100-percent as possible by the time March rolls around.
If WWE handles all of these things in the right way, it seems inevitable that we will head into WrestleMania 31 with a Lesnar vs. Reigns main event, with Reigns finally being the man to stop the unstoppable Brock Lesnar. Once he does, it seems equally inevitable that the “WWE Universe” will accept and more importantly, recognize Roman Reigns as the new top Superstar in the company.
Okay, now this all makes sense.
What do you guys think? As always, you can chime in with your two cents by posting your feedback in the “Comments” section below, or you can hit me up on Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR and/or on Twitter @MBoone420.
