Brock Lesnar Absent from Scheduled Raw Appearance Again

For the second time in three weeks, WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar no-showed an advertised appearance on Monday Night Raw.

This week's Raw started out with Kurt Angle coming out ot the ring and announcing that Lesnar was not in Detroit for his scheduled face-off with Roman Reigns, despite Paul Heyman's claims at the end of Raw last week.

Roman Reigns walked out, looking visibly furious that he was stood up by Lesnar yet again.

This led to a fired up Reigns cutting a promo on Lesnar, claiming he doesn't respect him, the fans or the WWE locker room. Reigns then called out Vince McMahon, saying that the WWE CEO was giving Lesnar special treatment and that is was a slap in the face to him.

The former WWE Champion then left the ring and marched to the back, where he walked right up to McMahon and demanded he explain himself. McMahon tried to calm things down by leading Reigns to his office and demanding the show cut to commercial.

When the show came back, announcer Renee Young was waiting outside McMahon's office. Reigns walked out and didn't ay anything. McMahon followed moments later, and explained that Lesnar had earned the privileges awarded to him. He then gave his word that Lesnar would be on Raw next week, and that the match at WrestleMania 34 against Reigns was still happening. However, he also said Reigns was suspended for his actions.

Lesnar was originally supposed to have a face-off with Reigns on the Feb. 26 episode of Raw in Anaheim, California. But even though he was officially advertised by the arena, Lesnar still didn't show up This led to Reigns cutting a pseudo-shoot promo where he raged against The Beast, talking about how he shows up for work night in and night out and Lesnar just picks his spots once every couple of months.

WWE went so far as to release an official statement on Lesnar's absence.

"After Universal Champion Brock Lesnar failed to meet his WrestleMania challenger, Roman Reigns, face-to-face on this week's Raw, WWE.com reached out to The Beast's advocate for an explanation or, at the very least, a rebuttal to The Big Dog's incendiary critique of the champion on the broadcast. Unfortunately, Heyman has not responded to requests for comment," the statement read. "Reporters have also contacted the office of Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, but following Triple H's attack on the WWE Hall of Famer in the wake of Stephanie McMahon's confrontation with Ronda Rousey, Angle remains unavailable."

WrestleMania 34 takes place on April 8 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana.