We were supposed to get a homoerotic staredown between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns on Monday’s episode of RAW, but thanks to Lesnar’s no-show, that didn’t happen. And apparently, neither Lesnar nor Paul Heyman have explained themselves to WWE.
WWE had heavily advertised Lesnar’s appearance for the Anaheim, CA episode of RAW, so his choice to bail instantly put him in a negative light. Roman Reigns saw this as an opportunity and blasted the Universal Championship for his now infamous, apathy.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Reigns’ promo was one of the strongest in his career, and now WWE themselves have chimed in on the matter.
Per WWE.com:
“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.
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.
Stay with WWE.com as more details on Lesnar become available.”
So what is going on here?
As much as WWE would like us to believe that Lesnar has gone rogue, that’s not what’s happening. Instead, Brock and Paul Heyman are only appearing to be off the grid. However, WWE is doing everything they can to make you believe that the Universe Champion is acting unilaterally.
However, this is all a ploy to make Lesnar look like the bad guy. He already has a well-established reputation for doing as he pleases and WWE is simply turning up that perception to 11.
In recent years, Lesnar has drawn criticism from WWE’s fan base for his incredibly Brock-friendly schedule. This was illustrated perfectly by the fact that Seth Rollins’ Gauntlet Match performance, which saw him wrestle for 65 straight minutes, eclipsed Lesnar’s cumulative wrestling time for all of 2017.
For now, expect WWE and Lesnar to keep the standoff alive, while Reigns further endears himself to the crowd as The People’s Champion.
