Brock Lesnar has not defended his Universal Championship since the Greatest Royal Rumble event on April 27. And while many assumed fans would see “The Beast” back in a WWE ring for the SummerSlam pay-per-view in August, a new reports states that might not be the case.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter‘s Dave Meltzer wrote in this week’s edition that nothing has been finalized yet for WWE’s second biggest event of the year.
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“Lesnar at this point is not confirmed by Vince McMahon for SummerSlam, or any dates for that matter, which is weird since he has the title,” Meltzer wrote. “He’s aware and knows about it, it makes sense to expect it, but unless it happened in the last day or two, the green light hasn’t been given for whatever reason.”
Meltzer previously reported that Lesnar would compete at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Aug. 19, and that he’d presumably lose his championship in another match with Roman Reigns.
News broke the day after WrestleMania 34 that Lesnar was signing a new deal with the WWE, and that it would allow him to return to the UFC for more mixed martial arts fights as he operates as a part-time wrestler.
It was widely assumed, given his contract status and UFC plans, that Lesnar would drop his championship to Reigns at either Mania or the Greatest Royal Rumble. But neither prediciton came to pass. Lesnar demolished Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania, then retained in a cage match in controversial fashion when Reigns speared him out of the cage by breaking through one of the walls.
UFC President Dana White claimed during a recent press conference that Lesnar would be done with WWE (at least for the time being) at the end of the summer, and that he was considering a superfight between Lesnar and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones.
“Brock’s WWE deal is up at the end of the summer I think and I know he wants to fight so I’m sure we’ll end up getting that figured out,” White told TMZ Sports.
“There’s a lot of options. Jon Jones is very interested in Brock Lesnar and Brock is very interested in Jon Jones,” he continued.
Lesnar originally won the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 33, defeating rival Bill Goldberg in a quick match. He’s since then only defending the championship 10 times, but managed to break CM Punk’s 434-day record for longest world championship reign of the modern era on Tuesday.
If he chooses not to compete at SummerSlam, it’s anyone’s guess as to when Lesnar will defend the championship again.
