Kurt Angle opened Raw ready to strip Brock Lesnar of the Universal Championship. But right before he could, Paul Heyman waddled from the back and agreed to have his client defend his title at SummerSlam.
Lesnar’s Brooklyn opponent is still a mystery, but Angle booked a pair of triple threat matches involving Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Finn Balor, Elias and Drew McIntyre. The winner of those matches will fight next week to determine Lesnar’s August 19 date.
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Heyman and Angle’s dialogue may prove to be one of WWE‘s best segments of the year. In just 10 minutes, Heyman was able to display the crowd has officially turned against Brock Lesnar — a clarity the Roman Reigns could never achieve.
While the WWE Universe has certainly soured on The Beast, Heyman looked to lock it up as he thoughtfully goaded the Buffalo, NY audience into booing harder. Getting Lesnar universally disliked is a big Step 1. Finding his challenger is an even bigger Step 2.
We shuffled forward in Raw’s opening match after Roman Reigns pinned Finn Balor to punch his ticket for next week’s number one contender match. He’ll meet either Elias, Bobby Lashley or Seth Rollins. We’ll know by the end of Raw.
Lashley is certainly the hottest of the group as he’s just 24-hours off of pinning Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules. However, WWE may not be ready to stick up under their brightest lights.
Seth Rollins certainly seems to be ready to graduate into Lesnar’s territory. Without question, no Superstars has had a better 2018. It looks like Rollins is done chasing Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler so he will be free to pursue bigger fish. But WWE may have something else planned.
Eldia is the official dark horse. While he has one of the best acts in WWE, him meeting Lesnar would be a massive promotion. Seeing that he has yet to touch WE gold, a SummerSlam match with Lesnar seems unlikely.
Whoever it ends up being, the opportunity to topple Lesnar is proving to be one of the biggest accomplishments in WWE history. Big Show elaborated on this very topic during an appearance on The Steve Austin Show.
“That’s where we’re at now. Who can beat Brock Lesnar?” Big Show explained, “Brock Lesnar is no joke, no comedy, no ha-ha, no fun, and games. He’s a legit champ. Whoever beats Brock Lesnar is going to be made and that’s what you want out of somebody that drops the title, not passing the title like you’re passing a volleyball back and forth across the net. Now, whoever becomes the champion is somebody that is going to have really earned it through trial and fire.”
