As WWE prepares to crown a new number one contender to face Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, the company is now teasing that they are having problems negotiating a suitable contract for Lesnar.
Five men will compete at Extreme Rules for a chance to face Lesnar for the Universal title at SummerSlam, the second biggest show of the year in WWE. Lesnar is currently working on a per-show agreement with WWE, as has been widely reported previously.
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WWE posted the following video to their YouTube page on Monday afternoon with Cathy Kelley adding a new wrinkle to the storyline by teasing the company can’t come to terms with Lesnar to defend the belt at the show.
In the video, Kelley notes that Heyman and Lesnar “have expressed a lack of confidence in WWE management in finding a suitable opponent. She goes on to report that this has lead to “issues with contract negotiations” for his next title defense. Lastly, she states that “both sides have not only failed to reach an agreement but are completely stalled at this moment.”
This is of course part of a broader storyline to attempt to get the fans to boo Lesnar heading into the show. It’s similar in nature to what they did prior to WrestleMania to get the fans behind Roman Reigns, painting Lesnar as someone who didn’t care about the business or at appearing at WWE shows.
That strategy backfired in a major way at WrestleMania, with the fan reactions during the match being some of the most negative for a championship bout in WWE history. Hopefully the current storyline isn’t another attempt to get the fans so angry toward Lesnar that they will cheer Reigns in yet another match with Brock, because that strategy will undoubtedly fail. Reigns vs. Lesnar has been overdone to the point of no return this year and the company should be looking at a fresh challenger for SummerSlam. Someone like Braun Strowman or Seth Rollins.
The contract situation is being built-up as an angle for tonight’s edition of WWE RAW from San Diego, with Kelley promising an update during the broadcast.
This story is developing…
