The Next 3 Opponents for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Universal Championship

In the next 7 months, WWE has 3 of their biggest pay-per-views: Survivor Series in November, Royal Rumble in January, and WrestleMania in early April. With such pivotal shows approaching, WWE is forced into making big decisions. And that action begins and ends with the Universal Championship.

Despite not being around, Brock Lesnar and the Universal Championship are still an omnipotent part of WWE. Regardless of their presence WWE is always calculating their next move regarding the Big Red Belt and who its next challenger must be.

Keeping Lesnar’s limited schedule in mind we can deduce that the Beast Incarnate will have 3 more pay-per-view matches before his contract expires in April of 2018.

So who will be the lucky (and possibly last) 3 opponents for Lesnar and his Universal Championship? Let’s find out!

Jinder Mahal at Survivor Series

While this has yet to be made official, we can count on Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman accepting Jinder Mahal’s Survivor Series challenge. 

Even more, there is positively no way that either the Universal Championship or the WWE Championship will be placed on the line. So regardless of how the match finishes, Brock Lesnar will be leaving Survivors Series as Universal Champion. 

Despite what fans think of Mahal he’s a serviceable champion at minimum. It will be interesting to watch how or if WWE managers the psychology of the match. Seeing that Mahal is unconditionally a heel and Lesnar is the truest version of a tweener, could WWE turn one of them in a new direction?

Finn Balor at Royal Rumble

According to the Wrestling Observer, Balor will finally get his Universal Championship rematch at the 2018 Royal Rumble. 

This doesn’t come as too much of a surprise as WWE has kept Balor hovering around the Universal Champion since returning from his shoulder injury.

Balor seems keenly aware of his pending match with the Beast Incarnate as he essentially cut a promo during an interview with Metro:

“Listen, I don’t shy away from a fight for one second and I would absolutely love to be in there with Brock Lesnar. Once I handle Bray Wyatt, I need to be going after the Universal Championship which I was never beaten for. Yes, Brock Lesnar is the current champion, but make sure you don’t forget that I relinquished the title due to injury, I was never beaten, and I definitely think that I deserve a title shot,” he claimed.

Although it is technically an opportunity, it will be nothing more than an exhibition for both Balor and Lesnar. The Beast is going to WrestleMania as Universal Champion, no matter how much face paint Balor uses.

Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34

As soon as WrestleMania 33 closed, rumors began to simmer about WWE already having WrestleMania 34’s main event set. Seeing that we’re almost at the exact halfway point between ‘Manias, it certainly looks like WWE is sticking to that plan. 

Roman Reigns will challenge Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 for the Universal Championship. Barring an injury or sudden retirement, this match is happening. While this concept was never really a mystery, how WWE gets to that point is still up in the air.

WWE has been manipulating the Roman Reigns character all year with the sole intention of building the perfect WrestleMania moment. WWE made sure that Reigns stopped winning pay-per-view matches so he’d seem more relatable. They gave him the insane ambulance spot with Braun Strowman. and now they’ve reunited the Shield. Don’t get us wrong, the Shield homecoming has many positive effects but there’s only one WWE really wants: Roman Reigns finally gets accepted as a babyface. 

We’re all too aware that WWE has branded Reigns as not a good guy or a bad guy, but The Guy. However, we’re not buying that. They’ll never admit it, but WWE wants Reigns to be embraced universally as a hero. 

As hard as WWE tries, it will be the fans who decide if Reigns is worth cheering in New Orleans.