From the WWE Rumor Mill: Update on WWE’s plans for Universal Championship
What’s the story?
WWE have reportedly begun putting plans in place for the Universal Championship’s future in the next few months, as per Cageside Seats. Braun Strowman was set to challenge Lesnar at Great Balls of Fire but his injury has thrown things up in the air.
In case you didn’t know...
On Monday Night Raw, Kurt Angle confirmed that there will be a fatal five-way match to determine the number one contender for Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship.
It will likely be The Beast’s first defence of his title since winning it at WrestleMania 33 against Goldberg, with many people resenting the fact that a part timer is World Champion once again.
The heart of the matter
The report suggests that they could be moving the planned SummerSlam title match to Great Balls of Fire, instead choosing to have Strowman wrestle Lesnar at the biggest party of the summer if he is in fact cleared.
In terms of the top candidates to win the fatal five-way match, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor are currently being pencilled in as the most likely to win the match.
What’s next?
The build will continue in the next few weeks for WWE Extreme Rules, with the company managing Brock’s time off quite well thus far. If they can keep the fans occupied with the idea of a huge number one contender’s match like this, then it’ll go some way to helping them forget that Raw’s World Champion is still AWOL.
Author’s Take
We’re extremely excited about the Universal Title picture right now, with several main event superstars having what it takes to challenge Brock for the gold in the next few months.
Many are speculating that this could just be leading into Roman winning the strap once again, but we hope there’s more of a story to the issue than that.