Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar confront one another on ‘Raw.’ (YouTube)
Tonight on Monday Night Raw, Roman Reigns declared that at SummerSlam, he wants to face the Universal Champion, whomever it may be. So does this mean that the WWE is leading up to a match between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam?
Roman’s announcement came as a bit of a surprise, as it has been reported by the Wrestling Observer among other outlets that the WWE is planning to have Brock Lesnar face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34. The reporting has been that the WWE was planning to save this matchup until WrestleMania in April 2018.
It’s possible that the WWE has changed its plans or that they are planning to have Roman face Lesnar at both SummerSlam and WrestleMania. However, what seems more likely is that Roman will not end up facing Lesnar at SummerSlam and that the match will be between Lesnar and Braun Strowman, as had been previously rumored.
After all, the WWE has reportedly been planning a matchup between Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar for months, with the original plan being for them to face at Great Balls of Fire. However, this had to be delayed when Strowman was legitimately injured, resulting in the Samoa Joe matchup. Lesnar is expected to defeat Joe, and Strowman has now been cleared to return, according to Bleacher Report.
But keep in mind what within the WWE storyline, Braun Strowman is supposed to be out on injury for six full months, so he would not be a factor in Roman’s plan right now. With that in mind, one possibility for the direction of this storyline is that Roman will set his sights on the Universal Championship over the next few weeks, but sometime between now and August, Braun Strowman will return. He will make the argument that he’s the one who deserves to be number one contender, and Kurt Angle will place the two of them in a number one contender match. Strowman will win, resulting in the Lesnar vs. Strowman matchup at SummerSlam.
Lesnar is expected to retain the title at SummerSlam, and from there, he will reportedly only defend his title a few more times over the ensuing months, with his opponents being Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and finally Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34.