Brock Lesnar is back in the building, making his return to WWE after tonight’s Undisputed WWE Championship match between Roman Reigns and Riddle on SmackDown. Lesnar made his intentions clear when he delivered an F5 to Reigns and The Usos, and now WWE has revealed that Lesnar will get his chance to reclaim his WWE Championship when he faces Reigns at SummerSlam. It won’t just be a normal match though, as WWE has revealed it will be a Last man Standing match, and will likely be the main event of the show. You can see the official announcement below.
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Lesnar’s return makes a lot of sense, as previously it was reported that Randy Orton was set to be Reigns’ challenger at SummerSlam, but Orton is rumored to require back surgery, and if that’s the case he will be out for the rest of the year. WWE was going to need someone else to step in as Reigns’ next challenger, and now we know that will be Lesnar.
Fightful Select also revealed several other details of note about Lesnar’s return. In the report it is said that once it became clear that Orton wouldn’t be able to wrestle any time soon, the plan was put in place to have Lesnar return. Chatter about his return started backstage around 5 PM EST backstage but he wasn’t listed on any internal rundowns.
The report also indicates that plans for Lesnar’s return were put in place about three weeks ago, so while that is after the investigation had begun, it was before the story was run in the Wall Street Journal.
Lesnar and Reigns last collided at WrestleMania 38, with Reigns becoming the Undisputed WWE Champion. Since then though things haven’t quite gone as planned as far as the Unified Titles. Reigns has a new deal that includes less appearances, and until tonight’s match against Riddle he hadn’t defended the Title since his match against Brock. According to reports the initial plan was for the Unified Titles to get Reigns on both brands more, but that hasn’t happened, and recently Reigns didn’t even have a match at Hell in a Cell.
Now it will be Reigns vs Lesnar once more, and it will be interesting to see how WWE proceeds with the storyline. Do they pick up with some of the Heyman threads again, or do they align Lesnar with a force of his own to even the odds? It can’t just be a repeat of what they did before, but I’m all for more Cowboy Brock, so I’m not angry at it.
What do you need to see from Reigns vs Lesnar to make it fresh? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
