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Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns: Who Should Win at WrestleMania?

brocklesnar4headerBy Nick “Red” Conley

For over a year now, it has become obvious that WWE Creative has been grooming Roman Reigns to become their poster boy for the company and star at this year’s WrestleMania. After beating superstar after superstar, winning the Royal Rumble, beating Daniel Bryan, and receiving the support of his cousin, The Rock, it is apparent that Creative has chosen him as the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion. However, in the process of all of this, repeated flubs on the microphone and arguably a less than impression array of moves, coupled with the fact that Creative clearly wants Reigns as their guy, has made WWE fans less than thrilled. Actually, it has caused an outright backlash against Roman Reigns himself, which is unfortunate since he was such a dominant force when part of The Shield and largely a fan favorite. It is becoming more and more common to see a lot of boos during Roman Reigns matches these days, or your typical “this is boring” chants.

So as we approach WrestleMania, should Roman Reigns defeat Brock Lesnar? Reigns defeating Lesnar has likely been WWE Creative’s planned outcome for a year now. However, this would be incredibly predictable and likely lead to widespread booing among the audience, just like we saw at Royal Rumble when Roman Reigns eliminated the Big Show and Kane (boring). Not only that, but we can expect anti-Roman Reigns hysteria that is likely to follow the next day on RAW. If there is one thing WWE fans hate, it is predictability. That predictability at main events is often preceded with months of matches and promos where it is blatantly obvious that WWE Creative is pushing a certain outcome, and fans generally reject what the Company clearly wants, hence Daniel Bryan’s popularity.

To make matters more complicated, it just does not seem reasonable for Reigns to beat Lesnar. Brock Lesnar has been absolutely dominant and there does not seem to be a single superstar in the WWE capable of beating him right now. Not John Cena, not Seth Rollins, not Daniel Bryan, and not Roman Reigns. Lesnar is the type of champion that the WWE has not seen in a long time. I mean the guy German suplexed Cena more than 25 times and beat the Undertaker in last year’s WrestleMania. How can you have Roman Reigns beat him in a one-on-one match? WWE Creative has done a fabulous job through promos, matches, and Paul Heyman to build Brock Lesnar up into an absolute monster, but has done a poor job of making it look like Reigns is capable of beating Lesnar. Regardless of all of this, what WWE Creative wants it usually gets.

With Brock Lesnar’s complicated contract and the fact it appears he is going to leave the WWE for the UFC, it seems easy to just have Reigns win and say goodbye to Lesnar for good. However, there is an unconfirmed rumor floating around that Lesnar has in fact signed a new contract with the WWE, which if that is the case, it should be easy to just have Lesnar continue his dominant reign as champion. But, excluding this rumor, maybe WWE Creative is perfectly aware that WrestleMania is Lesnar’s last match before going to UFC, but to have him lose one-on-one to Reigns is not the way to have him lose the title. If you are going to have Lesnar lose, the most believable way is a three or four way title match where another superstar is pinned, or have Seth Rollins cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase when Lesnar is severely weakened. Even then, it would likely take several members of the Authority to interfere on behalf of Rollins to beat Lesnar. Whether this is in store or not is unknown at this time, but having Roman Reigns beat Brock Lesnar in a clean matchup just does not seem believable and likely lead to more anti-Reigns rhetoric among the fans. It is this fan’s opinion that Roman Reigns is not ready to carry the torch of the WWE.

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