9 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE SummerSlam 2018

2. While We’re On The Subject…

Brock Lesnar Return
WWE.com

If this is how WWE was going to end Brock Lesnar’s 16-month Universal Championship reign, then why the hell didn’t they pull the trigger sooner?

If this was the best they could muster, then it’s obvious that the company’s decision at WrestleMania 34 was a colossal mistake. Everything was primed for Roman Reigns to have his big coronation and finally topple Lesnar, ending a year-long reign as champ. Instead, we got two more matches, each one shorter and more disappointing than the previous one.

WM 34 was bad in that it was just a series of finishing moves, and with fans resigned to accept Roman’s title win, Brock won in a shocker. Then at Greatest Royal Rumble, Brock retained in a cage match in the most backhanded way possible, with Reigns running around for four months telling everyone his feet hit the floor first, so he was the uncrowned champ.

It’s obvious now (as if it wasn’t four months ago) that WWE’s idea bin was empty when it came to this feud, but that didn’t stop them from stretching it out and throwing every curveball they could (Paul Heyman’s sit-down interview, pepper-spraying Roman, Brock attacking GM Kurt Angle) to make fans care.

Ultimately, Lesnar directly telling fans he hates them and not showing his face for months made them want him to go away, and thus “accept” Reigns by default. That was it.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.