It's becoming difficult to tell what's going on with the Raw main event picture, but I'm not sure if that's by design or due to a combination of incompetence due to Vince's man crush on Lesnar becoming so out of control that he's waiting for a very, very specific moment. The last time I read anything concerning Lesnar, there was still nothing locked in for SummerSlam and every report I've read suggests that's all down to Vince as Lesnar doesn't show up until Vince wants him.
It's all but guaranteed that Brock Lesnar will be Daniel Cormier's first opponent for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. I've had to eat a little bit of crow as I stated last week that Lesnar, even if he went back to the UFC, wouldn't be anywhere near the championship picture again but I was wrong. I underestimated how little regard Dana White has for the integrity of the sport considering all the doping that's gone around, his willingness to tolerate the antics of Connor McGregor, some of which actually resulted in a female UFC fighter sustaining injury, letting someone who has no business fighting on a UFC ppv, AKA CM Punk, on the card because of name value alone, etc.. Anyhow, Lesnar will be challenging for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, though it'll probably be sometime next year as Lesnar has only just entered the USDA testing regiment; I've read that it'll probably be January before the fight comes about and, if that's the case, I'm actually wondering if Vince is somehow trying to hold off on things to wait and see whether or not Lesnar wins the UFC Heavyweight Championship so he can incorporate the whole thing into another storyline that he hopes to orchestrate into another mega moment for Roman Reigns.
As I alluded to, it's difficult to know what the main event plans are because nobody else seems to know them except Vince. We haven't laid eyes on the WWE Universal Champion since the Greatest Royal Rumble nearly 3 months ago and anything I've read on the subject doesn't provide any degree of solidity as to when Lesnar will be back. You'd think that SummerSlam would be the logical choice but we've seen Vince completely piss in the face of logic at times when it concerns plans for Brock Lesnar. For all we know, Vince may actually try keeping Lesnar away until his fight with Cormier is over so he can see just how big of a moment he can try to manufacture for Reigns next. In this day and age, not seeing a main event champion compete for months at a time just doesn't work. The industry has changed, people are connected to media in ways never dreamed of 30 years ago and it's hard to turn off what you're used to seeing. In New Japan, title defenses, especially main event title defenses, are somewhat rare as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion might defend his title once every few months but he still shows up to wrestle, most often in random tag matches but at least he's on the card for fans to see. That's not the case with Lesnar and it hurts the championship, in my opinion. The last time we saw the main event champion on Raw actually wrestle on Raw was about 18 months ago and it's been even longer since the Raw main event title, the Universal Championship, was defended on WWE television.
As for Bobby Lashley, the guy sucks as a babyface. He wasn't much to speak of 10 years ago as a babyface and he's not much now, so I don't know if it all can be blamed on Vince's restrictions. I just know he's as bland as can be so far as they've had him as a generic, smiling babyface instead of portraying him as the dominant, legitimate badass that he is. They try to play down his MMA career as a failure because he didn't compete in the UFC and it's a mistake. I don't think Lashley is someone that will be the "next big thing" due in part of his age; Lashley's not an old man or anything, but he does turn 42 in the next few days so you have to figure that he's not going to take Reigns' spot. Reigns is someone who'll be one of the guys carrying WWE for the next decade and I look for Lashley to be gone in 3 years tops.
If Reigns loses on Sunday, I don't think it'll mean much of anything because Vince is too focused on giving Reigns big moment after big moment. Despite fans letting him and other executives know time after time that these artifially induced big moments, that all the sterile attempts to get Reigns in a certain way that fits with whatever paddywhack vision Vince has, he's not giving up on Reigns. Vince is Willy Wonka, the WWE is his fucking chocolate factory, he's in charge and he wants everyone to remember it.
