Brock Lesnar captured the top WWE Raw title at WrestleMania 33, when he defeated Bill Goldberg to capture his first Universal Championship. Since WrestleMania, however, Lesnar has been noticeably absent from appearing on Raw from week to week, instead opting to serve as the Poochie of the brand, where everyone is fighting in hopes that Brock will notice them.
This prolonged absence is nothing new for Lesnar, of course, who will maybe appear on a dozen or so episodes of Raw over the course of the year and work maybe wrestle a double-digit number of matches — maybe — as per the terms of his lucrative contract. In my day, champions had to defend their title once every 30 days or risk having to vacate the championship! [fills pockets of cardigan with delicious Werther’s Originals]
We previously knew Lesnar would not be defending his title (on television, at least) until the (sigh) Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view in July, but now we finally know when he’ll be making an appearance on Raw — or at a Raw taping, at any rate.
According to WrestleZone, Lesnar is scheduled to appear at the June 26th episode of Raw at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. This is two weeks before Great Balls of Fire takes place in Dallas, so it makes sense that he’d stop by to hype up and/or get face-to-face with whoever his No. 1 contender is after Extreme Rules.
At the moment, Lesnar is being advertised as facing Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship at that Raw taping, but that will almost certainly be a dark main event that won’t air on the Raw episode, as is the custom. It also doesn’t indicate who Lesnar’s opponent will be at Great Balls of Fire, since Lesnar appears so sporadically that it’s just a good way for him to get some reps in on opponents who aren’t the Big Show.
