Monday night on Raw, Roman Reigns delivered one of the most memorable promos of his career. “You guys wanna know the truth?” he asked, “They’re not going to like it back there, but I’m gonna say it anyways. Brock Lesnar’s not here tonight.” Roman went on to say that he has no respect for Brock because the Universal Champion can’t be bothered to show up, whereas Roman is there every week.
On the way to their WrestleMania match for the Universal Championship, this is pretty good strategy for putting heat on Brock and getting fans on Roman’s side. After all, where was Brock while Roman was earning his title shot at Elimination Chamber? He was hanging out with UFC President Dana White.
Now it’s come to light that there may be even more truth to Roman’s words. According to good ol’ Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Brock was actually scheduled to appear on Raw last night … or at the very least, he was promoted as being on the show. And of course, he wasn’t.
Meltzer’s comments on the situation:
“Brock Lesnar is booked for Detroit in two weeks, that I know. He’s not booked for next Monday’s show in Milwaukee. Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns were scheduled for a confrontation on the show tonight. That was definitely in the script. Whatever happened — if this was a last-second angle change, or something happened — I don’t know.
“If you watch the way [Reigns] was doing [his promo] … what he did in the ring was obviously scripted. The question is, why did the script change? If you remember three years ago — this is the exact same scenario as three years ago, in every way. Brock didn’t show up at a UFC [event] this weekend, but he was in Vegas with Dana White. Three years before, if you remember, Brock — his contract was just about due — disappeared from WWE, he did walk out of a taping, he was gone for a couple weeks, he went to a UFC show. Vince pretty much demanded he better show up at … one of the shows where it was pretty much do-or-die. He came, he signed a new contract, and everything was cool. There is a pattern here. That’s not an explanation of what this was [on Monday].
“There was a confrontation that was in the original script, as of this morning. The first script, the second script … The other thing, too, is they were advertising [Lesnar] in the market. And granted, they do do false advertising and things like that, but if they advertise a guy like that … the point is that he would [at least] appear before the people, and he didn’t appear before the people. So I don’t know what that means. They’re very willing to do false advertising, but they did it up until the last minute.”
Meltzer stressed that he didn’t know whether Lesnar officially no-showed Raw, but that he is still booked for Detroit in two weeks.
What actually changed, and whether it was Brock’s decision not to show or WWE changed their plans, Twitter user @WrestleVotes (who has come through with some worthwhile scoops in the past) reports that parts of the show were rewritten very late yesterday to accommodate Brock’s absence. His report conflicts with Meltzer’s a bit, so take that for whatever it’s worth.
As hyped during the Chamber PPV & on social media all day yesterday, Brock Lesnar was scheduled to appear on Raw. He was written into the show for a segment with Reigns. While the details are still coming out, it does seem like for whatever reason, Brock no showed last night.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) February 27, 2018
While it's possible the Brock thing is a work, it did catch multiple people backstage off guard as to where he was. So, if they went to those great lengths to work everyone just so Roman could cut that shoot style promo, nice job WWE. However, that's not likely the case here.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) February 27, 2018
That may account for the appealingly casual promo that Roman delivered. It probably wasn’t unscripted, but it certainly seemed less scripted than most of what Roman says on TV.
Brock’s next scheduled TV appearance is at Raw in Detroit in two weeks. I’d say that maybe we’ll get some answers then, but the truth is that even if Brock legit no-showed last night, two weeks is plenty of time for WWE to turn that shoot into a work. Either way, this argument about dedication and professionalism is a more interesting build to the WrestleMania match than abstract discussions about whose yard this is.
UPDATE: As always in the world of professional wrestling, the initial reports might have been much ado about nothing. A new report suggests the whole thing may have been planned all along, and all of the workers are working everyone exceptionally well. But as all the best storylines usually have a ring of truth about them, we can’t say we’re upset about any of this.
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