Possible Match for Next Year’s Royal Rumble Event
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Kurt Angle announced in the opening segment of tonight’s RAW that Brock Lesnar would be defending his WWE Universal Championship title in a Fatal 4-Way at SummerSlam against Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman. Here is the updated card:
WWE Universal Championship
Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns
SmackDown Women’s Championship
Naomi vs. Natalya
WWE SummerSlam will take place on August 20, 2017, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. As always, we will have live coverage of the event.
Bayley defeated Sasha Banks to earn a shot at the RAW Women’s Championship against Alexa Bliss at the upcoming WWE SummerSlam event.Here is the updated card:
WWE Universal Championship
Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns
RAW Women’s Championship
Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley
SmackDown Women’s Championship
Naomi vs. Natalya
WWE SummerSlam will take place on August 20, 2017, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. As always, we will have live coverage of the event.
Brock Lesnar is not scheduled to make an appearance on tonight’s episode of RAW.
Kurt Angle is expected to announce plans for Lesnar defending the WWE Universal Title at WWE SummerSlam tonight. It’s being rumored that he will be announcing a Fatal 4-Way for the Championship.
Here is the current list of WWE dates Lesnar is confirmed for:
SmackDown Live Event: July 29th (Detroit, MI)
RAW: July 31st (Pittsburgh, PA)
SmackDown Live Event: August 12th (Tampa, FL)
RAW: August 14th (Boston, MA)
SummerSlam: August 20th (Brooklyn, NY)
RAW: August 28th (Memphis, TN)
WWE No Mercy: September 24th (Los Angeles, CA)
RAW Live Event: September 30th (Winnipeg, MB)
It was reported via Pro Wrestling Sheet yesterday that Brock Lesnar has made it clear to WWE officials that he won’t be re-singing with WWE after his contract expires shortly after WrestleMania next year. This doesn’t appear to be the case, according to the Wrestling Observer.
Dave Meltzer indicated on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio that reports of Lesnar leaving WWE once his contract expires to pursuit a career in the UFC are premature and he wouldn’t take these reports serious. Meltzer has a hard time believing that Brock would turn down “easy money” working for WWE at his current age of 40. The belief is that WWE is the better long-term option for Lesnar at his age.
In regards to UFC’s Jeff Novitsky shooting down reports that Brock Lesnar has not entered into the USADA drug testing pool, Meltzer said that he could enter the pool today and be ready to return for a fight early next year. Meltzer doesn’t believe that Lesnar will fighting for the UFC at the end of this year and also hinted that a fight early next year wouldn’t pan out well because of the Royal Rumble and the risk of him possibly getting hurt.
As far as possible opponents for Brock if he does make a UFC return, Meltzer named Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones as potential fights.
Jeff Novitzky, the UFC Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance, is denying reports that current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar has re-entered the USADA drug testing pool. Novitzky said there is “zero truth” to the reports and issued the following statement to MMAJunkie:
“[Lesnar] is not currently enrolled in the USADA testing pool, nor has there been any inquiry on his part to do so.”
MMAjunkie noted that their attempt to reach USADA for comment was unsuccessful. We will keep you updated if we hear anything new regarding Lesnar possibly returning to the UFC.
Ross thought that Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar had a great match at last Sunday’s Great Balls of Fire event. He thought the match was believable at every turn, and Joe actually had the majority of the offence during the bout. He liked the story that both men told, and he didn’t have a problem with the finish of the match at all.
Some fans were aggravated by the fact that it only took one F5 to defeat Joe, and this is a tale of the times in Ross’ opinion. Fans have become accustomed to wrestlers kicking out of each other’s finishing moves, and he thinks that’s a problem for the wrestling business. A wrestler’s ‘finisher’ is supposed to ‘finish’ the match, and he believes that apart from big events like WrestleMania, finishing moves should be protected.
He admits that the outcome of the match was somewhat predictable with Lesnar winning but he thinks there will be a rematch at some point down the road, maybe as soon as SummerSlam if Joe is able to defeat Roman Reigns on RAW next week.
Ross thinks that Braun Strowman has a chance to be the ‘next big thing’ in WWE. After seeing Strowman walk away from that crash at Great Balls of Fire, Ross feels it’s hard to root against him, even if he’s supposed to be a heel. Strowman is a powerful, believable character who Ross thinks fans can get behind. He says that Strowman is the type of performer that you build a company around.