WWE Raw ignores Brock Lesnar UFC return

Published: Jul 10, 2018 by Wrestle Talk | Last Updated: Jul 10, 2018 by Wrestle Talk

We have become accustomed to not seeing Brock Lesnar on Monday Night Raw.

But it was something of a surprise that the WWE Universal Champ wasn’t at least mentioned on last night’s edition.

After all, Brock was all over the news this weekend after his invasion of UFC 226, and WWE was more than happy to jump on the bandwagon.

See their WWE.com article about his foul-mouthed challenge of UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier on Saturday HERE.

And this tweet:

SPOTTED: #UniversalChampion @BrockLesnar was cageside for #UFC226's Heavyweight Title fight between @stipemiocic & @dc_mma! @HeymanHustle https://t.co/sPlRxcPRTa

— WWE (@WWE) July 8, 2018

You would have thought WWE would be keen to continue to capitalise on the huge buzz surrounding Lesnar’s appearance in Las Vegas, and the follow-up announcement that Lesnar had re-entered the USADA drug testing pool and would be eligible to fight in UFC as early as January 2019 – with a fight against Cormier in the pipeline.

But instead, there was not a peep about Brock on Raw last night. Instead, WWE heavily pushed the Extreme Rules match between Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley, which many believe is to determine Lesnar’s next challenger – perhaps at Summerslam.

This was surprising, particularly as Brock has been referred to regularly on Raw in recent weeks, in a worked-shoot storyline where a planned Extreme Rules multi-man match to determine his next challenge was called off and his advocate Paul Heyman then issued a Facebook tirade saying that Lesnar’s next title defence was in jeopardy due to “contractual issues” and unless a worthy challenger could be found for the Universal Champ he would pursue ‘other Ultimate opportunities’.

Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer said the Lesnar-WWE relationship may have hit the rocks again and that’s why there was a Brock boycott on Raw.

“Lesnar just did something that got national attention, far more attention than Ronda Rousey going in the (UFC) Hall of Fame,” he said.

“Something has changed in the last week. Clearly WWE is not happy about it…but the angle they are booking…what Lesnar did accentuates that angle, it tells everyone he’s more concerned about UFC. That was perfect for the storyline but they didn’t even tell you that they did it. So something’s up.”

Give Me Sports.com said HERE that Vince initially jumped all over Lesnar’s UFC appearance because “despite the large volumes of positivity along with negativity, Vince will surely be loving that his company and his biggest investment are dominating the headlines.

“However, that doesn’t mean it’s all going to be smooth sailing for when the reality does kick in that Lesnar is going to leave the WWE and return to compete in the UFC.”