There may be another issue beyond injuries and availability affecting Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania plans, and it may be Lesnar himself.
According to pro wrestling media personality Ibou on the Self Made Sessions podcast, Lesnar and his advocate, Paul Heyman, don’t believe Lesnar should lose before his retirement match. Said Ibou:
“Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman essentially have communicated to WWE and WWE Creative that Brock should not job until his retirement. So that presents WWE with a unique issue
because Hunter would like to book at some point Gunther vs. Brock and Oba vs. Brock. But if he books those matches, Brock will lose in both matches. So this presents everybody with a conundrum.”
For this reason, Ibou added, LA Knight was suggested as a potential opponent for Lesnar at WrestleMania.
On the Feb. 23 episode of Raw, Heyman made an open challenge to anyone in WWE interested in facing Lesnar at Mania in what Heyman called “the other main event.”
Why Brock Shouldn’t Lose
Normally, I’d leave this type of news to my colleague and bench spotter, Randall Ortman. But I’m sharing it because of the negative connotation that comes when a star essentially says, “That doesn’t work for me, brother.”
Assuming there’s truth to this story, Lesnar is making a smart call. If the goal is to pass the torch and create a new star or monster, multiple losses dilute the moment. One win will be monumental, while the other, eh, not so much.
Consider this. In 2015, John Cena put over Kevin Owens clean at WWE Elimination Chamber. The upset immediately established Owens as a legitimate player just as he debuted on WWE’s main roster.
The win mattered because Cena was still seen as the face of WWE. But over the next decade, the losses piled up: AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt.
By the time Cena faced Solo Sikoa in 2023, he was out of torches to pass. Beating Cena no longer carried the same cachet because everyone else had already done it.
According to what Cena told Chris Van Vliet in December, Lesnar could retire this year when SummerSlam returns to Lesnar’s home state of Minnesota. Unless WWE plans to use him heavily before then, a loss at SummerSlam in August won’t have the same effect as a loss at WrestleMania in April.
That raises the question of what Lesnar does in April. If Bron Breakker can’t return from injury in time, Lesnar could face Seth Rollins. Then again, if Breakker is cleared to work with Rollins, Lesnar vs. Knight, as suggested, becomes a possibility.
That would be bad news for Knight, who continues to rack up losses despite strong fan support. Another defeat on a big stage could hurt his momentum.
Still, as Jack Nicholson said in 1989’s Batman, “You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.” In this case, the yolk may be on Knight.
And honestly, that’s the price of business. If Lesnar is wrapping up his career, his final match should create WWE’s next monster. If “The Beast” isn’t riding off into the sunset in Las Vegas, then losing at WrestleMania simply doesn’t work, brother.
