Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns At WrestleMania 38 Was A Big Waste Of Time
David Mccullough For the third time in eight years, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns headlined the WWE WrestleMania pay-per-view.
WWE officials clearly hoped that the latest installment of Lesnar vs. Reigns would be different than their previous bouts. This was supposed to be a historic and defining match for both superstars. In a move that was silly from the get-go, WWE even hyped Lesnar vs. Reigns as "The Biggest WrestleMania Match of All-Time." The stakes were further raised when WWE announced that Lesnar vs. Reigns would be a "Winner Takes All" Unified Championship match.
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Not The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25 or 26. Not Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 3. Not The Rock vs. Hogan at WrestleMania 18. Not 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14. Not The Rock vs. John Cena at WrestleMania 28 or WrestleMania 29. No, WWE wanted you to think that another lackluster match between Reigns and Lesnar would be The Biggest WrestleMania Match of All-Time.
Needless to say, the fifth one-on-one showdown between Lesnar and Reigns was a colossal letdown. That was also entirely predictable, which is part of the problem.
Lesnar vs. Reigns: Totally Overdone
The first WrestleMania match between Reigns and Lesnar, of course, was interrupted by Seth Rollins.
At WrestleMania 31, Rollins crashed the party by cashing in his Money in the Bank contract. He then pinned Reigns to become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, thus pushing back the Lesnar-Reigns feud for three more years.
The WrestleMania 34 main event between Reigns and Lesnar (for the Universal title) saw the latter emerge victorious in a match that failed to garner much excitement from the crowd. Then Lesnar beat Reigns in a rematch at The Greatest Royal Rumble a few weeks later to retain his title.
Then as predicted, Reigns *finally* defeated Lesnar to win the Universal title at SummerSlam 2018. Though Reigns was garnering more favorable crowd reactions at this time, one can argue that it was largely due to fans being tired of a part-timer carrying the title — and not because Reigns had finally won them over.
Lesnar's return as a babyface at SummerSlam 2021 was a fun moment and all. But it was pretty obvious right then and there that WWE was going to drag (another) Reigns-Lesnar feud onto WrestleMania.
Reigns vs. Lesnar Was Terribly Booked Ahead Of WrestleMania
For whatever reason, WWE decided to book Lesnar for two not-so-clean losses in major championship matches ahead of WrestleMania.
Lesnar was on the verge of defeating Reigns for the Universal title at Crown Jewel 2021, but The Tribal Chief managed to win thanks to some assistance from The Usos while the referee was knocked out. Three months later, Reigns cost Lesnar in his WWE Championship defense against Bobby Lashley at Royal Rumble.
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WWE's idea of giving Lesnar redemption? Having him win the 30-man Royal Rumble to set up the showdown with Reigns at WrestleMania. When does it ever make sense to have a marquee star like Lesnar lose two title matches before WrestleMania? Remember when WWE went a long way in protecting Drew McIntyre for his WrestleMania 36 bout with Lesnar?
And finally, why did WWE have to "unify" the two major championships into one for Reigns vs. Lesnar? This took away another potential major match for WrestleMania 38. This especially feels meaningless because WWE is reportedly planning to go back to the two world championship belts format in short time.
WWE threw all of their chips into the middle of the poker table to promote Lesnar vs. Reigns part five. And one can argue that this was actually the most disappointing match of their so-called historic rivalry.
There Were Better Matches That Deserved To Headline WrestleMania
Not only was this Reigns vs. Lesnar a waste of time, but it wasn't even close to being the best match on the card. Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch vs., Edge vs. AJ Styles, Austin vs. Kevin Owens and Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn turned out to be significantly better matches. Belair vs. Lynch or Austin vs. Owens would have served as a much better main event to close out WrestleMania 38 weekend.
Did WWE honestly think that Reigns vs. Lesnar in a "Winner Takes All" match would be a better all-around match than Lynch vs. Belair? Did they really expect the crowd to be more into this than Austin's first official wrestling match in 19 years?
WWE has focused way too much on using Reigns and Lesnar in the major pay-per-view scenes. And that's unfortunate, because the likes of Belair, Lynch, Owens, Styles, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Charlotte Flair and Seth Rollins have done more than enough to earn the amount of attention and spotlight that Reigns and Lesnar have gotten for years.
The silver lining to all of this? The Lesnar-Reigns program is over for the time being, so WWE really has no choice but to actually push different stars going forward.
