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The Universal Title match this Sunday night will be a triple threat match that sees current champion Brock Lesnar put his title on the line against Braun Strowman and Kane. For the entirety of this feud, everybody has counted Kane out as the third wheel in this scenario - the guy who is only there to eat the pinfall so that both Brock and Braun are protected. What if that doesn’t end up being the case? What if Kane becomes the fifth Universal Champion?
It seems like an extremely unlikely outcome, but if it happens, it could lead to some interesting developments on the road to Wrestlemania.
#5 It would be completely shocking
As I said above, I am fairly sure that absolutely nobody expects to see Kane become the new Universal Champion. It’s likely that nobody thinks he even has a chance, with it being about a 60-40 split between Lesnar and Strowman and about 95-5 chance that one of them will win the match by pinning Kane.
But what if they go a completely different way? Who in the world would expect Kane to win? It would be an absolutely shocking moment. Not shocking like when Lesnar defeated The Undertaker - nothing of that magnitude - but the WWE Universe would not see this one coming. Remember, though, that Braun Strowman has yet to earn a definitive victory over Kane. The reason there’s a triple threat match is specifically because the two men fought each other for a shot at Brock Lesnar and neither man was declared the winner, and due to their sheer brutality, they were both rewarded with a title shot.
Kane is supposed to be just another stepping stone for Strowman, another legendary giant for him to bulldoze just like he did the Big Show a few months ago. That hasn’t happened yet, so why not go even further with it and make Kane the legendary giant champion that he has to bulldoze?
#4 It would change the entire complexion of the build to WrestleMania
The future of the Universal Championship, according to the reports/rumors for many, many months, is that it will land squarely on the shoulder of Roman Reigns, who will main event his fourth straight WrestleMania and win his third ‘Mania main event in a row. Roman will either win the Rumble match on Sunday, or the Elimination Chamber match in February, and challenge Brock Lesnar in a rematch of their WWE Championship match from WrestleMania 31. Brock pins Kane and then disappears for a while until it’s clear that Roman Reigns will be his next opponent at WM 34.
That’s what everyone is expecting, and yes, it’s also the most likely path. While it’s essentially a guarantee that Brock vs Roman will main event WrestleMania 34, instead of being straightforward with it, maybe WWE will throw a curveball.
Consider the following scenario:
Brock’s title reign ends short of the 1-year mark. Brock hits Strowman with an F-5 and Kane nails Brock with a chokeslam. The momentum causes Brock to roll out of the ring and Kane immediately takes advantage and steals the match, pinning Braun Strowman. Because of this, they do a rematch at Fastlane, with the winner going on to face the victor of the Elimination Chamber match, at WrestleMania. Brock wins the match by pinning Kane after both men work together to take Strowman out by putting him through a pair of commentary tables.
This infuriates Strowman, who goes on a warpath starting the following night on RAW. He takes out everyone in his sight for the next few weeks, including at some point The Miz, who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. That eventually leads to Miz, who is overconfident after defeating Roman Reigns, to call out Braun Strowman who is his reported opponent at WrestleMania this year.
The Miz unsuccessfully interferes in a Kane/Strowman match. Braun finally gets his win over Kane in decisive fashion, as he not only beats Kane, but also contends with Miz, Dallas, and Axel who all try to cost Strowman the match.
When Miz and Strowman hook up at WrestleMania, Strowman will definitely get the win and become a dominant Intercontinental Champion. Miz will move on and, if the rumors are true, get a big push in the summer, preferably after a move back to SmackDown Live. To wrap everything up and hopefully finish Brock's WWE career, at least for a long while, Braun will challenge him to go one-on-one at Backlash in May with no titles and no rules, and defeat him.
#3 They can tease one last Undertaker vs. Kane match
If The Undertaker wrestles this year at WrestleMania, it’s pretty much a guarantee that his opponent will be John Cena. That said, there is a huge contingency of people who believe that the Undertaker’s last match should be against Kane, and many of those people would like to see it happen at WrestleMania. If Kane wins the Universal Title, that ups his stock for the time he’s champion and will make him one of the most prominent figures on Monday Night Raw. Another prominent pair of figures on Raw will be John Cena and The Undertaker, because there’s no way they use SmackDown to build that rivalry, even though both men are technically free agents and can show up wherever they choose.
So what if their paths cross? Maybe Kane is taking a beating from both Braun and Brock in the lead-up to the triple threat rematch and The Undertaker returns to make the save? He only has moderate success, however, and John Cena decides that because he’s an all-around good guy, he wants to try to save the Brothers of Destruction. He runs out and helps Kane and ‘Taker dispose of Brock and Braun, but once the ring is cleared and only those three men remain, Kane and Undertaker deliver a double chokeslam to Cena and then have a staredown during which Undertaker makes a gesture toward the title belt. It won’t go anywhere and it will turn out to be Undertaker’s way of wishing his brother good luck, but people would definitely talk about it.
#2 It gives Kane some extra credibility
Yeah, I understand that it’s Kane, and similar to The Undertaker, it has gotten to the point in which his character is almost timeless. No matter how many times they do silly things with him, or turn him into a goofball corporate yes-man, if you throw the mask back on him, everybody seems to forget and just see him the way WWE presents him.
So while it is indeed true that Kane doesn’t NEED to win the Universal Title, it would give him an extra few ounces of credibility that WWE could use to keep him active for most of the rest of the year. He’s a former Universal Champion, and not only does anybody who wrestles him next beat Kane, but they’re also beating a recent Universal Champion, so it’s an even bigger win.
#1 Kane deserves one final run as Champion
While I haven’t been the biggest proponent of Kane’s return, I may be in the minority when it comes to the Big Red Machine. There are plenty of people who would absolutely love to see Kane get one more go as a champion. He has historically only had short reigns with any World Championship he has held, and this reign would be the same, so it would keep that tradition alive.
Chances are very high that Kane will be riding off into the sunset after 2018. He’s aging, he’s slower, and he deserves to let himself heal after a 26-year career. Kane will be turning 51-years-old a couple weeks after WrestleMania. It’s time to hang up the boots, and I think one last reign, as short as it may be, would be a good way to reward his more than two decades as a WWE superstar.
