5 WWE Superstars who deserve to defeat Brock Lesnar instead of Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns has headlined three consecutive WrestleManias
Roman Reigns has headlined three consecutive WrestleManias

It’s the worst-kept secret in WWE that Roman Reigns will challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34.

The match has seemed inevitable ever since WrestleMania 33, when Reigns defeated The Undertaker and Lesnar defeated Goldberg, and the expectation is that “The Big Dog” will defeat “The Beast” clean for the first time in his career.

With Lesnar almost certain to depart WWE in 2018, it makes sense for him to lose on the grand WrestleMania stage, but is Reigns really the right man to finally end his one-year run with the Universal title?

The three-time WrestleMania main-eventer has recorded torch-passing wins over Triple H, Undertaker and John Cena over the last two years, and we feel that several other Superstars would benefit more from toppling Lesnar in New Orleans.


#5 Finn Balor

Finn Balor is the first-ever Universal champion
Finn Balor is the first-ever Universal champion

Finn Balor made his return from injury in April 2017 and still hasn’t received a match for the Universal Championship – a title he never officially lost and had to relinquish following SummerSlam 2016.

Fans expected the Irishman to challenge Brock Lesnar for the title at some point, possibly at the 2018 Royal Rumble, but Vince McMahon reportedly felt that he was not ‘over’ enough to face “The Beast” and went with Kane and Braun Strowman instead.

Right call or wrong call, Lesnar has the incredible ability to make people love him one second and hate him the next. With help from Paul Heyman, any rivalry he's involved in can be made to feel real. In one storyline he can be the mega babyface, in the next he can be the mega heel.

As unlikely as it is, a babyface Balor defeating a heel Lesnar for the title at WrestleMania, even with assistance from Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, would benefit “The Extraordinary Man Who Does Extra Ordinary Things” a lot more than it would benefit Roman Reigns.

#4 Samoa Joe

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Samoa Joe is one of Raw's most popular Superstars

Samoa Joe doesn’t have the best of luck when it comes to WrestleMania. He was left off the show in 2017 despite joining the main roster two months earlier, while his storyline direction for the upcoming event in New Orleans is unclear after he suffered a foot injury during a match with Rhyno in January.

Imagine for a moment, in WWE fantasy booking land, that “The Destroyer” is healthy and ready to go toe-to-toe with whoever is put in front of him at ‘Mania, would it not make for a much more intriguing match-up if we saw Lesnar vs. Joe rather than Lesnar vs. Reigns?

Granted, the match only took place last summer at Great Balls of Fire, but Joe came out of it looking like a major threat to Lesnar and he reportedly impressed his opponent during their six-minute match.

“The Samoan Submission Machine” hasn’t had a torch-passing moment since his call-up to the main roster, while he never received a one-on-one televised rematch with Lesnar. If either of those things are to happen, then there would be no better time than WrestleMania 34.

#3 AJ Styles

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AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar II may never happen

In this writer’s humble opinion, AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2017 was one of the best WWE matches in recent memory, and if there’s one match you should show to someone who is looking to get into wrestling, that’s the one you should choose.

With hardly any pre-match build-up and no major storyline behind their encounter, two of the company’s best in-ring performers produced the Match of the Night and, even though it seemed obvious beforehand that Lesnar would win, the story of the match left us believing that Styles really could pull off a major upset.

Of course, that didn’t happen, but if the two men ever meet again, then the win should definitely go to “The Phenomenal One”.

Even at the age of 40, Styles remains the future of WWE and he will be headlining shows for the next 2-3 years and beyond, so why not cement his status as one of the company’s biggest stars by having him defeat “The Beast” in another epic match?

#2 Kevin Owens

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Kevin Owens has never fought Brock Lesnar on WWE television

The story behind a potential Kevin Owens vs. Brock Lesnar rivalry is great and it’ll be a shame if the two men never get the chance to have a televised match before Lesnar inevitably leaves WWE in 2018.

WrestleMania 34 takes place in the Superdome in New Orleans – the same arena where "The Beast" ended The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania XXX.

In attendance, as a paying fan, that day was independent wrestler Kevin Steen. The then-29-year-old had always been a big Lesnar fan, occasionally using the F5 in his matches, while he even named his parents’ dog "Brock".

Taking those storyline gems into account, we can’t think of many other men who deserve to go one-on-one with Lesnar at WrestleMania, specifically at this year’s New Orleans event, than KO.

Except for one man – or ‘monster’, if you will…

#1 Braun Strowman

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Wherever Braun Strowman goes, chaos follows

Braun Strowman has featured in three Universal Championship matches with Brock Lesnar (a Fatal-4-Way, a singles match and a Triple Threat) and he’s failed to win the title on all three occasions.

At SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble, “The Monster Among Men” wasn’t involved in the finish to either of the multi-man matches, while he was defeated fair and square by Lesnar in the singles match they had at No Mercy 2017.

If it wasn’t so obvious that Roman Reigns will take on Lesnar at WrestleMania 34, the casual viewer would probably assume that Strowman will get one final opportunity against “The Beast” and finally defeat him at this year’s ‘Mania.

Barring a drastic change in storyline, that’s not going to happen, but you can bet that the vast majority of fans would prefer to see Lesnar “get these hands” in New Orleans rather than get a Superman Punch and a Spear.