What’s the story?
The winner of the Extreme Rules Fatal Five-Way match will go on to face Brock Lesnar at WWE Great Balls of Fire and their feud may end swiftly, as per Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter claims the wrestler who becomes the number one contender for the Universal Championship will likely be in for a short, losing feud with the Beast Incarnate.
In case you didn’t know...
Bray Wyatt, Finn Bálor, Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and Seth Rollins are all scheduled to compete in a Fatal Five-Way this Sunday at Extreme Rules to determine the first challenger for Lesnar’s Universal Championship at the pay-per-view in July.
The plans for Great Balls of Fire were initially rumoured to be a match between Lesnar and Braun Strowman, but Strowman’s elbow injury is likely to keep him out of action until after the pay-per-view.
The heart of the matter
Meltzer claims that the reason Lensar’s opponent at Great Balls of Fire is likely to lose is because the company still plans for Lesnar to face Strowman for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam.
Strowman claimed that he was coming for Lesnar after destroying Reigns, but his injury prevented the conclusion of that storyline with The Big Dog, so it’s unlikely if the WWE will address it.
What’s next?
This news greatly affects the odds for all five competitors to win the match. If this report is to be believed, then it could potentially rule some wrestlers out for a victory this Sunday.
Reigns is rumoured to face Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34, so it’s unlikely the WWE would waste the decisive end to their feud on a low-level pay-per-view.
Local advertisements in Los Angeles claim that Lesnar and Wyatt will be fighting each other before Great Balls of Fire on Monday Night Raw. Since the WWE rarely give away pay-per-view matches for free, The Eater of Worlds is more than likely not going to win this Sunday.
Author’s Take
The WWE seem to want Lesnar to face a credible competitor to establish how dominant of a wrestler he can be. If that line of thinking is close to how WWE operates than the three wrestlers most likely to win at Extreme Rules are Rollins, Bálor, or Samoa Joe.
Tune in this Sunday to find out who could be setting themselves up for a first class trip to Suplex City.
