Ranking all 11 of Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship matches

Brock Lesnar's tenure involving the Universal Championship has already gone down in received wisdom as a dark age in WWE. Indeed, his two-year time in the Universal title scene involved only 13 televised matches. All the while, Raw meandered into an aimless death spiral. To add insult to injury, many of Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship matches were downright terrible.

And yet, there were some flashes of brilliance. As always "the beast" is a contradictory figure, which is perfect for a contradictory company.

Let's take a look now at Brock Lesnar's 11 televised matches which involved the Universal Championship, from worst all the way to first.

#11. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (WrestleMania 34)

Even before the match ended, everyone knew that Brock Lesnar's WrestleMania rematch with Roman Reigns was going to go down as one of the most disastrous main events in the Show of Shows' history. The crowd rejected the match from the get-go and in this hostile, jeering atmosphere, the action itself felt like we were watching somebody play a video game. All those F5 kickouts were simply ridiculous.

Only four moves were spammed with little attention paid to psychology in the match. It was physical. Reigns got busted open the hard way, but few cared, and then came the anticlimactic ending where Lesnar gave Reigns one final F5. That ending was a shock, though not in a good way. It just made the match worse.

The ending meant that Lesnar's aimless Universal Championship reign would continue. Given how bad Raw became in the months afterward, which no doubt had an effect on its recent steep ratings decline, this match was a disaster that the red brand, even now, over a year later, still hasn't been able to recover from.

#10. Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman (Crown Jewel)

Somehow, the sequel was even worse than the original. Baron Corbin blindsided Braun Strowman by hitting him from behind with the title. Brock Lesnar delivered an F5. Braun Strowman kicked out. Keep repeating. Add an attempted count-out victory.

Braun Strowman got one boot in on Brock Lesnar during the match. The "beast" shrugged it off and hit a final F5, got the three count, and became Universal Championship for the second time. The only thing that was truly notable about this match was that it was basically a one-move button mash from Lesnar as opposed to two.

The crowd in Saudi Arabia wasn't as disastrous as that in New Orleans for WrestleMania 34, but the decision was almost unanimously panned among the WWE faithful, and the company would pay for it, as Raw's ratings decline accelerated even further in the autumn of 2018.

#9. Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane (Royal Rumble 2018)

Braun Strowman wasn't yet finished with Brock Lesnar, but Kane, then not yet a mayor, returned to WWE and began an underwhelming feud with the Monster Among Men. That feud carried over into hostilities with Brock Lesnar and so a triple threat match for 2018's Royal Rumble was made.

In every way that an earlier multi-man match for Brock Lesnar's title was so explosive and memorable, this wasn't. The pace felt slow and sloppy. The few high spots in the match weren't brimming with excitement. Perhaps the most notable thing about it was the stiff right hand Brock Lesnar delivered to Braun Strowman in retaliation for a seemingly accidental stiff knee strike of his own.

As expected, Kane took the pin in the match after a single F5, and Lesnar was on his way to WrestleMania 34.

#8. Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman (No Mercy 2017)

Believe it or not, this match was eagerly anticipated at the time, though the timing wasn't right. During the summer of 2017, Braun Strowman was the hottest act that WWE had seen for a number of years, and many wanted to see him have a run to WrestleMania. Vince McMahon decided to go ahead with the match that September anyway, though.

In every way that their previous encounter was exciting, this match was not. Braun Strowman got some decent offense in for a while, but the hostilities quickly devolved back into a typical "Suplex City" match, and Strowman wasn't really the best guy to sell all those suplexes. After a single F5, Brock Lesnar walked out of No Mercy with his championship intact.

Braun Strowman was never quite the same after this match. He was still hot, and people still like him, but he hasn't recaptured his mid-2017 magic.

#7. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (Greatest Royal Rumble)

This match wasn't the unmitigated disaster that their match at WrestleMania 34 less than a month earlier was, but it was still the same button-mashing format. It was just in front of a less hostile crowd. Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns didn't do much more than suplexes, F5s, Superman Punches, and spears. It was the last of those spears that would make for the most notable part of the match.

Roman Reigns speared Brock Lesnar through the cage. Under steel cage rules, the person who's feet first touches the ground after escaping the cage wins the match. Technically, Roman Reigns hit the ground first, as Brock Lesnar was lying on top of the cage meshing. Still, the victory went to "The Beast."

WWE missed its last chance to save Monday Night Raw's 2018 campaign with this decision and the botched ending only made the match a subject of further mockery.

#6. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (SummerSlam 2018)

The main event of 2018's edition of the "biggest party of the summer" may have been Vince McMahon's greatest sleight of hand in recent memory. Bringing Braun Strowman out to tease a Money in the Bank cash-in and ensure that the Brooklyn crowd wouldn't turn on the match, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns battled one another in their usual way. Lots of suplexes, Superman Punches, you know the drill.

Brock Lesnar went outside the ring and battered Braun Strowman with his green briefcase, then threw the plot device all the way up the entrance ramp. He got back in the ring, eating a sudden surprise spear from Roman Reigns in the process, and finally, was no longer Universal Champion. The show faded to black before the crowd could turn on it.

Funny engineering, and at least the title was back on television again. Then came Roman's cancer scare and yet another Lesnar reign, returning to the status quo. May we never see this match and feud again.

#5. Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor (Royal Rumble 2019)

Originally, we were supposed to get yet another Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman match for the Royal Rumble, but seemingly remembering his promise to deliver fresh matches after his mea culpa in December, Vince McMahon made this one at the last minute.

This match was a bit formulaic, but unlike the earlier matches on the list, there wasn't anything actively bad about it. One suspects that if the match had been a little longer, Balor and Lesnar could have tuned up the volume that much further, but the Royal Rumble was already way too long of a show, anyway.

As expected, Lesnar got the victory, but Balor delivered a standout performance which in certain respects helped to renew his push. He flattened Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania and is now the Intercontinental Champion and the head of SmackDown's midcard.

#4. Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe (Great Balls of Fire)

Brock Lesnar's reign as Universal Champion actually got off to a good start, despite his absence from television for two months following his victory at WrestleMania 33. He entered a red hot feud with Samoa Joe in June and July of 2017, and the match at the humorously named pay-per-view was equally hot.

Before the bell rang, Samoa Joe attacked Brock Lesnar, hitting him with a slam on top of the announcer's table, weakening him until he could set up for the Coquina Clutch. For a while, it looked like Joe might conquer the conqueror, but Brock Lesnar reversed the hold into an F5 to retain his title.

Joe wasn't done chasing " The Beast," however. He claimed that Lesnar had merely "escaped him," and this match was merely a preview for even better things to come.

#3. Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins (WrestleMania 35)

Credit to Brock Lesnar, his final stand as Universal Champion was one of his best. Deviating from the usual formula, Brock Lesnar attacked the Royal Rumble winner before the match officially began, pummeling him and pushing everyone to the edge of their seats, hoping that it would be a ruse.

Seth Rollins indeed made his comeback, hitting Lesnar with a low blow while the referee was otherwise unaware. Three curbstomps later and Brock Lesnar's run at the top in the Universal Championship picture was finally at an end. It was a hot way to open a long, exhausting show.

Sure, Rollins cheated here, but so did Lesnar. It's arguably as close as WWE has gotten to a clean victory over Brock Lesnar since that epic confrontation with Goldberg at Survivor Series 2016. And speaking of Goldberg...

#2. Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg (WrestleMania 33)

The Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg angle was way too hot to be a one and done. WWE wisely decided to continue it, and though the decision to bring the Universal Championship into the picture would be a long term disaster, it was easy to see why they did so at the time.

This match was short, but it was long enough to redeem the embarrassment from WrestleMania 20. This is the match these two should have had all those years back. It was all the more remarkable given how much older both of them were.

Sure, it was in a certain sense a button mashing contest, but it was hot enough and fast-paced enough to disguise that shortcoming. These two felt like titans clashing, like Achilles and Hector or Beowulf and Grendel.

Lesnar would finally redeem his losses to Goldberg and begin his run in the Universal Championship picture.

#1. Brock Lesnar vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns (SummerSlam 2017)

The summer of 2017 was the height of Brock Lesnar's run in the Universal Championship scene, and the main event of SummerSlam that year was its apogee. This felt like an epic clash of four titans.

As soon as the match began, it erupted into an all-out war. Braun Strowman did most of the battering, sending Lesnar through two tables and then turning a third over on top of him. "The beast" was carried out on a stretcher. The Barclays Center was erupting. It felt like it was going to burst at the seams with how loud things got.

This was Braun Strowman's breakout performance. Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns both played their parts too.

It felt like a new champion should be crowned here, but Vince McMahon's plan for Lesnar's run wouldn't be changed so easily, much to his own detriment. Other than that, though, this was Brock Lesnar's best match involving the red belt.

One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE