What if Brock Lesnar was Facing Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 35?

When Bobby Lashley returned to WWE this spring, the dream match everyone speculated about was him going head to head with Brock Lesnar.

It’s a pairing that made complete sense for two athletes with comparably imposing looks, strength, athleticism, and amateur backgrounds.

Follow Sportskeeda for the latest WWE news, rumors and all other wrestling news.

While Lashley couldn’t necessarily match up with Lesnar’s MMA credentials, he has had a respectable fight career of his own to make him somewhat believable as a rival.

Lashley had a strange year, during which time he felt largely directionless. Yes, he got the better of Sami Zayn in their program and even got to defeat Roman Reigns on PPV.

WWE never seemed to get fully behind him, though, as his storylines didn’t so much flow one into another as stop cold and see him lost in the shuffle, never quite broaching main event status.

With his heel turn and Intercontinental Championship victory, Lashley feels more entrenched in the upper mid-card than ever, and a far cry from someone WWE would book opposite Lesnar. What if things had gone down differently, though, and we were looking ahead to Lashley vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania?

---

#5 Shock and Awe

We could expect Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley to be booked a bit like Lesnar-Goldberg.

While Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar are both sensational athletes and capable workers, they aren’t necessarily known for producing premium in-ring matches, at least from a traditional point of view.

Lesnar’s best matches in this vein have been against smaller opponents who can capably play the underdog while taking breathtaking bumps from the Beast Incarnate. Lashley would not fit that mold.

We could expect Lashley vs. Lesnar to be less of a marathon classic than an explosive sprint in the style of Lesnar vs. Goldberg from WrestleMania 33.

The two guys would play the hits, show off their power and athleticism, and likely as not go fewer than ten minutes (and maybe fewer than five) bell to bell in the ring.

This style of match would also feed into their MMA credentials, and the style of fast-paced violence both men have participated in in the confines of the cage, as opposed to the squared circle.

#4 Brock Lesnar wins

Brock Lesnar is no stranger to winning big matches at WrestleMania

Bobby Lashley is no Brock Lesnar. He has a readily comparable look, size, strength, speed, athleticism, and real-life credentials to make him similarly intimidating and legitimate as a wrestler.

However, he didn’t achieve at Lesnar’s level in the amateur wrestling or MMA ranks. Between these real-life disparities, the way he has been pushed, and Lashley’s general aura in WWE, he simply doesn’t compare favorable to the Beast Incarnate.

To be fair, WWE could believably push Lashley to make him appear competitive with Lesnar. However, even with a heel turn that has been generally well received, The All Mighty still has a ways to go in terms of recovery, and being taken seriously as a world title contender on Raw.

Had WWE gone for this WrestleMania match, there’s little doubt that Lashley would have been just another guy who Lesnar defeated in his dominant Universal title run.

#3 Lio Rush and Paul Heyman get into it

Lashley and Lesnar's managers might get into a war of words

The idea of booking heel Bobby Lashley against heel Brock Lesnar doesn’t exactly come across as a recipe for success at WrestleMania.

Heel vs. heel dynamics are awkward to begin with, and neither man is exactly a darling of the hardcore audience, which is arguably what made Lesnar vs. Daniel Bryan work to the extent it did at Survivor Series.

However, one element of the dueling heels dynamic that actually might be most entertaining and refreshing would be the potential for a war of words between Lio Rush and Paul Heyman.

Lesnar is competent on the mic in his style, but his whole act has been elevated by Heyman’s virtuosic performances on his behalf.

Lashley’s talking game is notoriously his Achilles’ heel as a pro wrestler, but new hype man Rush has done an admirable of compensating for that shortcoming.

His style may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it has enhanced Lashley’s presentation and gone a long way toward getting him over as a heel.

Rush and Heyman getting into a war of words leading to Lashley and Lesnar getting physical could be a lot of fun.

#2 Not the main event

The prevailing theory is that women will close WrestleMania 35; Lashley-Lesnar wouldn't change that.

There’s an alternate universe in which stars of the size, look, and credibility of Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar would make for an obvious WrestleMania main event pairing.

In this universe, however, Lashley has not been set up as a WrestleMania main eventing talent.

While Lesnar certainly has the stature, even he’s far from a sure thing given the mixed reactions to so many of his high profile matches (not least of all his most recent WrestleMania main event with Roman Reigns).

Lashley vs. Lesnar would likely be kept relatively short and to protect against fans rejecting it, or feeling ripped off by a fast main event, would likely go on second to last, if not earlier in the card.

Of course, even now, with Seth Rollins—one of the best respected and most popular stars on the roster—challenging Lesnar, it seems likely that the women are going to get to close out the show to capitalize on Ronda Rousey’s star power, how over Becky Lynch is in this moment, and potentially throwing Charlotte Flair into the mix for some extra intrigue.

#1 A very different build for Lashley

Bobby Lashley's past year would have to have to have looked differently to set up a match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania.

One of the problems with thinking through the hypothetical scenario of Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley being a featured match at WrestleMania 35 is that it’s so hard to picture it coming together based on what we’ve seen over the last ten months in WWE.

That’s partly true for Lesnar, who has done his best work opposite much smaller wrestlers—a mold someone like Seth Rollins fits much better than Lashley.

There’s also the matter of Lashley’s booking.

Though moments like his win over Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules keep Lashley in the main event conversation, he subsequently dropped into the mid-card.

While his heel turn freshened his character, it didn’t make him feel like any more of a headliner.

In the absence of a fluke rash of injuries taking out the top five to ten prospective challengers to the Beast Incarnate, the only way for Lashley vs. Lesnar to make sense for WrestleMania would be if Lashley had been built differently for months.

That would include WWE totally getting behind him as the guy, and more than likely with a continued face push.