What’s the story?
Two weeks out from Wrestlemania, Monday Night RAW went down this week (Monday, March 20, 2017) from Brooklyn, New York and two key names that were advertised to make an appearance on television did not.
Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman were expected to be live in Brooklyn to hype his upcoming Wrestlemania bout against Goldberg. Instead didn’t make his way to the ring until after the cameras stopped rolling. Dave Meltzer believes that the crowd may have been a reason for this.
In case you didn’t know...
Lesnar has been embroiled in a feud with former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Goldberg since the launch of the WWE 2K17 video game. The pair finally met at Survivor Series last year, where Goldberg made quick work of ‘The Beast’ yet again.
Lesnar got his shot at redemption in the Royal Rumble match in January but was eliminated by Goldberg again in quick fashion.
Now the former UFC Heavyweight champ gets yet another opportunity to right his wrongs when he challenges the now-WWE Universal Champion Goldberg for the title in the main event of Wrestlemania 33 next month.
The heart of the matter
Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer couldn’t quite put his finger on why the WWE left Lesnar off of the on-air taping of RAW, but later speculated that it may have been because they didn’t want the New York crowd to have such a ridiculous reaction for their hometown hero Heyman (quotes via Wrestling Rumors):
“Yeah, I don’t understand [why Lesnar wasn’t on TV] because it’s not like the show was so loaded that you couldn’t [have him on]. Maybe because it was New York and they didn’t want him to get cheered so much. I was trying to come up with a reason why you wouldn’t have Paul Heyman do a promo in Brooklyn, because it would’ve gotten an incredible reaction. Maybe that’s why, because it would’ve gotten an incredible reaction.”
What’s next?
It is tough to determine how the crowd would have reacted to Lesnar and Heyman had they made an on-air appearance. Sure, Heyman is a hometown hero to the New York crowd, however, Heyman is a master at turning a crowd against him and playing the role of an excellent heel manager.
Both Lesnar and Goldberg receive good reactions from the crowds despite the fact that Lesnar is supposed to be portraying the role of a heel in this rivalry, but much to Meltzer’s point, it is tough to believe the New York crowd wouldn’t have sided with Heyman and Lesnar.
Author’s take
With news coming out today that the RAW ratings reached a record low, the WWE may be kicking themselves for not putting one of their biggest draws on the show, even if it was just for a quick promo with Heyman.
Their rivalry has been masterfully built up over the past few months, but their encounters have been rather brief and stale once they lock horns in the ring, making it hard to get excited for their ‘blockbuster’ main event at Wrestlemania.
We’ll have to wait and see if the rivalry pays off once they step into the squared circle on ‘The Show Of Shows’, but it can be expected that Lesnar will win the title in a quick match-up.
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