Lesnar Pulled From Raw Last Night?

[Dave]

These a lot of speculation flying around at the moment that Lesnar was pulled from showing up at Raw last night it not a lot of reasons why.

Truthfully, I thought it was really weird that he posted a picture of him posing with Dana White over the last couple of days but didn't show up for the company he actually works for? That's really poor.

Truth is, no one really know whether the WWE pulled him from the show or something did actually go wrong. What we do know is that Lesnar wasn't there and it left ROMAN Reigns with a really awkward promo about it. With Lesnar's contract situation up in the air right now and the Universal Champion playing the field a little, it could be suggested that the WWE pulled him for that reason.

Either way, the WWE were definitely expecting him to be on Raw last night until something happened. Discuss her what that "something" might be.

[Yaz]

It was 99% likely it was all a work. It allowed Roman to cut a promo that caused the fans to cheer. WWE is often lacking when it comes to the intelligence department, they they aren't flat out stupid. They can advertise people to show up, then pull the old "Card Subject to Change" card and not get in trouble.

[Jack-Hammer]

The promo left me thinking "where's this guy been all this time?" I mean...Roman Reigns actually showed some fire, some passion, some emotion instead of standing around looking like some alpha male douche.

Like Yaz mentioned, this was pretty much something designed to get some fans on Roman Reigns side if they try to paint Lesnar and Heyman as all out heels, something that seems to happen in cycles depending on who he's working with in a program. It's a legit complaint that a lot of fans have had regarding Lesnar over the years: he doesn't respect WWE, or wrestling in general, he doesn't respect the boys and girls in the locker room, most of them at least, and he has a sweetheart deal that sees him showing up to what amounts to a couple of small handfuls of times a year and makes $12 million a year for it. Some fans are still going to boo Reigns regardless, but going down the road of painting Reigns as the guy representing the boys and girls in the locker room and Lesnar as the mercenary who doesn't give a shit about anything might be good for Reigns. I know he can't do the "shoot" style of promo all the time, but it was nice seeing him inject some intensity, show some emotions aside from a cocky little smirk and I'd like to see more of it.

[Dave]

The promo left me thinking "where's this guy been all this time?" I mean...Roman Reigns actually showed some fire, some passion, some emotion instead of standing around looking like some alpha male douche.

Like Yaz mentioned, this was pretty much something designed to get some fans on Roman Reigns side if they try to paint Lesnar and Heyman as all out heels, something that seems to happen in cycles depending on who he's working with in a program. It's a legit complaint that a lot of fans have had regarding Lesnar over the years: he doesn't respect WWE, or wrestling in general, he doesn't respect the boys and girls in the locker room, most of them at least, and he has a sweetheart deal that sees him showing up to what amounts to a couple of small handfuls of times a year and makes $12 million a year for it. Some fans are still going to boo Reigns regardless, but going down the road of painting Reigns as the guy representing the boys and girls in the locker room and Lesnar as the mercenary who doesn't give a shit about anything might be good for Reigns. I know he can't do the "shoot" style of promo all the time, but it was nice seeing him inject some intensity, show some emotions aside from a cocky little smirk and I'd like to see more of it.

I've often thought that the WWE does their best work when they tap into the feeling of the fans and give them the lip service that they want. For example, people have wanted Cena to be a heel for a long, long time. When he shows flashes of being that guy, the fans lap it up. I remember the segments with Cena when he returned to the WWE and people were calling him a part timer. Everyone was thinking it but it was refreshing to see WWE have their fingers on the pulse.

The same goes for Reigns. The WWE tapped into the general feeling of the fans and have probably built an angle around it. I don't think it's going to help get people on side with Reigns but it certainly adds a different dimension to their match.

[DNA 2.0]

I think it was a last second creative desicion in order to put Reigns over and have him do a worked shoot. That's how I view it.

But hey there was tension between Vince and Lesnar this time three years ago. So I don't really know what happened.

But to me it doesn't seem as something to be worried about or something of importance. Most likely a work.

[CyberPunk]

It has to be work though for me, it didn't matter much. Roman cut a more than decent promo, showed some fire and looked good in the process. More importantly, the fans seemed to get behind him for that. May be they should do more of this with Roman than give him overly scripted promos where he looks completely out of place, devoid of any human emotions.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

It has to be a work though, right? RAW has 5 more shows before WrestleMania. I can't see Lesnar appearing at each RAW. I'm thinking he shows up for about 3 of those RAW shows. Not all 5 left before WrestleMania.

['Ravishing' Ned Flanders]

I wouldn't be surprised if he said fuck it and didn't go.

With Vince's nuts in a vice he can basically do whatever and because they're big 'Mania moment is Roman finally beating Brock there's not much that can be done about it

[BaconBits]

The whole deal is how kayfabe works in the internet age. Itâ??s said all the time that kayfabe is dead, but it isnâ??t. Itâ??s just changed. Vince and trips know exactly who the sheetâ??s sources are and intentionally feed those people misinformation, so the sheets get misinformation. And theyâ??re getting better at controlling the narrative. And itâ??s cool how fans are allowing themselves to be worked.

[FunKay]

This seems to be a repeat of the events of three years ago: Brock works both sides until he gets what he wants - and inordinate amount of cash for limited appearances in worked fighting while getting the benefit of cherry picking his fights in legit fighting. It's shrewd, the only difference is the UFC need him more now than they did three years ago, and the E' don't need him as much as they did three years ago., thus the outcome may very well be different.

[Jack-Hammer]

This seems to be a repeat of the events of three years ago: Brock works both sides until he gets what he wants - and inordinate amount of cash for limited appearances in worked fighting while getting the benefit of cherry picking his fights in legit fighting. It's shrewd, the only difference is the UFC need him more now than they did three years ago, and the E' don't need him as much as they did three years ago., thus the outcome may very well be different.

Yeah, that sorta seems to be the top rumor floating around right now: that it's something of a negotiation tactic on Lesnar's part. And yeah, the UFC potentially "need" Lesnar a lot more than WWE does. I was reading a story a few days ago comparing WWE's ratings with that of other sports like NBA on TNT, Major League Baseball, the NHL, etc. on television and, on average, both Raw and SmackDown draw more than anything else, other than pro football. For 2017, the average US viewership for Raw and SmackDown, not counting DVR viewership, was something in the neighborhood of a little more than 3 and 2.5 million respectively while UFC's TV viewership on FS1 is somewhere in the 870,00 range on average. The UFC on Fox specials saw something like a 22% decrease in viewership from 2016 and UFC on FS1 is down like 20%. The reason I remember that is because the report mentioned that both WWE and UFC are in negotiations with Fox regarding TV deals and that UFC's decline has a lot to do with big draws like Lesnar, Rousey or Conor McGreggor either being with WWE or, in McGreggor's case, doing other things while kinda sorta trying to hold the UFC hostage. WWE is making more money than ever before, the company's stock is worth close to $3 billion right now, and Lesnar's presence, not to mention the hefty price tag that goes with it, hasn't really been a factor in TV ratings, house show attendance or network subscriptions. So yeah, Lesnar's bargaining position with WWE doesn't look to be nearly as strong now as it was a few years back. Besides, the guy reportedly gets $12 million a year and, in my opinion, is far beyond what he's been worth and he sure as hell isn't worth more than that. So yeah, if this is part of a negotiation tactic and he wants even more, then I think WWE should kick him to the curb.

[jmt225]

Whatever led to this segment happening, it was perfectly done and exactly what Reigns needed. I have no complaints either way.

If Lesnar's being a dick, oh well. Brock being Brock.

If it's all a work, bravo. Great writing.

[TheManTheyCalledNorCal]

It's come out that this was a work in an effort to get reigns more cheers.

To which I say, that's an effort long overdue.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

It's a work.

Portary Lesnar as the guy who doesn't care about the business or the fans. Have him "walk out". Then Reigns "shoots" on him and talks about how dedicated he is to WWE.

It's actually a pretty good idea. That was Reigns best promo he's ever done.

Edit - Well it just came out that this is a work. Makes sense. Reigns won't be cheered at Mania, but at least the build should be good.

[Dave]

It's a work.

Portary Lesnar as the guy who doesn't care about the business or the fans. Have him "walk out"

Reigns "shoots" on him and talks about how dedicated he is to WWE.

It's actually a pretty good idea. That was Reigns best promo he's ever done.

Incorrect. The best promo he ever did was the on Raw the night after beating The Undertaker after Mania. A sheer thing of utter beauty.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Incorrect. The best promo he ever did was the on Raw the night after beating The Undertaker after Mania. A sheer thing of utter beauty.

The one after Mania was because of the crowd though, rather than what Roman actually said.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Well, if it was a work then bravo. Now what do they do for the rest of the year? Keep saying Brock isn't interested in showing up at Raw? That will only work so many times and with so many crowd types.

[Yaz]

Incorrect. The best promo he ever did was the on Raw the night after beating The Undertaker after Mania. A sheer thing of utter beauty.

A shame they never took advantage of that either. They had Roman cut the promo of the year, and fuck errbody who disagree, had massive heel heat, then the next week he was back to the whole "I'm the big dog of WWE, catchphrase, please cheer me" act they keep pushing.


The one after Mania was because of the crowd though, rather than what Roman actually said.

Yeah, a very large part of being good with promos and matches is getting the crowd to respond properly. Yes, the post Mania crowd is always rowdy, but it isn't like he could have come out and said just anything and got that reaction. Roman is very capable of doing things well, it is just that WWE rarely allows him to work to his strengths.