Brock Lesnar: Who Will He Face at WWE Survivor Series 2017?
By Bryan Heaton
Brock Lesnar may not be competing at WWE TLC. But rumors surrounding his possible opponent at Survivor Series are interesting.
On Friday, potential spoilers on Brock Lesnar’s Survivor Series opponent started making the rounds. And, well, they’re not exactly encouraging to much of the WWE Universe.
Per Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the plan is for Lesnar to face Jinder Mahal in a non-title match in the Survivor Series main event. If you just said, “oh, man, that’s a terrible idea,” to your computer/phone/tablet screen while reading that, you are not alone.
At present, Brock Lesnar is the Universal Champion. Jinder Mahal is the WWE Champion. Lesnar is part of the Raw brand, and Mahal is on the SmackDown brand. While Survivor Series is the ideal place to have inter-brand competition, this is not the way to go about it. Who has anything to gain if the Universal Champion defeats the WWE Champion? Or vice versa?
Despite his pretty lousy title reign (that started with such hope and promise), Jinder has actually been pretty dominant on Tuesday nights. Yes, the Singh Brothers have certainly helped him out along the way. But since moving to SmackDown Live in April, Mahal has only been pinned in singles matches twice – once by Mojo Rawley in his debut appearance, and once to Randy Orton at the beginning of August. Other than that, he’s been dominant, if unspectacular, as WWE Champion.
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We all know Brock Lesnar’s history. Since being stunned by Goldberg at Survivor Series last year, he’s been right back to his unstoppable self. He defeated Goldberg at WrestleMania to win the Universal Champion. As he defeated the likes of Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman, Lesnar has become the longest reigning Universal Champion of all time. So he’s been dominant as well.
All a victory by either man would do is destroy everything that has built them up to where they are right now. A loss by Mahal would especially be harmful to the WWE Champion – and the championship itself. So this huge, massive, non-title match is almost guaranteed to get a non-finish. Whether double DQ, or some kind of interference to set up one (or two) future challengers, there’s no logical reason for either man to win or lose.
And as far as match quality goes, it’s pretty likely this one will be a stinker. Jinder hasn’t really had any great matches since his elevation to champion. Brock only has good matches when he’s motivated – do you think this match will motivate him?
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Survivor Series takes place in Houston on November 19. It’s always possible plans will change, but it seems this is how WWE is planning on proceeding. What are your thoughts?