WWE Extreme Rules: Brock Lesnar beating Seth Rollins was the right call

Any time Brock Lesnar wins a WWE match, let alone one for the Universal Championship, it’s bound to be controversial. This time however, it shouldn’t be.

At Extreme Rules, Brock Lesnar finally cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Seth Rollins to become the Universal Champion. It undoubtedly was the kick-off to many more weeks of fans questioning Lesnar’s motivation, WWE’s choice in champion, and that champ’s overall lack of appearances.

Nevertheless, no matter how you slice it, there really is no reason to question WWE’s decision here. This was the right call, like it or not.

Now, I know that’s controversial to say. Brock Lesnar isn’t a great champion by any means. His schedule will just never permit it. He is, however, the right man to hold the title now for more reasons than you might think.

Let’s just start by looking at Seth Rollins time as Universal Champion. In other words, let’s look at his feud with Baron Corbin, shall we?

Yes, I realize that means I’m skipping over his rivalry with AJ Styles. One major show, and only a few weeks of standard build-up doesn’t leave much to say about what could have easily been one of the best feuds in years if done right, does it?

Back to Corbin though, you’ll likely ultimately remember his rivalry with Seth Rollins as being boring. That’s basically the legacy it’s destined to leave. It just utterly lacked any reason to really get pumped up to see it.

The most memorable moment from the feud, despite the fact that it somehow stretched multiple pay-per-views instead of the rivalry with Styles, was arguably Rollins and Becky Lynch making their relationship on-screen official.

Considering that the jury still seems to be out on whether or not that was the right call on WWE’s part, that’s not saying much.

Surprisingly, I don’t hold WWE at fault for the lack of excitement surrounding that rivalry, at least not in a traditional sense. Baron Corbin was really the only heel available for Rollins to fight over the last few months. All the others were off in their own storylines.

Since those storylines are likely now over by now, you might think that means the window would have been open for a more diverse set of heels to challenge Seth Rollins at SummerSlam. You would be wrong.

Just take a moment and look through the WWE roster. Find me one heel who hasn’t recently suffered a major high-profile loss. Cue the Jeopardy music, I’ll wait.

If you answered, “Who is AJ Styles?” you would be correct. The same superstar who just won the United States Championship, and is therefore highly unlikely to be revisiting the Universal Championship picture on such a quick turnaround at SummerSlam.

The fact of the matter is that WWE just hasn’t invested in building up any heels for the SummerSlam world championship pictures. It’s a problem which will undoubtedly plague Kofi Kingston as WWE Champion, and one that would have likely done the same to Seth Rollins.

Brock Lesnar’s title win erases that concern. In fact, Lesnar’s win erases all of these talking points.

WWE can now easily make a a main event caliber match for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam by virtue of simply throwing Lesnar and Rollins back together.

Likewise, the company can focus all of their efforts on building a solid heel for Kingston to face for the WWE Championship instead of having to split those efforts between both their major titlists.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Seth Rollins will get a fresh start whenever he inevitably wins back the Universal Championship. The memory of these last few months will likely have faded, and their will be a clear path ahead to an AJ Styles rematch or any number of other feuds.

At that point, WWE will have undoubtedly had time to rebuild their stock of heel challengers, leaving Rollins the rogues gallery of challengers that any popular major titleholder deserves to square off against.

To me, that’s a pretty convincing argument in and of itself for Brock Lesnar to have beat Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship. Lesnar skeptics might still not agree though, perhaps because we’re now guaranteed at least another month of Lesnar as champion.

It’s important to remember that Lesnar recapturing a major title was practically an inevitability due to the Money in the Bank briefcase, and Lesnar’s own ability to move the meter.

Since there’s a fair chance Lesnar can lose immediately at SummerSlam though, it might be best to consider this the best possible outcome then.

Lesnar will likely be semi-present over the next few weeks too, as he basically always is on the build to SummerSlam. That means his win at Extreme Rules could be just a tool to build a solid feud for Rollins, or even some other challenger if you’re a fan of twists, to capture one of WWE’s top titles on a grand stage in a star-worthy moment.

The brass tacks of the situation is simply that whether you’re a fan of Brock Lesnar or not, having him win the Universal Championship at Extreme Rules was arguably the best decision WWE could have made given the circumstances.