Report: Brock Lesnar vs. Aleister Black almost main evented WrestleMania
While Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania opponent has been set in the form of Drew McIntyre, the WWE Champion almost had a very different challenger in Aleister Black.
Last Sunday, Drew McIntyre won the Royal Rumble and the next night on Raw challenged Brock Lesnar to a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 36.
The match is still over two months away and already, McIntyre vs. Lesnar has been the talk of the town. Either because of reports regarding when the decision was made to dub McIntyre the winner of the Rumble or other reports of Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon arguing over who should actually main event WrestleMania. Then, there’s fans talking about it just because it looks like it’ll be an exciting match.
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But the concept of The Scottish Psychopath vs. The Beast was not always set in stone for WrestleMania. In fact, Lesnar’s opponent was quite nearly a newcomer with a much different, darker character than either Lesnar or McIntyre have: Aleister Black.
According to a report from Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer (h/t Wrestlingnews.co), Aleister Black was one of the names in the running to face Lesnar at WrestleMania before the decision was made to go with McIntyre as the man to eliminate The Beast and win the Royal Rumble.
It’s not hard to imagine this being true. Raw booker and executive director Paul Heyman is already high on the former NXT Champion. Which not only reflects in his work as Black has remained undefeated since arriving to the Red Brand, but The Dutch Destroyer is on a shortlist of WWE Superstars who Heyman is keen on pushing for the foreseeable future.
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As of now, it is unclear who Black could be wrestling instead on The Grandest Stage of Them All, nor is it clear if there is a specific reason why Heyman and Vince McMahon opted to go with McIntyre over Black.