Brock Lesnar, aka The Beast, appeared on WWE Raw this past Monday alongside his advocate, Paul Heyman. Heyman reminded everyone that Lesnar was the one who ended the Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, which was always the unofficial second main event, according to Heyman. With each of those factors in mind, he believes that “main event spot” now belongs to his client, Lesnar.
Heyman went on to announce that Lesnar is issuing an open challenge at WrestleMania 42 for anyone who has the guts to face The Beast. Here are three candidates to answer that call.
The Ruler, Oba Femi, is the runaway favorite so far to accept the open challenge from Lesnar. This matchup would be the classic “unstoppable force versus immovable object” bout. Femi, similar to Lesnar, is an absolute force at 6’6 and just over 300 pounds. The Ruler clearly looks to be a future face of the company, and this spot at WrestleMania would be a perfect opportunity to catapult him towards the top.
WWE gave us a taste of what this battle could look like at the Royal Rumble. After the classic stare-off, Lesnar was able to hit Femi with a German suplex, but The Ruler responded with a powerful clothesline. Lesnar eventually went on to eliminate Femi from the Rumble, and the Ruler would surely like a chance at revenge.
There are rumors that Lesnar may retire this year. At this point, whenever a WWE legend is getting ready to hang up their boots, The Career Killer, Gunther, will be mentioned as the potential final opponent. Gunther, who is also known as The Ring General, was recently interviewed on The Morning Shift via 92.9 The Game, where someone asked him about the possibility of retiring Lesnar.
That’s a good one, right? So yeah, we’ll see. I think there’s a bunch of examples of people that overstay their welcome. That just hang on a little bit too much. That chase one moment too much, maybe.
While retiring The Beast at WrestleMania is a possibility, the more likely spot would be at SummerSlam in Minneapolis, which is Lesnar’s hometown. This match could be an opportunity, however, for WWE to do something different than what we have seen lately. Perhaps Gunther can accept the open challenge under the condition that Lesnar puts his career on the line, but this time, the Career Killer is actually defeated. That would give the fans something other than Gunther ending someone’s career again and allow Lesnar to finish at home.
There is another opportunity to match power with power in the form of the man formerly known as Powerhouse Hobbs, Royce Keys. The 270-pound Keys made his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble last month, eliminating Damien Priest before being tossed out by Bronson Reed. Keys has only appeared in two dark matches since, which has already worried some fans that he will not be utilized correctly in WWE. That is not necessarily the case, however, as there are times when WWE decides to take its time with new acquisitions.
The company has a huge opportunity to capitalize on Keys, while the buzz around him is still hot. What better way to do so than matching him up against Lesnar on the grandest stage of them all? Fans are ready to get behind Keys, especially after hearing his story, so this would be a great chance to get him over.
WWE has a few scenarios to explore with the Lesnar open challenge. They could let Gunther continue on the path of putting legends like Brock Lesnar, out of their misery, or use this as a chance to push the new generation of talent. I personally lean towards the latter, as Gunther really does not need it at this point. The Ring General has ended enough careers over the past year, and it is probably time to move in a different direction.
Lesnar has five appearances scheduled between now and WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. That means that whoever wants to step up to the plate will have plenty of opportunities to do so.
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