How Brock Lesnar Signing a Three-Year Contract with WWE Affects the Outcome to WrestleMania 31

The latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has shed some light on how Brock Lesnar signing a three-year contract with WWE affects the outcome to WrestleMania 31 on March 29. As previously reported, Lesnar announced his new deal with WWE on ESPN’s “Sports Center” on March 24, and will see him remain with the company until 2018.

Dave Meltzer lays out how Lesnar’s new deal should affect the original plans drawn up by Vince McMahon and other WWE executives when they were initially penning out the finish to WrestleMania 31’s main event, saying,

“Brock Lesnar signing a three-year deal with a raise, changes at least one dynamic of WrestleMania. Whatever the finish originally was to be, no matter who goes over, Lesnar has to be protected not just this year, but for the long haul.

A key to the three year aspect is that there is no pressing issue about him going babyface. To get full value out of Lesnar, he needs a strong face run at the end, but the end is now a long time away. There was only one logical ending if he was leaving, which was Reigns over in dramatic fashion, with Reigns selling a lot early and coming back with a decisive win.

Now, Lesnar, with his contract, is far more valuable than the title. He can keep the title, with the idea of making WWE title matches more special because they are more rare, but that has been the concept since SummerSlam and they haven’t made it work so far. The problem is, somebody should lose to Seth Rollins within a few months, since they haven’t spent all this time building up him and the briefcase and linking him as The Authority star and future of wrestling for him to not cash in.

A lot depends on Lesnar’s dates. If Lesnar isn’t wrestling again until SummerSlam, he may have to lose the title to Reigns, or beat Reigns and lose to Rollins, either at Mania or Raw, simply because he won’t be around after that. Although he could lose at any time, because he doesn’t have to do a match, and probably wouldn’t do a match, for Rollins to take it from him with subterfuge, and he can be brought in for TV at any time. 

But Lesnar being strong may also be so important to justify that contract that plans for Rollins and the belt may have to be delayed. It does make things interesting with all the options, but I don’t see that one happening. Putting the U.S. title on John Cena and the IC title on Daniel Bryan, which were the plans as of last week, that they are trying to elevate those titles to where they can main event the arena shows, so you don’t have to have a touring world champion.

But if Lesnar doesn’t have the title, he has to have super hot opponents, and Cena and HHH have been done enough, while Austin, Rock and Undertaker are Mania matches or not at all. So you’re left with Reigns and Rollins, and going forward, Lesnar would be better as the challenger against them than defending. 

He can lose, of course, with the right storyline, but it has to be due to a screw job that leads to a huge match. Seth Rollins only has until the summer to cash in the briefcase, and he’s being pushed too strong to fail on the cash-in as the corporate guy. For next year’s WrestleMania, whether he is champion or not, one would think he would have to face Rock, Steve Austin, Undertaker or Reigns, and as noted, unless things change, it would be Rock.

But if that does fall through, it has to be a match that Vince McMahon believes is money, and a match (or part of a package of matches) that add 25,000 more tickets next year than this year. With three more years, Lesnar literally has to be established as an all-time great for his value to make that deal still worthwhile two years from now.”

In addition to this, WWE had Lesnar announce his new deal on “Sports Center” to purposefully make fans question what the outcome of WrestleMania will be. Will Lesnar still lose the WWE World Heavyweight Championship to Reigns? Will he turn face, and Reigns turn heel? Will Reigns align with Paul Heyman and leave Lesnar on his own to battle back against the odds? Will Lesnar beat Reigns and lose to Rollins via cash-in? All questions that now stem from Lesnar re-signing with WWE.

Editor’s Note:

The fact he’s re-signed has made me SO much more excited for WrestleMania! What are they going to run with?!? (Probably still “babyface Reigns wins, defeats both Lesnar AND Rollins, and celebrates amidst confetti to close the show…just as a big middle finger to the haters)