Why WWE Had Brock Lesnar Announce His New Contract on ESPN

The latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has provided an inside look as to why WWE had Brock Lesnar announce his new contract on ESPN on March 24. As previously reported, Lesnar has signed a new three-year deal with WWE, and will be under contract with the company until 2018.

Dave Meltzer claims WWE wanted Lesnar to announce his new contract on ESPN’s “Sports Center” publicly before WrestleMania 31 in order to make fans question the outcome to the main event WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match on March 29 between Lesnar and Roman Reigns. Initially, with Lesnar assumed finished with WWE on March 30, 2015, WWE executives, namely Vince McMahon, wanted Lesnar to drop the title to Reigns at WrestleMania 31 in a “passing of the torch” from one proverbial “bad ass” to the other.

However, Reigns has not been received well by the fans, and was the one being booed out of the arena during the final segment of the WrestleMania “go-home” edition of “Monday Night Raw” on March 23. Lesnar was being cheered by the WWE Universe, which in the old days would mean that their roles would reverse, and a double-turn would take place, making Lesnar the babyface and Reigns the heel.

WWE hasn’t yet pulled the trigger on making Reigns a heel just yet, even though his reaction is vying for such a change in character. While Lesnar is slated to turn babyface soon during his upcoming three-year tenure with the company, many are questioning if WrestleMania 31 will be the catalyst for this change or not.

Meltzer has the following to say about the situation,

“WWE wanted Lesnar to announce the signing to put the finish of the main event into question. Having the announcement done on ESPN does help interest in the show, both with Lesnar becoming a major news story in the final week, and opening up the speculation as to who will win the main event.

If anything, Lesnar deciding to stay guarantees him being a gigantic babyface to the live crowd in the match on Sunday, and unless something positively brilliant in the other direction happens, even more so at Raw on Monday. It’s been clear all along that the Lesnar run should end with a babyface turn. There was a subtle hint on Raw when Lesnar glared at Paul Heyman during a promo the night before that could be taken as a tease.

The idea that Heyman, who has put over Reigns super strong as the second toughest guy in modern pro wrestling history behind only Lesnar, could always turn on Lesnar and go with Reigns is always a possibility. It would be similar to what he did in 2002 to Lesnar with Big Show, and what he later did with C.M. Punk, so it probably wouldn’t be such a simple version.

That would at least put the WWE’s television and PPV audience aligned with the storyline instead of at odds with the storyline.”

WrestleMania 31 airs live on the WWE Network and select PPV providers on March 29 at 7 p.m. ET.

Editor’s Note:

Well, announcing his new deal on ESPN worked. It’s the talk of the town. How it will affect the outcome of the ‘Mania main event is the real question.