Lesnar took enough of a beating early that you almost forgot about him until he quickly got back into the match for a flurry of F5s.
The match itself was a fun sprint with Owens and Rollins trying to team up to win and Lashley almost immediately spearing Lesnar through a barricade. Lesnar with both belts on the line? Do you have Xavier Woods win the Royal Rumble and challenge Lesnar to avenge him beating Big E and Kingston? How does Paul Heyman fit back into this? Does he rejoin Lesnar after being fired by Reigns? Even with the fun possibilities, it stinks to see Big E’s title reign end without a true feud and to someone who doesn’t need the strap after lining up Rollins, Lashley and Owens as viable opponents for the former champion.īrock Lesnar beats Big E to win the WWE Championship at #WWEDay1 /5rLEUIx1QF- Doug Rush January 2, 2022 There are plenty of opponents waiting for Lesnar, most notably Big E and Lashley, who finally got to step in the ring for the first time with The Beast. Did the uncertainty about the return of Reigns, whose leukemia is in remission but still makes him high risk for the virus, make WWE feel it needed a star of Lesnar’s caliber to carry the only world championship in play right now? But now, it’s about where do we go from here with Lesnar as the new WWE champion. (A heartfelt get well soon to the Universal champion). We will never know what was supposed to happen had Roman Reigns not tested positive for COVID-19. Here are five takeaways from WWE’s start to 2022. The shocking championship victory (but is it really) was part of a mostly encouraging night in Atlanta. Brock Lesnar won the WWE champions at the Day 1 pay-per-view on Saturday night. While there are interesting places for WWE to go, the result feels like a total shift from everything the company originally built around match and an abrupt cord-cutting on Big E’s feel-good reign – similar to what Lesnar did to fellow New Day member Kofi Kingston. Lesnar surprisingly won by pinning defending champion Big E after an F5. The Beast found himself in the fatal five-way match for the belt after his scheduled Universal title match with Roman Reigns was canceled after The Tribal Chief tested positive for COVID-19. Well … you couldn’t have called that one, could you?īrock Lesnar left the first-ever Day 1 pay-per-view as your new WWE champion to end a wild Saturday for the company. WWE star painfully stole the show with torn pec at Hell in a Cell Money in the Bank predictions: There should be one easy choice for WWE WWE did the right thing at Money in the Bank - but something still feels off WWE champion sees this potential feud as ‘WrestleMania type of match’