WWE is in an interesting position at this point when it comes to looking toward the Royal Rumble. While most fans would like to see Finn Balor take on Brock Lesnar at the big January event the word going around is Vince McMahon is getting shy about booking that match.
There is also a problem where everything that happens needs to tell a story leading to WrestleMania 34 where Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns will collide. Roman is expected to be the first to kick out of the F5 (in this current run) and go on to topple The Beast Incarnate with a mighty spear.
While Finn Balor would eat an F5 and make the finisher look very good, McMahon is still nervous about booking this because he doesn’t think Balor over enough. This subject has been covered in depth as well as Balor’s reaction and fan support. But this leaves a question of who could step in a replace Balor against Brock Lesnar at The Royal Rumble.
Bruan Strowman has been pitched out there but Vince McMahon doesn’t like that idea. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports McMahon is negative about this idea for many reasons. For one, Braun vs Brock just happened at No Mercy and Strowman already fell after one F5. Another is, as Meltzer notes: “Strowman is obviously being built up for HHH right now.”
But the more important reason might be the fact that Braun Strowman just turned babyface and suffering a loss like that, especially a clean one to put over Lesnar and his destructive finishing move might present some undue harm to his character.
Of course, WWE seems to be switching things up like crazy recently but the main event of WrestleMania 34 is still set to be Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship.
If Braun Strowman were to pick up the Universal Title in the interim period and lose it at a place in-between the Royal Rumble and Mania it could make sense for the story. But Vince McMahon really wants Roman Reigns kicking out of the F5 to mean something.
This is a tricky situation but one obvious solution would be to just let Finn Balor wrestle without his Demon persona against Brock Lesnar and take a loss in Philly after having a barnburner of a match with The Beast Incarnate.
