WWE Royal Rumble 2018: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane full match preview

Universal Championship Triple Threat Match

Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane

This whole thing is a disaster.

As far back as May 2017, Paul Heyman used his mic time to strongly tease a future championship match between The Demon King and the Beast Incarnate. Heyman’s exact words on the May 22 edition of Raw were, “I believe in my heart you are the most talented in-ring performer in WWE today...I look forward and I’m most intrigued to the possibility of Brock Lesnar versus Finn Balor for the Universal Championship.”

By mid-October the Wrestling Observer said that Balor versus Lesnar for the Universal Championship would likely take place at Royal Rumble 2018. Finn Balor then cleanly defeated top star AJ Styles at TLC 2017 on October 22. Things were looking great for Finn.

But the very next night on the October 23 edition of Raw, Kane easily defeated Finn Balor and made him look like a chump, and nobody had a good explanation for why the match was booked like that. By the end of November it became clear that even though Paul Heyman was intrigued by the possibility of Finn Balor versus Brock Lesnar, apparently Vince McMahon felt that Finn Balor wasn’t over enough. After booking Balor to be a chew toy for old man Kane multiple times on Raw, that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if I’ve ever seen one.

So the devil chose his favorite demon over the Demon King for the Universal Championship story at the Royal Rumble. Kane and Braun Strowman were already in a feud revolving around garbage truck homicide. Kurt Angle booked a match between the two monsters on the December 11 edition of Raw, with the winner earning a shot at Lesnar’s championship at the Royal Rumble.

The match ended in a draw, which was fitting considering how atrocious the match was. Neither man won the number one contender’s match, yet for some reason Angle defied the principles of logic by naming them both as the top contender.

It also didn’t make sense in January when Braun Strowman used a grappling hook to attempt murder on Kane and Lesnar yet both guys were walking around just fine two weeks later on Raw with no sign of injury. The most nonsensical thing of all may have been Braun Strowman being fired by Angle for attempting murder via grappling hook, then Strowman destroying everything backstage until he was rehired by Stephanie McMahon over the phone. So if you get fired by Kurt Angle, just break a bunch of stuff until management caves. Gotcha.

The storyline has been underwhelming, and the match will probably suck too. Kane wasn’t even a believable championship threat against Seth Rollins in late 2015, and unsurprisingly nothing has changed on that front more than two years later. Lesnar and Strowman had a poor match at No Mercy and there isn’t much reason to expect them to do better here.

If you like your wrestling with maximum beef and backstage destruction, then this feud has probably been enjoyable to watch. But for me this story is a huge letdown and comes nowhere close to matching the appeal of a showdown between the Beast Incarnate and the Demon King.

Find out which superstar walks out as Universal Champ by tuning into Royal Rumble 2018 and keeping it right here at Cageside Seats!