Raw General Manager Kurt Angle opened this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw with an announcement playing off the social media promo Paul Heyman cut this week saying Brock Lesnar is rejecting “every request by WWE to exploit his box office appeal and concentrate on more pressing, ‘Ultimate’ opportunities that exist at the moment!” The long and short of it, if it wasn’t clear from the opening segment:
Due to the Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar, backing out of his commitment, I regretfully have to cancel the multi man match at Extreme Rules PPV. It’s a shame that our champion continues to disappoint.
— Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) June 26, 2018
The idea seems to be that Lesnar doesn’t want to fight whomever wins the previously planned multi-man match that was going to feature Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley vs. four other wrestlers to be determine at another time. It’s worth mentioning, of course, that he did say “for now” on Raw, so it’s entirely possible this is just one step in the story and we will indeed get the originally announced multi-man match.
For now, though, it’s off the Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PP)V card scheduled for Sun., July 15, 2018, at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
What’s been officially added to it, however, is The B-Team finally getting their chance at the Raw tag team titles held by The Deleters of Worlds, Woken Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt. They’ve been playing up the comedy in the program so far but it’s been entertaining enough.
Here’s the updated Extreme Rules match card:
- AJ Styles (c) vs. Rusev (WWE championship)
- Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax (Raw women’s championship)
- The Deleters of Worlds (c) vs. The B-Team (Raw tag team championship)