Brock Lesnar showed up to work this week.
On the Royal Rumble go-home episode of Monday Night Raw, Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman appeared in the opening segment. In Finn Balor, the Universal champion received a new opponent to match up with on less than two weeks notice.
With a challenger switch, would Lesnar and Heyman have anything new to say?
Not really.
Heyman had a few good one liners but it felt like WWE’s number one advocate could not get himself excited enough to hype up Lesnar versus Balor.
At the tail end of Heyman’s promo Vince McMahon made a surprise appearance. Rather than put over Balor’s chances of knocking off Lensar, McMahon gave The Beast Incarnate’s latest challenger little to no shot of succeeding on Sunday night.
To add more bodies to the segment, Braun Strowman came roaming out to interrupt McMahon. The Monster Among Men didn’t say much but did state he would be coming for Lesnar’s title down the line.
Not but least, Balor was the last to arrive to a suddenly very overbooked opening segment of Raw.
.@FinnBalor is feeling confident and he hasn't stopped believing ahead of his match with @BrockLesnar at the #RoyalRumble! #Raw pic.twitter.com/fDsAO3QgHb
— WWE (@WWE) January 22, 2019
Balor’s passionate promo would lead to McMahon putting him into a match with Strowman following a commercial break.
In 2018, Balor brought up some of the best matches Strowman has ever produced on the main roster. Tonight’s (Jan. 27) match-up didn’t net previous results, but thanks to Lesnar watching from ringside it did become a chaotic contest.
All hell broke loose when Strowman tossed Balor into Lesnar.
Good lord, what a Overhead Belly-to-Belly from @BrockLesnar! #RAW pic.twitter.com/H5aSI0miUQ
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) January 22, 2019
From there all three men got their licks in.
.@FinnBalor is showing EXACTLY why he qualified for the #UniversalChampionship Match at the #RoyalRumble as he lays waste to @BraunStrowman AND @BrockLesnar on #Raw! pic.twitter.com/YXI3KHzeL2
— WWE (@WWE) January 22, 2019
The match would get called off after it looked like Balor had Strowman dead to rights. Lesnar would layout Balor with a F-5 and walk off with his hand held high.
The Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV) takes place on Sun., Jan. 27, 2019, at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.
So is Brock Lesnar standing tall on the go-home show a good sign for Finn Balor’s chances at the Royal Rumble?
Get complete Raw results and coverage here.