If you’ll remember back to last spring, we all knew - knew I tell you! - that Roman Reigns would beat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34, completing his long coronation as the top star in WWE, whether fans liked it or not.
Then in the Superdome on April 8... it didn’t happen.
Amidst the shock of Lesnar retaining, especially amidst reports he was leaving to resume his mixed martial arts career, there were also rumors of big backstage blowout between Vince McMahon and his Universal champion. Everyone agreed words were exchanged. Reports were less lockstep on if the belt was thrown and at who/what, whether Brock went “off script” in the bloodying Reigns up during the match and who else may have been involved.
And, of course, there were “work or shoot?” debates.
The brief footage in the newest edition of WWE Network’s documentary series, WWE 24, won’t end those debates, but cameras did catch some of the exchange, including Lesnar throwing his title to Vince as he stormed through gorilla position:
Thanks, pal! pic.twitter.com/dVlXVp53Ym
— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 28, 2019
GIFs don’t have audio, but if you watch the “WrestleMania: New Orleans” episode, you’ll also hear McMahon loudly scream “ASSHOLE!” at Lesnar’s back as he heads further backstage.
Why were they mad? Was Vince just upset a sweaty man-mountain threw a heavy object at him, or for some other reason? Was Brock upset that the finish was changed? Is this all part of their contract negotiation process?
We don’t know! The scene is shown twice, but never followed up on. Oh well. At least now we have some visual to go with our speculation.
Thanks, WWE 24!