Over the last couple of months, there has been a ton of speculation about who Brock Lesnar will be facing at next spring’s WrestleMania 33 , with the common belief being that he’ll end up having a match with the returning Bill Goldberg. However, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter , Goldberg vs. Lesnar is penciled in for November’s Survivor Series show.
On Thursday’s Wrestling Observer Radio , Meltzer said that the Goldberg vs. Lesnar match will be a one off, because WWE has other plans for Lesnar at WrestleMania 33 . What are those plans? Well, Meltzer also suggested that Lesnar will end up wrestling SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon in Orlando next spring.
“[WWE] already has plans for [Brock Lesnar] that they’re not changing. Whatever they are, and I guess Shane McMahon probably is if you watch the TV and everything.
“Everybody’s going like [Lesnar vs. Goldberg] should be at WrestleMania, and I think with Vince [McMahon], he’s thinks Shane vs. Lesnar should be at WrestleMania.”
#SDLive ‘s @ShaneMcMahon has seen enough of this assault on @RandyOrton ! #SummerSlam @BrockLesnar #BrockvsOrton pic.twitter.com/9869QJfUk9
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) August 22, 2016
The Brock Lesnar vs. Shane McMahon angle began back at SummerSlam , when Lesnar gave Shane an F-5 after brutally beating Randy Orton. The storyline was followed up on in subsequent episodes of Raw and SmackDown , but it hasn’t been talked about in several weeks.
Before reports came out that Lesnar was going to be wrestling Goldberg at November’s Survivor Series show, most assumed that we wouldn’t see “The Beast” on WWE television again until January, as he typically doesn’t appear during the fall. Also, many believed that the Lesnar vs. Shane match would take place at the Royal Rumble in January, but if Meltzer is correct about the match happening at WrestleMania 33 , Lesnar will be doing something else at the event.
Shane made his return to WWE earlier this year, and he ended up wrestling The Undertaker inside Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania 32 . While the match wasn’t all that great, it ended up having one of the most memorable moments in WrestleMania history, as Shane jumped off the Cell and came crashing down through the announcer’s table.
A FOCUSED @ShaneMcMahon looks on in awe of his @WrestleMania opponent The #Undertaker … #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/9MSKGd0GuY
— WWE WrestleMania (@WrestleMania) April 4, 2016
Before he returned, the plan was for Shane to leave after his loss to The Undertaker . But, WWE decided to have him stick around after the match because of how well received his return was.
Unlike Shane, Lesnar competed in a fairly forgettable match at WrestleMania 32 , as he pretty much squashed Dean Ambrose in a no disqualification match.
If you look at the current WWE roster, there really isn’t anyone who would be a brand new opponent for Lesnar, and even though it probably won’t be the greatest match in the world, a Lesnar vs. Shane match would be something we haven’t seen before.
Some WWE fans are hoping that the Shane vs. Lesnar match won’t happen at WrestleMania 33 and instead Shane will bring someone like Shinsuke Nakamura or Samoa Joe in to face Lesnar next year in Orlando.
Of course, Nakamura and Lesnar have wrestled each other, but the match took place about a decade ago in New Japan Pro Wrestling. So the match would be brand new to most of the WWE audience.
Joe and Lesnar have never wrestled each other, and it’s a match that most WWE fans have been dying to see ever since Joe arrived in NXT last year.
We’re roughly six months away from WrestleMania 33 , and Vince McMahon is known to change things pretty frequently. So even though Lesnar vs. Shane is the plan for next spring’s big event, it may not end up happening, and who knows? Maybe we’ll end up seeing the Joe vs. Lesnar match that everyone has been begging for.
[Featured image by WWE ]