You don’t defeat Brock Lesnar so much as you slay him, and that’s exactly what The American Nightmare did tonight.
Heading into their highly anticipated grudge match, the WWE’s leading contender against Roman Reigns knew that he had to do everything possible to take down The Beast Incarnate and that’s exactly what he did.
After finishing his entrance, Rhodes didn’t even give his opponent the opportunity to get inside the ring before he started wailing at him in a scene reminiscent of what Lesnar did to Rhodes at the RAW after WrestleMania.
Despite his best opening efforts, however, Lesnar proved to be too strong and too powerful for Rhodes to simply take out by conventional means.
Throwing shades of Brock Lesnar vs John Cena at SummerSlam 2014, Brock threatened to put Rhodes in an absurd amount of suplexes. After realizing that he was at the end of his ropes, Rhodes exposed the turnbuckle at the side of the ring, where he later sent Lesnar head first, leaving him bloodied and literally seeing red. From then on, Rhodes hit Lesnar with a series of cutters and even a Cross Rhodes. Even then, this wasn’t enough to take down Lesnar, as he retaliated with a resounding F5 and put Rhodes in the Kimura Lock to try and get him to tap out.
This proved to be what caused the downfall of Lesnar as Rhodes used Lesnar’s weight against him to pin his shoulders and successfully get the three-count.
While Rhodes’ win represents a marquee moment for his way back to the top of the WWE’s contender list, some wonder if this was the right decision.
Contrary to popular belief, Triple H is firmly in control of WWE Creative. As such, heading into Backlash, some speculated that the King of Kings might dig deep into his NXT days pocket and put Rhodes through a lot of trials and tribulations first before he finally gets what he wants. Thus, some were under the impression that Lesnar would walk away with a win over Rhodes. Storyline-wise, this would keep Rhodes out of contention for the new World Heavyweight Championship belt and mark another chapter in dragging his name through the mud.
Similar to Reigns’ entire ordeal, a loss to Lesnar would’ve allowed the WWE to play the long game and tell fans a proper underdog story.
Now that Rhodes has won, it isn’t unclear what the WWE plans to do next with this feud between The American Nightmare and The Beast Incarnate. Is it over just like that? Or, is Brock Lesnar going to want to have another shot at Rhodes after his shocking loss? As a free agent, Lesnar can go anywhere he pleases, but RAW is where Rhodes and the World Heavyweight Championship, as well as his rumored SummerSlam opponent, Gunther, are, so which direction is WWE taking?
These are questions that we’ll have to wait until the first Monday Night RAW episode on May 8, Monday, to get an answer to.
For now, fans can look forward to the start of the tournament for the newly introduced title belt, which will culminate at the Night of Champions on Saturday, May 27.
