411’s WWE Rivals Report: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns

-I guess this is fitting for the week before WrestleMania as this is the only match to ever close the show at Mania three different times. Next weekend is WrestleMania and I am not sure what that means for this show. I will be watching Mania obviously and if there is an episode of Rivals it will have to wait a few days. Based on the show opening we still have Savage/Roberts, Michaels/Austin, Hart/Austin, and the teams involved in TLC I and II or just Edge/Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz. Now, let’s get our Rivals fix for this week. Let’s get to it!

-Freddie Prinze Jr. is our host and he is joined by JBL, Johnny Gargano, Kevin Owens, and Renee Paquette. Sweet, they reunited KO and Renee!

-We start with Brock and Edge notes that he looks like the incredible Hulk. He says that Brock would work in the 80s (the money he would draw doing the loop with Hogan would be insane), 70s, 60s, and 50s. Edge laughs as he notes they would run in the 50s thinking it was King Kong. Rollins talks about Brock being able to toss around Mark Henry and Big Show and that lets us see the famous ring implosion.

-Heyman tells us the business was looking for the next big thing as Hogan’s time was over as was the time of The Rock and Steve Austin. That leads to SummerSlam 2002 where Brock Lesnar runs over The Rock to win his first WWF Title, only about 5 months after his debut. The Rock put Brock over huge there as everyone knew what was up. Pat McAfee feels that if Aliens land on the planet and want to face one person to save the planet, we would send Brock Lesnar as he is the Alpha Male of our species.

-They discuss Paul Heyman and Renee (listed as former WWE announcer) says Heyman is the best.

-We skip past the fall out with The WWE and Brock goes to MMA and becomes The UFC Heavyweight Champion. Brock then returns to WWE after eight years away and he says it is to be the top guy. HE MURDERS CENA ON HIS RETURN AND KICKS HIS STUPID HAT!

-Now to Roman Reigns and he tells us who Joe Anoa’i is. We see pictures of him as a kid hanging out with Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. We take a trip through The Samoan Dynasty Family Tree. Heyman notes he first saw Roman in 1988 when Sika was working for CWA. Hulk Hogan says Sika was so proud of Roman and Hogan notes he was a good looking kid. We see the photo of toddler Roman with Hulk Hogan. This stuff is great!

-Joe’s dream was to get to the NFL, but it didn’t go that way though he did go Division I to Georgia Tech. Roman then got into the family business and he was seen as the chosen one. Even Hogan notes that he spoke to HHH and was told that they had Roman pegged as the next man if he could figure everything out.

-Royal Rumble: 2015: Roman wins The Royal Rumble and the crowd is pissed! Philly booed Roman out of the ring and it didn’t help that the match was booked was horribly. I know the idea was Roman overcoming all the odds, but having all the crowd’s favorites getting tossed early didn’t help. Gargano brings up that the show ended with the crowd booing The Rock for standing next to Roman. JBL: “To hell with the crowd, there was a bigger plan going forward.” Sure there was! Michael Hayes greets Roman backstage and gives him props for keeping his cool. “It’s not this city, it’s the world.” Well, nearly every city in the world booed the man out of the building.

-The match was set for Mania with Brock vs. Roman and we get video from the famous RAW that took place from Titan Towers because of a blizzard. Hogan is all about the rivalry which makes sense.

-WrestleMania 31: I still love the look of that Mania. I’m also a 49er fan so that may have something to do with it. Roman notes he was still early in his career and was young and dumb basically.

-Commercials!

-Back to WrestleMania 31 and this was easily the best of their Mania Trilogy. Heyman notes they are always looking for a rivalry and puts this up there with Hogan/Savage and Rock/Austin. Roman talks about how different it is to be in the ring with Brock. Roman gets in a great line as he says he knows people paid a lot of money to see Brock kick the shit out of him. “SUPLEX CITY BITCH.” Roman took an absolute beating which made sense as this was his first shot at Lesnar. Roman says he could feel the crowd change and he could tell he was earning some respect.

-Then Seth Rollins runs down and cashes in Money in The Bank to give the crowd an ending they won’t take a dump on. Seth jokes that he made Brock/Roman’s first Mania encounter a little better.

-Roman has tears in his eyes as he heads back through Gorilla. He says he was amazed he was in the ring with Brock Lesnar and he just wanted to represent. Roman says he saw Bret later that night and he told him “Instant Classic.” This was only the beginning of the story and Gargano notes that they each realized that.

-We jump ahead as Brock wins The Universal Title and holds for longer than anyone (at the time) and he runs through the roster to set up a WrestleMania Match with Roman Reigns. Roman says this was his time as he did everything the right way. Brock destroys Roman on RAW in the build to WrestleMania XXXIV.

-Commercials!

-WrestleMania XXXIV: It’s Brock/Roman II and this time it has built to Roman finally conquering Brock Lesnar. Heyman says there was a lot of tension as Brock was flirting with UFC again and everyone was watching Roman. Ziggler says the boys in the wondered about Brock too and if he would continue to just wrestle every six months while also trying to do UFC again. This was the weakest of the three WrestleMania matches by far. This time the crowd was sick of both men and were not down with what they were offering. Roman takes an elbow to the head and is bleeding and Brock finishes with the F5. The crowd is confused but also happy. Roman tells us that was a tough day but he won’t stop until he earns the respect.

-SummerSlam 2018: Roman gets another shot (after not getting the job done at a Saudi Show after Mania) at Brock and a Championship. He was 0-3 up until this point and everyone figured this had to be the time. He finally gets the win and Renee says it was a career defining moment as the crowd finally got behind Roman. Ehh, not really!

-RAW: Oct 22, 2018: Real life hits hard and we get the emotionally crazy moment where Roman lets us know that he has been living with leukemia for 11 years and it was back. The crowd immediately turns thankfully and gives Reigns a standing ovation and some tears are shed.

-Commercials!

-Freddie gets emotional talking about the moment with the table. We get video of Roman talking about his treatment and he knows that he is lucky. He just has to keep taking his medication. He was wondering if he could do his job again. His goal was to get healthy and get his stuff back.

-RAW: Feb 25, 2019: Roman returns to RAW to a thunderous reaction and he gives us all the news we wanted to hear: “I’m in remission y’all.” AWESOME! Then we all assumed there was no way this man was ever going to get booed again.

-Roman says there was a honeymoon phase where the crowd realized it would look bad to boo the man who overcame cancer. Roman says he wasn’t satisfied creatively as he was just stuck in “Big Dog” mode.

-Then real life steps in again as The Pandemic hits and Roman sits at home to be safe. Roman gets the idea to try something different and thank god they did as Roman returns and a few weeks later he see he has Paul Heyman with him. Fantastic reveal on that!

-Roman wins The Universal Title at Payback (Aug 30, 2020) and has held the title ever since. Enter The Tribal Chief and we all acknowledged him. Prinze notes that Paul Heyman is the one that brought all of this together. Roman became the top star everyone pegged him to be and looked the part with the new ring gear, and entrance music.

-SummerSlam 2021: Roman crushes John Cena, but Brock Lesnar returns to blow the roof off the stadium and it’s Cowboy Brock. Heel Roman vs. Face Brock was a much better dynamic!

-Commercials!

-Cena didn’t know Brock was supposed to be there and thought it was weird hearing his music after he lost. McAfee notes he nearly passed out from the excitement and that shouldn’t shock anyone.

-We just over their Saudi Match and to Day One where Brock Lesnar becomes WWE Champion which ends Big E’s run. WWE decides to run Brock/Roman for a third time at Mania and decide to unify the titles.

-The talking heads discuss the greatness that is Cowboy Brock. Heyman says what we see is real life Brock Lesnar and he felt it was time to show the fans that. COWBOY BROCK IS THE BEST!

-WrestleMania 38: It’s Brock/Roman III and this time everyone knows Roman is winning this one. They billed the match as The Biggest WrestleMania Match of All Time, which is a nice tag, but nothing is winning that battle with Hogan/Andre at Mania III as a choice. As expected Roman gets the win and can finally check beating Brock at Mania off the list. Backstage in Gorilla he gets greeted by Austin who tells him he has all the pieces coming together and he is proud of him. Cool!

-Roman continues to dominate everyone and he says there is nobody left, but Brock Lesnar returns again because they need a massive match for SummerSlam. Roman says there was still meat on the bone and they had one more left in them.

-Commercials!

-It seems this show and Bio will be off for two weeks which makes sense because why run it against Mania. Next for Rivals is Taker vs. Orton, which I didn’t even see a tease for in the opening.

-SummerSlam 2022: Cowboy Brock brings a tractor to ringside and dives off it to start the match. LUCHA BROCK! They have a hellacious Last Man Standing Match that is up there with their first meeting at Mania 31 as the best of their series. Then Brock uses the tractor to LIFT THE RING OFF THE GROUND. Just an awesomely crazy visual. Heyman eats the F5 on a table, but The Usos help Roman bury Brock under anything they can get their hands on and Roman gets the win. Credit to Michael Cole for calling a hell of a match as he was finally unleashed.

-Kevin Owens feels it is their best match in the series. Freddie talks about Brock climbing up the broken ring, putting on his cowboy hat, and thanking the fans. Renee thinks nobody else could have gotten Reigns to level he is other than Brock Lesnar. Hogan says it is cool to see someone become great and gives props to both Brock and Roman. He wants to watch every time they face each other. Roman gets the final word as he says he and Brock are elite, once in a life-time freaks that got to the peak of the same mountain and that’s their legacy.

-Not as much nostalgia with this one obviously because this rivalry is still fresh. It wouldn’t shock me to see Roman/Brock IV at a WrestleMania at some point because they like going back to the feud. I enjoyed all the cool backstage stuff they included. Not my favorite episode of the series but still well done. It’s the story of Two Meaty Men Slapping Meat and that’s what it delivers. Thanks for reading!