Following his return at the Royal Rumble in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the creative direction for Brock Lesnar heading into WrestleMania 42 has become a primary topic of discussion among fans. While Roman Reigns is currently set to challenge CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship, Lesnar’s path to Las Vegas appears to involve a first-time encounter with another superstar.
According to the latest reports from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, internal listings as of late January had “The Beast” scheduled to face LA Knight at the two-night event in April.
“We do know that in the lineup in late January for the show, Lesnar was listed as facing LA Knight. But in the Rumble, nothing memorable was done in that direction while the Lesnar-Femi face-off was set up to get a big reaction and actually got the biggest reaction of the show except for Brie Bella,” Dave Meltzer reported.
The news of the Lesnar vs. Knight match comes as a surprise to many fans who anticipated a match between Lesnar and Oba Femi. During the men’s Royal Rumble match, Lesnar entered at #22 and shared a brief face-off with the former NXT Champion. While the segment was designed to gauge crowd interest—and received one of the loudest reactions of the night—WWE officials have indicated that a singles match between the two is not yet a certainty.
Fans will not have to wait much longer for clarity on Lesnar’s direction. Lesnar is officially scheduled to return to Monday Night Raw on February 23 in Atlanta, Georgia. It is during this broadcast that the “Road to WrestleMania” seeds are expected to be firmly planted.
While the Royal Rumble saw Lesnar eliminated by the combined efforts of Cody Rhodes and LA Knight, the lack of a lingering physical confrontation with Knight during the match left some questioning the report until now.
Despite the current focus on Knight, the prospect of a match against Femi remains on the table for the future. Femi has recently addressed the viral face-off, noting it as a teaser for a “big money fight” down the line.
