Match 5: Brock Lesnar © vs. Finn Balor – WWE Universal Championship
THIS SUNDAY: @BrockLesnar will defend his #UniversalChampionship against the man who wore that title before anyone else, @FinnBalor! #RoyalRumble #RAW pic.twitter.com/sst61SMb4I
— WWE (@WWE) January 22, 2019
A typical David vs. Goliath storyline is the direction being taken and it makes sense. The only thing that this rivalry lacks is weeks of build. The match was announced only two weeks ago as Vince was reluctant to see Braun Strowman lose again to Brock and decided to replace him with another competitor. Finn Bálor, after being involved in 50-50 booking for the past few months, has finally started to rebuild his long-lost legitimacy from TLC 2017. Recently, he got a rub from John Cena as well, which suggests that the WWE is looking to push Bálor to the next level.
This match sounds much better than Braun vs. Brock because Lesnar has a history of fantastic matches with opponents smaller than him in size. I expect the showdown to be really good and I strongly hope they bring out ‘The Demon’. The rivalry was also built by McMahon clearly stating that he doesn’t believe Bálor can beat Brock Lesnar, which suggests WWE might just have something up their sleeve. Possibly a swerve.
Who should win the match? Since I’m a huge fan of Finn Bálor, I really hope he wins it. He never officially lost his Universal Title and deserves another run with it. That would leave the door open for Bálor vs. Rollins for the title at WrestleMania, Lesnar vs. Strowman in a grudge match (which the latter can finally win) and McIntyre vs. Angle.
Prediction: Brock Lesnar will win the match after a hard-fought contest. Bálor will throw everything at Lesnar and yet still come up short.
Match Rating Prediction: 4 out of 5 – Another potential show-stealer considering the size difference. Lesnar likes these kinds of matches and history suggests the same. Expect this match to follow the same routine of Lesnar vs. Styles and Daniel Bryan respectively.
WrestleMania Prediction: Brock Lesnar will go on to face Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Title, while a potential opponent for Bálor is still unclear. One possible route WWE could take is to insert Bálor into the WrestleMania match with Rollins and Lesnar, provided that Bálor receives a monstrous reaction.