Brock Lesnar WWE UFC
Brock Lesnar poses on the scale during his weigh-in for UFC 200 at T-Mobile Arena on July 8, 2016 in Las Vegas. He could lose the WWE Universal Championship to Braun Strowman at SummerSlam 2018. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

WWE has set the stage for Braun Strowman to become the Universal Champion. The Monster Among Men won the Money in the Bank briefcase Sunday night, giving him a chance to challenge Brock Lesnar for the top title on “Monday Night Raw.”

Strowman doesn’t necessarily have to beat Lesnar for the belt. He has a year to cash in his title shot on whomever is the champion, though the most logical scenario would be for Strowman to get his big win at SummerSlam 2018 on Aug. 19 at Barclays Center.

The exact details regarding Lesnar’s contract are unknown, but his time in WWE could be coming to an end. He hasn’t appeared on WWE TV since the Greatest Royal Rumble in April and he reportedly has eyes on a return to the UFC. Dropping the title at SummerSlam could be the end of Lesnar’s current WWE run.

Before Sunday, Roman Reigns was Lesnar’s rumored SummerSlam opponent. Strowman’s win at Money in the Bank creates a couple of possibilities.

Reigns and Lesnar might still face off in the SummerSlam main event, given the controversial manner in which their last title match ended. Strowman could cash-in his briefcase during the match and make it a triple threat, or he could challenge the winner as soon as it ends.

Maybe Strowman will call out Lesnar well before SummerSlam and challenge him to a title match at the year’s second-biggest event. Strowman is the most dominant force in WWE, and it might not make much sense for his first championship to come via a sneak attack.

A scheduled triple threat match between Lesnar, Strowman and Reigns could work. It was at last year’s SummerSlam that those three wrestlers, plus Samoa Joe, fought in the main event. The match was one of the year’s best and ended with Lesnar pinning Reigns after hitting an F5.

Strowman shined at SummerSlam 2017, putting Lesnar through a table and earning a title shot in defeat. He challenged the former UFC champion for his WWE Universal Championship at No Mercy a month later, only to lose in fewer than 10 minutes.

WWE missed a golden opportunity to put the title on Strowman, who was the hottest act in the company at the time. After giving him the briefcase, WWE finally seems ready to make Strowman their top champion.

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