When Will Brock Lesnar Finally Drop the WWE Universal Title?

Back at Fastlane 2017 when Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens for the Universal Championship, the WWE Universe collectively saw the next move coming from a mile away.

Brock Lesnar would go on to defeat Goldberg to take that universal title at WrestleMania 33 and hold it for at least a decent enough time, if not an entire year, until Roman Reigns would dethrone him at WrestleMania 34.

For months, everything WWE did seemed to indicate that this direction was not being course-corrected, as Lesnar continually pushed aside would-be challengers such as Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman.

The stage was set, with Reigns getting his title opportunity at WrestleMania this year, only to come up short and surprise us all.

However, immediately afterward, WWE announced that there would be yet another match between the two at the Greatest Royal Rumble event inside a steel cage—a match where Lesnar could drop the title without being pinned or submitting.

Again, it seemed like WWE's play here would be that the title change was going to happen at WrestleMania, and they held off on it in an attempt to have it take place at the Saudi Arabia show. The idea being that something big could happen and more fans could cheer Reigns in victory than boo him like everywhere else would.

Oddly, again, those predictions were proved wrong, and although the story coming out of this is that Reigns was technically supposed to be the winner with his feet on the ground first, WWE is putting a pin in it for now as Lesnar takes more time off.

At this point, he's held the title for over a year and is going to surpass CM Punk's 434-day world-title reign, as Lesnar isn't set to defend the championship at this Sunday's Backlash event and the next pay-per-view following that is Money in the Bank on June 17.

Credit: WWE.com

By that date, he will have held the title 441 days and potentially counting, as there is a chance he may not even defend the Universal Championship there, or at Extreme Rules to follow.

Really, with the way things have been booked, there's no guarantees in anything, and not only are the fans out of the loop, but people behind the scenes aren't necessarily in the know all the time, either.

We're left to speculate blindly when it comes to asking the question of just when is The Beast Incarnate finally going to drop the Universal Championship?

The first thing to establish is not when, but to whom will he lose the title.

At a glance on the Monday Night Raw roster, there doesn't seem to be all too many options that make sense.

Reigns is, of course, the most likely candidate, as the more discussion is placed on this cage snafu with him making a case that he is the rightful winner, the more likely he'll receive yet another title opportunity in the future.

The Monster Among Men is another possibility, as he's one of the few people in WWE who could look believable in defeating Lesnar due to his size and popularity, which only continues to increase.

Winning the Greatest Royal Rumble could have been another step toward the coronation of Strowman being the one to take the title from Lesnar, but it just as easily could have been a way to give him an accolade outside of the title hunt to specifically avoid putting him in Lesnar's path.

It's unlikely people like Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Bobby Roode, Baron Corbin or even Kevin Owens will be granted that coveted role, just based off the way they've been booked over the past few months.

Bobby Lashley is the only other believable threat on the Raw roster, but even he will need to pick up more momentum before something like this could happen.

That is the key in trying to decipher how WWE may be planning the future of Lesnar's title reign.

With Reigns fighting Samoa Joe at Backlash, that is a temporary feud that won't last past this event, as Joe is on SmackDown.

Meanwhile, Strowman and Lashley continue to be paired up, so a program with those two either as a team or as opponents seems to be in the making.

If Lesnar is going to drop the title to Reigns, it may come as soon as Money in the Bank, with Reigns bringing up their steel-cage finish as an excuse to ask for another shot.

However, if Strowman or Lashley are scheduled to be the next in line, it doesn't seem like that will happen until a little while later.

In the scenario where Strowman is the man for the job, it makes sense for him to ride the momentum of the Greatest Royal Rumble win and continue to build steam for at least another month or two, which could put him in the time frame of Extreme Rules or even SummerSlam in August.

With Lashley, it is almost a certainty that he couldn't be in this position until at least SummerSlam, if not further down the line in the fall at Hell in a Cell, Tables, Ladders & Chairs, or Survivor Series.

A factor we're in the dark about is Lesnar's contractual obligations to WWE and his plans for the UFC, which are the biggest dictators of what will happen with his title reign.

There isn't much of a positive angle for keeping the title on him while he's fighting for the UFC, as he'll dedicate himself more to that, spend less time on WWE programming, run more of a risk of getting injured and look worse if he were to lose his MMA fight.

Credit: WWE.com

This prompts a title change to have to come about before the end of the year, nixing—or at least heavily downgrading the possibility of—the chances that Lesnar will hold this title until WrestleMania 35.

The safe bet is probably that the title will change hands at SummerSlam on August 19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, as that's the biggest show for the rest of the year that WWE will probably want to headline with what might be Lesnar's final appearance.

By that time frame, Lashley will either be built up enough for WWE to put the strap on him, Strowman will be so red-hot that everybody will be clamoring even more for him to win the championship, or Reigns will continue to get booed and WWE's creative team will keep refusing to listen and try something new, going back to the well once more in an attempt to finish that story.

We will also have a new carrier of the Money in the Bank briefcase who could be used as a storytelling gimmick to write Lesnar's loss in a way that doesn't make him look bad—particularly if his opponent is the one who gets pinned, as was the case with Rollins beating Reigns at WrestleMania 31 rather than Lesnar himself.

For all intents and purposes, The Beast Incarnate is holding this title at least until Money in the Bank, but from that point on, the clock starts to tick much faster, and we should all be on the lookout for those next two months as the most likely block of the year for a new champion to be crowned.

Until then, the Universal Championship will remain off-screen as it almost always does when Lesnar is holding it, unless WWE continues the chaotic frenzy of booking tactics that have happened in the past several weeks.

Credit: WWE.com

If that is the case, WWE's creative team itself probably has no idea what will happen with Lesnar's title reign, meaning there is either no answer at all right now, or something that only a select few have any clue about.

Here's hoping whatever decision is made, it won't be something that makes fans wish Lesnar never would have won the title from Goldberg in the first place.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.