WWE Blows It by Having Brock Lesnar Cash in on Seth Rollins, Not Kofi Kingston

WWE fans should have seen it coming the whole time. 

Those up top within the company can't resist Brock Lesnar having the Universal Championship, and they presumably can't resist the idea of a Lesnar-Seth Rollins match buildup for the duration of the SummerSlam season—which leaves Kofi Kingston swinging in the wind a bit. 

It seemed innocent enough at first, at least. Rollins teamed with real-life girlfriend Becky Lynch to main-event Extreme Rules against Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans in a winner-takes-all match, with The Man's title also on the line.

This had the feel of a filler pay-per-view main event, so one of the obvious routes was the good guys getting the win and actually ending this feud that dragged on too long. 

Then Lesnar came out with his Money in the Bank briefcase: 

Lesnar got the easy win over Rollins, the story being that the champion was simply devastated that Lynch ate an End of Days from Corbin. As the announcers called it, he was emotionally and physically drained given the brutality of a match ending a pay-per-view named Extreme Rules, after all. 

To be blunt, the idea of The Beast Incarnate cashing in on Kingston was probably too creative for WWE's tastes. 

Lesnar going after the New Day man would have made entirely too much sense, of course. We've seen a bit of cowardice from The Beast since he lost the title to Rollins in the opener at WrestleMania 35, and he's been foiled a few times by him since. Hypothetically speaking, his justification could have simply been he views Kingston as the easier prey. 

Speaking of justifications, all Paul Heyman had to do was stroll out during his promo Sunday night and hint Lesnar likes the idea of SmackDown more. Not only does he boast a storied history there, the blue brand is moving to Fox in the fall. The Beast's star power would presumably want to be there and WWE would love to have him there, provided the brand split remains a thing. 

More than anything, Lesnar going after Kingston and winning would have provided some fun variety. Because the alternative is what, another match with Rollins? The Raw roster isn't exactly loaded with credible contenders right now. AJ Styles is fighting over the United States title. Bray Wyatt is still missing. Drew McIntyre seems to be involved with Undertaker. 

Maybe this is all a bit fitting, though. WWE tried to take the comedy route coming out of Lesnar's silly briefcase win where he came out at the last moment to steal it from deserving Superstars. He then hopped around on Raw pretending the briefcase was a boombox. It was all fun and games, but it was pasting over the blatant fact he wouldn't be losing his cash-in attempt—no chance. 

Meanwhile, Rollins only got a one-off match with Styles before going into an endless time-filler feud with Corbin, which eventually bled into WWE throwing his real-life relationship with Lynch onto television for storyline material. The promos were iffy and the matches felt like filler too because there wasn't a conclusive ending in sight. 

That is, until Lesnar came knocking and was successful, which felt more like when the calendar permitted it thanks to SummerSlam as opposed to meaningful reasoning. 

WWE fans have been down this road before. The company will get to boast about surging Raw ratings for a week coming out of Monday's show because fans will understandably tune in to see if this goes anywhere. Once it becomes obvious Lesnar and the company's top belt would not be around on a weekly basis, the ratings will dip back down into the same old rut. 

At least with Lesnar winning over Kingston, an air of unpredictably could have seeped into the programming. Rollins would have been off to feud with somebody else instead of filler material. Having Kingston or someone fresh chase The Beast on the build to the biggest event of the summer would have been interesting. 

But WWE can't seem to get out of its archaic thinking at times. "Raw is the top brand so its title has to main-event, therefore Lesnar has to have that one."

This is, again, a feud that was started before SummerSlam in large part because Lesnar wasn't around defending his belt. The title changed hands in the opener at WrestleMania on a low blow.

A good match can happen at SummerSlam, of course, but the bar hasn't been set very high and the title swinging back to Rollins—if that even happens—isn't exactly inspiring either after his recent run. 

This isn't saying WWE can't go in some interesting directions here. Kingston could still get a feud with, say, Wyatt. A riser like Andrade or Ali could start gunning for Lesnar. Maybe his latest retirement from MMA means he'll be around more than usual, too. 

But does WWE deserve the benefit of the doubt with these things right now? Hardly.

It's SummerSlam season again, which means Lesnar season again. That doesn't have to be a negative connotation, but the lack of doing something interesting with a Superstar like Kingston and sticking to the same old thing makes it feel inevitable—which is the whole theme with Lesnar.