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Get all WWE Royal Rumble 2019 live commentary, live updates, and highlights here
The dream match is officially on. If you're not aware, Finn Balor replaced Braun Strowman as Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship challenger at the Royal Rumble. How did this happen?
At the beginning of RAW, Braun Strowman came out and Baron Corbin would interfere and provoke him. Strowman's chase led him to smash and break Vince McMahon's limousine. An infuriated McMahon revoked his #1 contendership in the process.
Later that night, he went out to address the Universal title situation and John Cena interfered. Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin and Finn Balor followed it up. Particular focus was given to Balor, as he told Vince McMahon that he "never believed in him".
Balor even had to face Jinder Mahal (after suffering a pre-match attack) to cement his spot in the main event. Ultimately, with all odds stacked against Balor, he would end up victorious in both matches, earning the right to face Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble.
After his endorsement from John Cena, let's take a look at five possible finishes for the dream match.
#5 Braun Strowman helps Finn Balor win
Braun Strowman will naturally be infuriated at the fact that he lost his #1 contendership. He's proven to be an ally of Finn Balor before, and he may very well get involved in some capacity.
One thing is for sure, it'll be to help Balor. Strowman was clearly written out because he wasn't medically cleared yet, but even then, he can still make his presence known without having to get physical.
Even if he does, it can be a bare minimum amount of physicality that costs Lesnar the match and Balor to win the title. Unfortunately, this ranks among the unlikeliest of scenarios on this list, because WWE will want to protect Strowman and keep him away from the fray for a while longer.
#4 Paul Heyman interferes
Paul Heyman has known to help Brock Lesnar win his matches time and again. To the most part, Lesnar is so dominant that Heyman doesn't need to do anything but be a cheerleader. However, if you remember The Greatest Royal Rumble, you also probably remember that Heyman slammed the steel cage door onto Roman Reigns, taking away a win from him.
Heyman has put over Finn Balor before and even had an interaction with him in 2017 before the Fatal-5-Way match at Extreme Rules. It doesn't really come as a surprise, because Finn Balor, similar to AJ Styles, fits into Paul Heyman's mould of top superstars. If this were a Paul Heyman promotion, Balor would undoubtedly be among the top pushed stars.
In the coming two weeks, Heyman is going to direct a lot of insults at Balor, but his promos are such that he still puts over superstars while taking jabs.
#3 Finn Balor wins clean
We admit ourselves, this is a very unlikely scenario too. Finn Balor has been getting a push in the last few months and the rumours of that being the case happened to be true. This makes one thing clear: When Strowman had his "match" at TLC, WWE was well aware that they needed a back-up plan in case he wasn't cleared on time.
Among all the options, the four they clearly narrowed it down to were John Cena, Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin and Finn Balor. With Balor getting pushed in the last month, what we can conclude is that he was being heated up for a potential replacement.
He has momentum on his side as he hasn't been pinned in a while. There is a possibility of a scenario that WWE wants him to be one of the top faces (or even heels down the road) going forward, and with Brock Lesnar rumoured to fight Daniel Cormier soon, he may be going out of the door sooner than we think.
#2 Brock Lesnar squashes Balor
WWE really love having Brock Lesnar squash top stars. Remember how between 2015-2018, Lesnar ran through every opponent (minus Goldberg on one occasion), all so that he could put over Roman Reigns?
In fact, WWE even gave Brock Lesnar a 500+ day title reign all so that Roman Reigns could have the big moment. This meant putting the entire main event scene of RAW on hold for over a year.
Reigns did finally get the big moment but we all know what happened afterwards, and that led to a big change in creative plans. Since Seth Rollins seems to be the one being primed for the big Brock Lesnar match at WrestleMania, it's possible that WWE will want to make Lesnar look as strong as possible.
Defeating Strowman would have given him more credibility, but even squashing a top star in Balor would make him look strong. Hopefully, this doesn't happen.
#1 An AJ Styles & Daniel Bryan-type match-up
If you go back to Lesnar's best matches in the last few years, two, in particular, stand out: The one against AJ Styles at Survivor Series 2017, and the one against Daniel Bryan the next year at Survivor Series.
Both matches had similarities, in the sense that they were both champion vs champion matches. While a large part of the matches saw Lesnar rag-dolling them, Bryan and Styles were able to get a lot more offence in and Lesnar sold like death for them.
The matches were also longer than the usual Lesnar match, and the "smaller" superstars were made to look very strong in defeat. This is likely what's going to happen between Lesnar and Balor.
Since the PPV is long, they'll have time, and Balor will be rag-dolled for a large chunk of the match. However, he will be able to get his offence in and even if he does lose, he'll look great even in defeat.
