It was previously reported that Brock Lesnar was initially not scheduled and booked for The SummerSlam PPV Event but was rumored to end up competing at the show as the weeks went by. According to the latest reports, Brock Lesnar will indeed not be competing at The SummerSlam PPV Event and the next time we may see him would be well into the second half of the year.
WWE’s plan remains to still have a babyface Roman Reigns defeat Lesnar for The Universal Title but at some point over the last two weeks, it became clear to Vince McMahon that this wasn’t going to happen in New York, the site of SummerSlam. It was then that McMahon made the decision to keep Lesnar and The Universal Title Match off of the SummerSlam card and instead spend the next few months once again attempting to build Reigns back up as a face.
This would also explain why the company quickly changed course with the originally planned Multi-Person Match at Extreme Rules, which was supposed to determine the new #1 contender and thus, Lesnar’s opponent for SummerSlam. With Lesnar likely off the next couple of PPVs, the match was scrapped and instead we are headed towards a Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley singles match at Extreme Rules.
Lesnar’s status with WWE remains unclear, but he is under contract for one more match (at the very least) which is when most expect he will drop the title. It appears that WWE is willing to wait it out in order to find the very best situation in which they want him to appear while still fulfilling their long term plan for Roman Reigns.