WWE’s original plan for Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi was apparently very different from what made it to television, and the change may have created a major hole in the SummerSlam storyline.
Speaking on the Dirty Sheets Podcast, Billi Bhatti claimed Lesnar was initially supposed to interfere during the King of the Ring tournament and stop Oba from winning. WWE went in another direction, had Oba win the tournament, and then made him delay his guaranteed championship opportunity so he could deal with Lesnar first. Bhatti said that decision made the entire story harder to explain.
“The big letdown here for the build is the fact that Oba Femi is the King of the Ring and had to relinquish a title opportunity to instead face Brock Lesnar. There was no need for that.”
According to Bhatti, WWE could have avoided the problem by sticking with its original plan and having Lesnar take Oba out of the tournament before he ever earned the title shot.
“If you didn’t want to beat Oba Femi, don’t put him in the King of the Ring. The original plan was for Brock Lesnar to interfere to cost him the King of the Ring.”
Instead, Oba won the tournament and later decided to face Lesnar before using his championship opportunity because he believed Lesnar would interfere anyway. Bhatti said that explanation fell apart immediately.
“In the end, we had Oba Femi say that he wants to face Brock Lesnar before he uses up his title shot because Brock Lesnar is going to cost him. Well, if he was going to cost you, why didn’t he cost you in the King of the Ring tournament? It really doesn’t make any sense.”
Bhatti made it clear that he believes WWE changed course without properly fixing the rest of the storyline. That wasn’t the only original plan Bhatti discussed. He also claimed Lesnar was supposed to defeat Oba at SummerSlam, tie their series at one win each, and set up a third match later.
“They’ve got unnecessary logic holes here which have damaged the story.”
“I think this was supposed to go on longer. Originally, Brock Lesnar was supposed to win this match to tie it up at one-to-one, and they were supposed to have their third match later on down the line.”
WWE now appears committed to Oba Femi as the man expected to finish the job against Lesnar, but Bhatti’s comments suggest the road to SummerSlam went through several major changes before the final version reached television.
Do you think WWE damaged the Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi feud by changing the King of the Ring plan, or does the current story still work? Leave your feedback in the comments.
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