(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar – WWE SummerSlam 2022

Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar are two if the biggest names in wrestling from the past two decades. Both of them have reached the top of the mountain more than once, have been showered in accolades, and still have legions of unyielding fans who love everything they do. It wasn’t always this way, but despite having some bumps along the way both of them have managed to become so comfortable that they don’t have to do all that much to get ludicrous reactions from fans willing to shell out top dollar just to see them live.

But hype and build don’t always translate into a polished or worthwhile final product. Despite being heavy promoted and protected, both Lesnar and Reigns have…mixed…track records when it comes to delivering on the purchased ticket. I remember back during the 2010s when words like “lazy” were used to describe Lesnar, while Reigns was the target of far worse vitriol. Whether the hate these men got in the past was deserved or not is a matter of opinion, but it’s important to note because the past does affect the present. In this case, it’s the mixed response to previous Reigns/Lesnar matches that loomed overhead as these two men battled for what was – and so far is – their final encounter.

The Story

This was billed as the last and final encounter between Reigns and Lesnar. Their feud spanned seven years, having started in 2015. They faced each other eight times in singles, triple threat, or four-way matches in that timespan. Both men traded wins on the biggest stages imaginable. Both of them threw everything they had at one another. Foreheads were cut open. Tables, chairs, and barricades were all destroyed in both men’s quests to beat the other.

Come SummerSlam 2022, the record between them stood at four wins for Reigns, three wins for Lesnar, and one win for someone else involved in their matches (Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 31). Going into this match Reigns had been on a slow but inevitable conquest, running through everyone in WWE who had any name value or credibility, including Lesnar. Reigns and Lesnar had faced off twice before in 2021 with Reigns winning both of those encounters. Around the same time Lesnar had returned from a presumed retirement sporting a new look and attitude. Cowboy/Farmer Lesnar sported a beard, ponytail, flannel jackets and a cowboy hat. He also seemed much jollier than before, but all that smiling belied the fact that he was still the formidable ass-kicker that had run through WWE with minimal resistance for the better part of a decade.

This time around, there would be no question as to who was the better wrestler. To give this longstanding feud a note of decisive finality, it was determined that they’d face off in a Last Man Standing match. This was a big deal especially considering Lesnar had never been in such a match before. And while Lesnar was known for his explosive power on offense, conditioning hadn’t always been his forte. Anyone who watched Lesnar during the mid-2010s saw that he had a tendency to run out of steam quickly and need plenty of time to catch his breath before going back on the offensive. As a result, a LMS didn’t favor Lesnar all that much, but if there was one thing that Lesnar had shown time and again was that one shouldn’t ever doubt him because he tended to show result more often than not.

The Match

This took place on July 30, 2022. It was rated ****1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Reigns comes out first in his usual Undertaker-style slow entrance, taking about a year to get to the ring. Then Lesnar comes out but then the cowboy inside comes out so he decides to drive his tractor towards the ring. Dude looks so much happier driving a tractor than he does in photo ops or doing interviews. He then lifts the front-end loader as high as it can do and introduces himself from that elevated platform. Then when Reigns begins his official introduction Lesnar cuts him off by diving out of the loader. The brawl is on.

Lesnar dominates Reigns early with suplexes around the ring. A clothesline over the barricade fails so Lesnar dumps Reigns in the stands instead. Lesnar suplexes Reigns onto a platform and tries an F-5 but Reigns escapes and shoves him into a metal tower. Reigns teases a powerbomb but Lesnar drives him back-first into that same tower and then throws him onto a cameraman. Lesnar lands German Suplex #1 and pulls out a table. He teases going after Paul Heyman but chooses not to, which allows Reigns to recover enough to smash Lesnar through a table with a Samoan drop.

Reigns smashes the steel ringsteps into Lesnar’s face and then uranages him through a second table. Lesnar gets up around the count of seven so Reigns lands two Superman punches in the ring followed by a spear. Lesnar gets up at eight so Reigns charges again…but this time Lesnar catches him on his shoulders. Reigns escapes and charges sagain but Lesnar sidesteps so Reigns falls to the floor.

Lesnar throws Reigns onto the remnants of one of the broken tables but Reigns gets up in time. Then Lesnar starts up his tractor again to get the front loader bucket ready. He smashes Reigns with whatever objects he can get his hands on. Reigns still gets up so Lesnar dumps him into the bucket, drives the tractor right up to the ring, and dumps Reigns from ~nine feet up. Reigns gets up again so Lesnar lands two more Germans. Reigns remains defiant. Lesnar lands another German and an F-5. Reigns still gets up. Lesnar tries another F-5. Reigns counters into a guillotine choke. Lesnar fights out and locks in a guillotine of his own. Reigns goes limp for a moment but makes it to at least his knees at the count of nine. Frustrated, Lesnar goes back to his tractor…and lifts the ring off the ground. Reigns goes falling out of the ring. The crowd goes absolutely nuts.

Reigns gets up and before Lesnar can do anything both of the Usos show up. Lesnar manhandles them with ease and then gets a bit of revenge on Paul Heyman by F-5ing him through a table. These distractions allow Reigns to hit a spear. Both men get up before the ten-count. Then here comes (Austin) Theory to cash in his MITB briefcase. Theory cracks Reigns in the head with the briefcase but Lesnar F-5s him before he can officially cash in. Lesnar turns around to eat a big superkick from the Usos. But then he still gets up. Reigns hits another spear. The ref starts counting. Reigns begs for Lesnar to stay down but the Beast still rises. Reigns bashes him with the MITB briefcase but that’s still not enough. Reigns hits him with one of his title belts. Lesnar gets up at nine once again. Reigns smashes him with the other title belt and then buries him under chairs and other ringside debris. Reigns stands tall atop a pile of plastic and metal objects with Lesnar underneath as the ref reaches ten. Reigns is the last man standing!

Winner and STILL Undisputed WWE Universal Champion after 22:55: Roman Reigns

Review

This was fun for a while but nothing GOAT-tier or worth going out of your way to see. The real exciting bits came from Lesnar doing creative things with his tractor, which made up two minutes of combined time. If you were to find a highlights video or some carefully curated photos of the match then you’d get all that you need to from that with plenty of time to spare. As for the rest of the match, it wasn’t anything particularly special or exciting. Both Lesnar and Reigns have developed paint-by-number match formulae and their chemistry wasn’t necessarily that strong here.

Between the novelty of Lesnar’s entrance and the two tractor spots everything else was more of the same of what we’ve seen from these two before: Germans, Superman punches, spears, and F-5s. It was like a re-tread of their previous non-stipulation matches with the same flow and reactions. Though they did a good job of selling the LMS stipulation, something about the execution still fell flat. The interference was the same tired cliché we’ve seen in big Lesnar matches since at least 2014-15. Some of the nine-counts were dubious at best. Reigns seemed to jump back and forth between confident boss and worried heel depending on the moment. The Paul Heyman F-5 was supposed to be this big moment of catharsis but it quickly became forgotten and thus lacked emotional impact.

Despite Reigns trying everything in his power to put Lesnar down, in the end he had to rely on outside interference to get the job done. This was a cheap and clichéd finish that, while somewhat creative, didn’t give Reigns that final checkmark he needed. Yes, he beat Lesnar, but it was a win with an asterisk because he couldn’t get the job done by himself. This lack of conclusion hinted at ANOTHER possible rematch, but thankfully both men moved onto better stories and left this repetitive and at times exhausting and underwhelming feud behind them.

Final Rating: ***1/2

Though this match had some replay-worthy moments it doesn’t hold up all that well two years later. Much has been said about the purported “awesomeness” of the tractor spots but when you step back and look at them in winder context they don’t actually play that much of a factor in things. Reigns got dumped from a front end loader and got rolled out of the ring like a ragdoll yet he was up moments later playing the hits as if those big moments hadn’t really happened. In a way this was WWE trying to re-create the magic of Brock Lesnar’s first ring-imploding superplex but with more outside-the-box thinking. That sort of ingenuity certainly has its place in wrestling, but novelty for its own sake doesn’t always translate into something truly special.

There are better matches out there more worth your time than this. Lesnar had some truly great singles matches against Kurt Angle in 2003, Eddie Guerrero in 2004, and CM Punk in 2013. Reigns had better matches against AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan Danielson, and went on to have a better match than this with Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. And if you really want to invest your time in a truly great Last Man Standing match then I suggest watching John Cena vs. Umaga from the 2007 Royal Rumble. All of those matches are far more worth your time than this.

Thanks for reading.