Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns was promoted by WWE as the biggest WrestleMania match ever, but the main event didn't live up to the hype. At WrestleMania 38, Lesnar and Reigns became part of a very elite, exclusive club via their main event battle. The two men joined the pairings of Steve Austin vs. The Rock and The Undertaker vs. Triple H as the only matches to be fought at three separate WrestleMania shows. What's more, Reigns and Lesnar did them one better, becoming the first match to close out three WrestleManias.
For Reigns, who has been the WWE's golden boy for over seven years, his match with Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 marked the sixth WrestleMania main event for "The Tribal Chief." In addition to Lesnar, Reigns has main evented with the recently retired Triple H, Undertaker, Edge, and Daniel Bryan. For Lesnar, who once left WWE for UFC and returned a much bigger star, his match with Reigns at WrestleMania 38 marked the fourth WrestleMania closer for "The Beast." Lesnar also headlined WrestleMania against Drew McIntyre in 2020.
Given the fact that Reigns and Lesnar's WrestleMania 38 encounter was a unification match for both the WWE World Championship and the WWE Universal Championship, it made sense that WWE would hype it as a mammoth face-off. Both men are huge stars and talented performers, but sadly, most viewers left WrestleMania 38 with a bad taste in their mouths, as the epic battle that WWE boss Vince McMahon and company promised didn't materialize. Tellingly, this was far from the first time Reigns and Lesnar have left audiences disappointed. While Reigns and Lesnar are both great talents worthy of the WWE Hall of Fame, it seems clear at this point that they just don't mesh very well and have little chemistry together in the ring.
That phenomenon isn't anything new, as lots of pairs of great wrestlers haven't had chemistry, including Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. Perfect and Triple H vs. Randy Orton. WWE may see Reigns and Lesnar as their two biggest stars, but all their matches have essentially followed the same script, one that wasn't that good to begin with. In the particular case of WWE WrestleMania 38, though, not helping things was an ending that was both sudden and anticlimactic, especially after epics like Seth Rollins vs. Cody Rhodes earlier in the weekend. It now looks like this may have been due to Reigns suffering an untimely injury during the match, but that doesn't change the fact that Reigns and Lesnar just aren't a great combo, and WWE is putting them together too often.
So far, Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar have wrestled each other in one-on-one matches six different times. All of these encounters have been pay-per-view main events, with the non-WrestleMania closers taking place at the Greatest Royal Rumble, SummerSlam 2018, and Crown Jewel 2021. While the majority of these matches have been regarded as at least decent, only their first outing at WrestleMania 31 is really seen as being above average, and that's partly due to Seth Rollins cashing in Money in the Bank halfway through. Individually, they may each be great talents, but the next time Vince McMahon and WWE hype up a match this big, it better live up to that hype.