The Beast’s Shadow: Who Will Brock Lesnar Face at WrestleMania 42?

We are officially in that weird, frantic stretch of the calendar wrestling fans lovingly call “The Road to WrestleMania.” It’s that time of year when rumors fly faster than a luchador off the top rope, and booking plans change more often than the weather in the Midwest. And right in the center of the storm, as always, stands the imposing shadow of Brock Lesnar.

With WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas just two months away, the card is far from locked. But let’s be honest: you don’t book a stadium show in Vegas without “The Beast Incarnate.” Lesnar made his shock return at SummerSlam last August, and while he’s been sparse on television since, business is about to pick up.

But the million-dollar question keeping the internet wrestling community up at night isn’t if Brock will be there—it’s who is unlucky enough to stand across the ring from him.

According to the latest scuttlebutt from the Wrestling Observer, we might finally get some clarity on the February 23 episode of “WWE Raw” in Atlanta. That’s the go-home show for Elimination Chamber, and it’s where the breadcrumbs for Lesnar’s Mania match will likely turn into a full loaf.

Right now, it feels like a two-horse race, and the options couldn’t be more different.

The Case for the Monster Mash: Oba Femi

If you were watching the Royal Rumble—and let’s assume you were—you felt the ground shake when Lesnar and former NXT Champion Oba Femi squared up. It was one of those rare, unscripted moments of electricity that you can’t manufacture in a writer’s room. Dave Meltzer noted it got the second-biggest pop of the night, trailing only Brie Bella’s return.

Femi is a physical specimen that makes regular heavyweight wrestlers look like cruiserweights. A match between him and Lesnar is the classic “irresistible force meets immovable object” trope, but with a modern twist. Femi has been tearing it up on the main roster, even spotted chatting with SmackDown GM Nick Aldis recently.

From a sports perspective, this is the “passing of the torch” match. Femi is the young, hungry lion trying to take down the old king of the jungle. Beating Lesnar on the grandest stage in Vegas would strap a rocket to Femi’s back that could fuel his career for the next decade. It makes logical sense. It’s fresh. It’s a spectacle. But as we know with WWE, logical sense doesn’t always equal “booked match.”

The Megastar Curveball: LA Knight

Here is where things get interesting. While Femi feels like the “wrestling” choice, internal booking sheets from late January reportedly had a different name next to Lesnar’s: LA Knight.

Knight has been stuck in a bit of a holding pattern lately, “lost in the shuffle” as the insiders say. But let’s not forget, the guy is a charisma machine. He technically helped eliminate Lesnar from the Rumble (with a massive assist from Cody Rhodes), though the commentary team barely sold it—which usually suggests they either missed the cue or were told to downplay it.

A Lesnar vs. Knight program is a clash of philosophies. You have the silent, violent intensity of Lesnar against the brash, loud-mouthed swagger of Knight. The promos alone would be worth the price of admission. If Triple H is indeed playing the “long game” with Knight as reports from late 2025 suggested, feeding him to the Beast—or having him survive the Beast—would be a massive vote of confidence.

The Creative Scramble

Here is the reality of the situation: ticket sales. Reports suggest WWE is currently “recalibrating” creative to boost numbers for the Vegas show. When ticket sales are soft, promoters tend to panic and reach for the biggest, most mainstream stars they have.

Does Oba Femi sell tickets to the casual fan who only tunes in once a year? Maybe not yet. Does LA Knight? Probably. Does a triple threat? Who knows.

The booking sheets in WWE are written in pencil for a reason. While Oba Femi seems like the direction the wind was blowing after the Rumble, the LA Knight rumor proves that nothing is set in stone until the bell rings.

For now, we wait for that Raw in Atlanta. Whether it’s the rising monster Femi or the charismatic veteran Knight, one thing is certain: someone is going to Suplex City, and the rest of us are just along for the ride.