If The Monster Among Men defeats the Acting Raw GM at WWE TLC, he will challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at Royal Rumble.

LOS ANGELES — If the mark of a good manager is the art of compromise, Stephanie McMahon is a Renaissance master of the form. Faced with the prospect of appeasing a fuming Braun Strowman and an Acting General Manager with his eyes on a permanent post, Stephanie brokered the deal of all deals with a package that gave everybody the opportunity to get what they want: Strowman would get his promised Universal Title Match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view if The Monster Among Men defeats Baron Corbin at WWE TLC. If Corbin wins, however, the Acting GM would get the permanent General Manager post he had been trying to finagle for himself.

Unfortunately for Corbin, Strowman still got to select the stipulation, and The Monster Among Men chose a Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match. That means The Lone Wolf has a tall task ahead of him, especially since he loses all authority if he falls to Strowman. But he didn’t hesitate to put his foe through the ringer tonight, immediately putting Strowman into a Handicap Match against Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley. Again, Stephanie intervened, transforming the bout into a Six-Man Tag Team Match pitting Strowman, Finn Bálor & Elias against McIntyre, Lashley and Corbin. In other words, everybody wins, but as is usually the case with Stephanie, they’ll have to earn it.