According to Billi Bhatti on the Dirty Sheets Podcast, WWE's initial plan for Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi was very different from what ended up on screen: Lesnar was supposed to interfere in the King of the Ring tournament and prevent Oba from becoming champion. The company changed its mind, allowed Oba to win the tournament, and then built the story that he gives up his guaranteed title shot to first face Lesnar.
Bhatti believes that this twist created a coherence problem on the road to SummerSlam. "The big disappointment in the build-up is that Oba Femi is the King of the Ring and had to give up a title opportunity to face Brock Lesnar. It wasn't necessary," he said, pointing out that if they didn't want Oba to win, they shouldn't have put him in the tournament.
The on-screen explanation, that Oba prefers to fight Lesnar before using his shot because he knows Lesnar will sabotage him, clashes with what happened in the tournament itself. "If Lesnar was going to mess with you, why didn't he do it in the King of the Ring? It doesn't make sense," Bhatti summarized, considering that there are "logic holes" that have damaged the story.
Additionally, Bhatti stated that the original plan also included Lesnar defeating Oba at SummerSlam to tie the series 1-1 and leave a third match open for later. Now WWE seems determined for Oba to be the one to close the issue, but the journey to the PPV went through several significant changes before reaching the final version.
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