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As I’m sure you’re all aware at this point, former 3-time WWE Champion and UFC Champion Brock Lesnar has returned to WWE the night after Wrestlemania 28, after an 8-year hiatus from the company that initially brought him fame and fortune. In front of a very hot crowd in Miami, Lesnar immediately targeted the company’s poster boy, John Cena, laying him out with an F-5. Naturally, this was done to lead to a match between the two, somewhat of a dream match for newer fans. That match has already been set for Extreme Rules, taking place in Chicago on the 29th of this month.
My question is, why so soon?
As we all know, WWE has a minimum of 12 pay-per-view events a year, as opposed to the 4-5 events they used to hold in the 80′s and 90′s. As a result, they have less time to build each event, and a tendency to hotshot angles in order to increase buys and overall interest in the product. Now, as a fan of pro wrestling for the better part of 30 years, I understand why this is done, and that no amount of complaining by fans is going to change that. However, that doesn’t mean WWE has to rush EVERYTHING.
Take a look, for example, at this year’s main event at Wrestlemania, The Rock vs. John Cena. While it may not have been the greatest match ever, it was booked a year in advance, hyped on nearly every television show (especially in the last few months of the build), and for many fans, both new and old, was highly anticipated once April 1st of this year finally hit. While the match quality is debatable, the fact is the planning worked. Not only did ‘Mania sell out far in advance, but the event drew nearly 1.3 million PPV buys, one of the most watched WWE events in recent memory. Now, WWE could have easily thrown this match together for the next event after ‘Mania last year, but they should rare patience and made sure to book the match a full year out, giving it plenty of time to build, and they were successful in the process.
Having said that, why can’t WWE do the same thing with Lesnar/Cena? I realize that they can’t book a match out a year every single time, and that’s not what I’m looking for. However, there is no reason they couldn’t build this match to take place at Summerslam, considered by many to be the second biggest PPV of the year behind Wrestlemania. That would give them a solid 4 months of build time, really allowing the heat to build, the anticipation to grow, and thus resulting in more wallets opening to shell out money for the event. Much like Rock, Lesnar was a major star before leaving WWE the first time, and also became a major star in a venue other than WWE, giving him more value and more name recognition in the process. If WWE did build this match up over several months, I can almost guarantee they’d score a much bigger PPV buyrate than the low number Extreme Rules will more than likely do, considering the “B” PPV events always draw much lower. And considering the hefty sum WWE is paying Lesnar for his one-year contract-reportedly around $5,000,000.00-wouldn’t it be smart to increase their chances of getting a much bigger return on their investment?
While it is rumored that Lesnar will face Rock at next year’s ‘Mania event (possibly for the WWE title), that’s still a year away. There is absolutely no reason why one or two other huge matches over the course of the year can’t be given some time to build up and really draw interest. Lesnar/Cena has been done before; however, it was 9 years ago, before Cena became the major star that he is today. A lot of today’s fans may a) not remember those matches, b) were not watching at the time, or c) were too young/not even born during that time, thus missing them completely. As a result, this can still be considered somewhat of a dream match, one that a lot of fans will probably pay for. Giving only around 3 weeks of build is not enough to completely convince most of them, though.
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