Brock Lesnar sure had an interesting year in 2016, didn’t he? It started off decently enough with a potential feud against Bray Wyatt at the Rumble followed quickly by a fun triple threat match at Fastlane. If only Brock’s year could have ended at that point.
A lot of people were excited about the potentially brutal street fight between Brock Lesnar and Dean Ambrose being the highlight of WrestleMania 32. To say it was disappointing would be an understatement. Even Dean complained about it months later on the Stone Cold Podcast.
It didn’t really get much better after that point. Sure he won his big UFC fight but was quickly suspended from future bouts in the UFC. This took the lustre off his long awaited match with Randy Orton. What was the WWE’s solution? You have the match end the show with Brock legitimately hurting Randy.
Do you want to send the fans home happy at Summerslam? End the show with a bloody mess that is Randy Orton.
Finally, we had the successfully hyped return of Goldberg versus Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2016. It was a worthy main event. Then in under two minutes, Brock was defeated. This sure wasn’t the year I think anyone expected for the guy from “Suplex City”. Three underwhelming matches and a year-long ban from UFC.
I think Brock is in need of reinvention. It is going to take a lot of work to get him back to the monster he deserves to be seen as. With that in mind, I present my list of top five ways to rebuild Brock Lesnar in 2017:
#5 More Sit-Down Interviews
Let us face it, Brock Lesnar is one of the worst talkers in the WWE. He isn’t comfortable doing so and isn’t the best at thinking on his feet. That isn’t an insult, it simply isn’t his strong suit. Simply look at Lesnar’s interview with Stone Cold on his podcast, he is a guy who prefers his solitude.
That is why he has Paul Heyman, the best talker in the WWE, doing most of the talking for him to hype his matches. But since you pay Brock so much money, why waste his limited appearances on Raw standing behind Heyman?
One of my favourite parts of his WrestleMania 31 build with Roman Reigns happened by accident. It was during the major snowstorm that forced Roman and Brock to face off in the WWE Studios in a sit-down interview. It was excellent. When Brock has a chance to speak for himself in this low-key setting he is successful.
Going forward, allow him to do what he does best: sitting down insulting his opponents and acting like his usually smug self. It is Brock at his best.
#4 Cause chaos on both rosters
Why is Brock a Raw Superstar? He is a guy who fights less than half a dozen times each year. Why make him exclusive to one single brand, especially when he comes and goes as he pleases?
If Brock is going to be rebuilt as a monster, have him act like one. Have him show up unannounced on SmackDown and attack wrestlers in a mid-card match. Then have him do a similar thing a few weeks later on Raw. What is going to happen? Will Stephanie get mad at him? Brock can simply laugh it off and tell the GMs he can do as he pleases.
It builds Brock the monster and allows him to have multiple potential opponents going forward.
#3 No more rematches
As deep as the WWE roster is these days, it is beyond silly how Brock’s limited matches have been split over the years. He has wrestled with John Cena three times, Triple H three times and Undertaker thrice. He has even wrestled Rollins, Ambrose and Reigns two times each. The wealth hasn’t been spread around the talented roster.
Who wouldn’t want to see a program against Kevin Owens? Why shouldn’t he get that match against Bray Wyatt we were promised? It seems absurd that the WWE is obsessed with a limited amount of opponents for Brock. Wrestling works best with fresh match-ups and Brock rarely gets any.
Oh, and please not another match with Goldberg.
#2 Wrestle the “Smaller” guys
The WWE has enjoyed Brock acting like a monster and simply having brutal fights with his opponents. But I miss the Lesnar who could put on a quality wrestling match. Remember when he had a classic 60-minute Ironman match with Kurt Angle. Brock can be a strong wrestling talent with the right opponent.
I think we could make a strong case for Brock’s best matches in his second run being against wrestlers who are smaller and more athletic than Brock. His best matches were likely against CM Punk at Summerslam 2013 and against Seth Rollins/John Cena at Royal Rumble 2015.
In both cases, he was forced to keep pace with smaller, athletic guys that forced Brock to step up his pace and offence. If you want people to care about Brock matches again, have him wrestle the likes of AJ Styles or Sami Zayn. It will be a lot of fun.
#1 End “Suplex” City
I get it. “Suplex City” makes a good catchphrase for Paul Heyman and allows the WWE to sell a lot of cool city-specific t-shirts. It was shocking to watch Brock Lesnar throw John Cena around the ring with 16 German Suplexes at Summerslam 2014. It was shocking but it was not exactly exciting at the end of the day.
The problem is after that point Brock’s matches have become predictable. His matches consist of suplexing his opponent and waiting for them to get up only to repeat the process. As stated above, Brock is a talented guy and limiting his offence to a series of Suplexes will not bring Brock back to the forefront in 2017.
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