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A lot of people have been vocal against Brock Lesnar’s current run as the WWE World Heavyweight champion. Many fans claim that someone who cannot commit himself as a full-time performer cannot be handed the company’s most prestigious title – the same bunch that rejoiced the return of The Rock couple of years ago, and claimed that he would “save” the WWE from the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton. When one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors was given the WWE title in the beginning of 2013, the nostalgic WWE Universe welcomed him back with open arms.
However, the same cannot be said regarding the beast incarnate, who has arguably had the greatest year of his sporting career in 2014. From beating the greatest name in professional wrestling history at WrestleMania, thus ending the greatest streak in sports entertainment history to “conquering” the WWE, the former UFC World Heavyweight champion has done things which no one would’ve thought would happen a couple of years ago. In doing so, the current run of the “Paul Heyman Guy” as the WWE World Heavyweight champion has grabbed the interest of all the wrestling fans around the world, and has made more sense than The Rock’s run as the WWE champion in 2013 for the following reasons:
Legitimacy
Since day one, Paul Heyman and Lesnar have made it blatantly obvious that they did not return to the WWE for the WWE Universe, or for bringing any nostalgic feelings for the fans. When Dwayne Johnson returned to the WWE couple of years ago after a long hiatus, he claimed that he was “back home”, and wasn’t “going away” again. On the contrary, Lesnar has always said that he came back because it made more business sense, and with a limited schedule, he was making more money than he made while wrestling full time a decade ago.
With the return of the former “next big thing”, he brought the much needed legitimacy to the product which was undoubtedly going downhill. Similar to Dwayne, Lesnar also has the cross – border appeal, but also brought the ‘tough guy’ appeal back to the WWE, which was the case with Ken Shamrock during the Attitude Era. Similar to ‘The world’s most dangerous man’, Lesnar wrecked havoc in the organization, and has since achieved things which were considered impossible till the beginning of the year. The biggest difference however between The Rock and Lesnar has been the different dimension in their characters, with Lesnar being the bully, while “The people’s champion” and the leader of CeNation had just one aspect to work with.
The Big Picture
People might think that I’m concentrating only on the negatives of The Rock’s run as the champion; it is a fact that Dwayne was brought back only to put Cena over. Although, WWE went old – school with the booking of the feud, taking 2 years for the complete story to play out. Similar to Hogan putting Warrior over two decades ago, and Hogan putting Rock over a decade ago, Dwayne was brought back to pass on the proverbial torch to Cena. However, with Cena being the face of the WWE for nearly a decade, that made little to no sense, but with Lesnar, the bigger picture is completely different, and can be similar to the likes of Sting making a name for himself at the expense of Ric Flair.
Lesnar can have a long and dominant run as champion, and at next year’s WrestleMania, WWE can build someone like Dean Ambrose or Roman Reigns (although I’d prefer Ambrose) to go against him in the main event, and beat the untameable monster, giving him a huge rub in the process. Beating a legitimate monster like Lesnar will make them an instant success overnight, as WWE now has to carefully book someone who defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
Looking at the bigger picture, WWE has the opportunity to create a megastar overnight. It is quite similar to what could’ve been achieved with The Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania, and hopefully, WWE will take the highway and put a youngster over, thus giving him the rub of his life, by beating the phenomenon who conquered the streak and the WWE.
The David – Goliath story
The most common and ancient storyline in professional wrestling is the David – Goliath story, which has been repeated numerous times even in the WWE. Whether you think about the Big Show – Rey Mysterio storyline or Brock Lesnar – Zach Gowen angle, WWE has used the same approach many times before, and a similar story can be built surrounding the conqueror and someone like Daniel Bryan, who will be the underdog going into their bout.
Up until his match with John Cena at SummerSlam, Lesnar had something to prove. Against The Undertaker at WrestleMania, Lesnar had to prove that he could beat the Deadman. Against Cena, he had to prove that he could dethrone the former WWE World Heavyweight champion, and once he achieved what he set out to accomplish, Lesnar has nothing to prove anymore, and an underdog defeating him would be one of the best possible storylines going forward.
With the whole Rock – Cena saga, neither one of them was the underdog, but with the current state of affairs in the company, WWE can book Daniel Bryan against Lesnar for the strap at WrestleMania 31, with the bearded warrior going over the current WWE World Heavyweight champion.
