Let’s get this out of the way right here at the beginning: Brock Lesnar is certainly a believable champion. If the WWE were made up of non-scripted fights, there are very few men who would have any shot whatsoever of beating the Beast Incarnate. He’s big, strong, athletic and classically trained in mixed martial arts.
But the WWE is, instead, a scripted performance of sports entertainment that is so much more than that and includes weekly television shows and storylines. Because of that, Brock Lesnar holding the Universal Championship is a terrible decision, and here are five reasons why.
#1 Others deserve it more
Monday Night RAW has caught a lot of criticism for its product when compared to the shows SmackDown LIVE has been putting out. Make no mistake, though, the red brand’s roster is absolutely loaded with singles talent that could be viable choices to hold the Universal Championship.
Even excluding part-timers like Lesnar, Goldberg and the apparently retired Undertaker, former world – or Universal – champions Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Chris Jericho, Sheamus and Kevin Owens all work on the Monday show.
Also read: 5 booking options for Brock Lesnar as WWE Universal Champion
Then consider men like Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman, the injured Rusev, or even tag competitors like Big E or Cesaro, who would all be incredibly popular choices. Even more important is that all these men work each and every week, both on television and in Live Events.
Passing over all this talent to put the belt on the absolute king of part-time talents would suggest that his perceived ability to draw at major shows is more valuable than their work for the rest of the year.
#2 It hurts RAW
With all that talent on the roster, RAW is still lagging behind SmackDown as far as fan perception of the quality of the show goes. Having a truly imposing champion like Lesnar lurking each week could really help draw fans in to see who can get the best of the Beast Incarnate.
But as most WWE fans would expect, Lesnar likely won’t be around as much as the other talent on the roster and isn’t currently slated to defend his belt at Payback later this month.
Now, the top belts certainly don’t have to be defended at every pay-per-view, but a majority of WWE pay-per-views in recent memory have had a world title match of some sort on the card.
Beyond that, SmackDown seems headed for a House of Horrors WWE Championship match between Bray Wyatt and champion Randy Orton at its next pay-per-view, Backlash. While no one is incredibly certain what that could entail, RAW could seem like its having the lesser show if its’ main title is in the woods in Canada somewhere.
#3 Rewards bad behaviour
Point blank, Brock Lesnar operates by a different set of rules than the rest of the WWE roster. Even though he’s reportedly getting paid more than any other talent on the roster – including John Cena – Lesnar essentially works whenever he wants in whatever storylines he wants.
That would be frustrating enough, but as a part-timer, he also isn’t subject to random drug testing or the company’s Wellness Policy.
As a result, his suspension following positive drug tests leading up to his UFC fight with Mark Hunt last summer had no effect on his WWE career. As a matter of fact, his next time in the WWE ring, he absolutely destroyed Randy Orton in the main event of SummerSlam and left the Viper a bloody mess in the middle of the ring.
Then there’s his match at WrestleMania 32 with Dean Ambrose. Obviously a non-title street fight against Ambrose in the middle of the card was not what Lesnar was looking for, and he seemed to mail the match in instead of working to make it the best that it could be.
So what does it tell the rest of the roster if the man who did all that within the last year or so gets to hold what should be a top championship?
#4 Sends a bad message to fans
In just one segment of RAW, we perhaps got a glimpse at Lesnar’s first two title feuds as Universal Champion.
Goldberg seemingly has no desire to claim a rematch, and Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman seem to have their sights set on Roman Reigns, who just defeated the Undertaker at WrestleMania.
Further, we saw that Braun Strowman has no intention of letting Lesnar focus on Reigns.
Here’s the problem with that: The fans know the WWE’s tendencies. Even if Lesnar faces Strowman at Extreme Rules in June or Bad Blood in July, it seems highly unlikely that he’d drop the belt at either of those events, with a SummerSlam matchup between him and Reigns seemingly being in the works.
So knowing that, even if Lesnar decides to show up for a feud with Strowman, fans will know that it doesn’t matter. We’ll know not to pay attention to anything related to the Universal title until the build to SummerSlam.
That’s bad news for RAW’s television ratings and storylines.
#5 Drawing power is overrated
If you’re a follower of Dave Meltzer and other such personalities, this might seem blasphemous. But in the modern WWE, single-event drawing power is almost irrelevant.
Sure, the company wants to put names on the card that will draw in viewers. But since new viewers get their first month of the WWE Network free, the focus should be more on storylines and personalities that will keep fans watching long-term.
Since Lesnar frequently appears in very short bursts and is then gone for long periods of time, he doesn’t fit this bill in the least.
On top of that, there’s very little evidence that Brock Lesnar is even the draw that he’s made out to be. In 2015, the two episodes of RAW with the lowest viewership outside of American football season were in the build to Lesnar’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship showdown against Seth Rollins at Battleground.
In 2016, also excluding the July 4 holiday that fell on a Monday, RAW’s smallest audience came during the build to Lesnar’s SummerSlam matchup with Randy Orton.
All those things considered, the WWE made a massive mistake risking all that damage to its flagship show for a talent that can’t deliver the viewers he once could.
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