5 Reasons Brock Lesnar will be on SmackDown instead of WWE RAW on Netflix

Brock Lesnar made a shocking return to WWE following the main event of SummerSlam Night Two, which saw John Cena cement his babyface turn and roll back the years to give fans one of the greatest matches of his career against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam.

With Cena having lost the Undisputed WWE Championship, Lesnar returned to a blockbuster pop and F5'ed The Franchise Player to tease a potential feud between the two. This legendary rivalry is now evidently set to be continued on Friday Night SmackDown.

Why SmackDown? Shouldn't Brock Lesnar's monumental return be followed up the day after on RAW? Why is Lesnar not going to be on Netflix? And why won't the iconic feud between WWE's two biggest crossover stars be on the flagship show, Monday Night RAW, streaming on the biggest platform in the world?

In this article, we shall not just make sense of this decision but also elucidate five reasons why Brock Lesnar heading to SmackDown, at least for now, is the right decision.

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#5. John Cena has been a SmackDown guy for most of his Farewell Tour, and that is expected to continue for the remainder of his run

With John Cena set to address Brock Lesnar's return and attack tonight on SmackDown, it would have obviously made no sense for The Beast to appear on RAW this week, especially because he is, well, Brock Lesnar, someone not in the habit of wasting appearances.

While Cena remains somewhat of a free agent (the nature of the brand split is ambiguous right now), he has primarily been on SmackDown for most of his Retirement Tour, and while that may have teased that Lesnar was headed to the blue brand, too, both men's absence seemingly confirmed that the feud will continue on Friday nights.

A majority of The Last Real Champion's dates have already been made public, so if John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar were to ever have been the direction, it'd simply have had to be on SmackDown.

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#4. Cody Rhodes is expected to be gone from SmackDown for a while

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New WWE Champion Cody Rhodes is likely set for a short hiatus from wrestling, as he heads Down Under to film Street Fighter alongside Roman Reigns. While Cody is set to star as Guile, Reigns, following his recently released project on Prime Video, is set to play the role of Akuma.

The timing of Rhodes' departure may be unfortunate given that he has just won the WWE Championship. However, Brock Lesnar's return to the company could serve as a way to mitigate the absence of The American Nightmare if The Beast remains on SmackDown for the foreseeable future.

It will be interesting to see how Rhodes is written off TV, because simply stating that he is leaving to film a movie after not just having won the WWE Championship, but having beaten John Cena will only increase the odds of the crowds turning on him.

Lesnar destroying Cody as Cena helplessly looks on could certainly help avoid that issue and even serve as a device for Rhodes and Cena to become firm allies, fans to continue cheering for The American Nightmare, and the initiation of a WarGames team alongside some top stars on RAW.

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#3. Monday Night RAW is already stacked with main event talent and doesn't need Brock Lesnar, especially right now

With Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Gunther, and Seth Rollins all on RAW, and the likes of LA Knight, Jey Uso, and Sami Zayn also chomping at the bit of the main event scene, Monday nights on Netflix are simply stacked. WWE RAW simply doesn't need Brock Lesnar right now; SmackDown, on the contrary, desperately does.

Plus, Reigns being part-time on RAW works, but having Lesnar in the mix in a similar capacity could be a bit of overkill, especially considering Reigns and Lesnar have officially had their last match already.

Yes, Gunther and Bron Breakker have to be at the top of the list of Lesnar's prospective opponents, but with the former World Heavyweight Champion seemingly nursing a minor injury and the former NXT Champion still not quite there yet, Lesnar can bide his time on SmackDown for the foreseeable future before taking over Netflix by storm.

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#2. WWE SmackDown needs a top heel, and Brock Lesnar is the man for the job

With John Cena having recently turned babyface, SmackDown needs a top heel. In fact, given the mixed reactions to Cena and his part-time schedule, SmackDown has needed a top heel for a while now, especially since Kevin Owens' injury.

WWE seems unwilling to pull the trigger on Randy Orton's heel turn just yet, not just because of how over he is as a babyface, but because of how massive it could be if timed right against Cody. Drew McIntyre is expected to be positioned as Rhodes' next challenger starting tonight, and that feud has a lot of layers to be unravelled and a lot of stories to be told.

However, WWE's failure to create more main event heels on SmackDown means that Brock Lesnar may be positioned in that role one more time, potentially even as a challenger to The American Nightmare after Cody is done with The Scottish Warrior. Meanwhile, The Beast Incarnate could busy himself with John Felix Anthony Cena.

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#1. Basic Medianomics determines where Brock Lesnar is

When one looks at the top names on RAW and SmackDown (and only males are factored in to this discussion based on the context), older stars like John Cena, Randy Orton, and Brock Lesnar can be seen on SmackDown, while Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Gunther, LA Knight, Sami Zayn, and more are over on RAW.

The heart of the matter isn't age here; it's tenure, and it has to do with the economics of cable television and streaming. Because, even Reigns, Rollins, etc., despite not exactly being spring chickens and also having been tenured with the company long enough, hit their strides in the late 2010s and only continued to grow as performers and stars leading up to and post-pandemic, which is when the decline of cable and ascent of streaming accelerated. Names like Gunther, Knight, and Zayn arrived/hit their stride even later.

The younger audience on Netflix aligns with the stars of today, while the longer-tenured megastars on SmackDown, such as John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Orton, help retain ratings on USA Network. Despite the decline of cable audiences in the USA, people are likely to tune in to see the biggest names currently on SmackDown more so than the biggest names on RAW, and indeed, people who have been synonymous with the network and thus in tune with consumer habits for over two decades.

Two major names missing from this conversation thus far have been CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. In the former's case, he has been evidently vital in the WWE-Netflix deal and a favorite of the executives at the world's largest streaming giant, but he has also, in general, always been a disruptive and transformative performer, thus transcending the age and tenure conversation.

The latter has seemingly been entrusted with carrying SmackDown as the face of the company despite relatively lesser star power on the blue brand, but this also allows him to stay away from the absolute top stars and perhaps keep things building slowly and via proxy until the time is right for a full-blown feud, cases in point being Seth Rollins, Gunther, CM Punk, and perhaps Roman Reigns once again.