What’s the story?
For those who have been wondering how to book a credible threat against WWE Universal Champion and bear-in-man-costume Brock Lesnar, look no further than the lead-in to his match with Brock Lesnar in two weeks.
In case you didn’t know...
Joe’s feud with Lesnar officially started when he won the Fatal Five Way event at Extreme Rules earlier this month, giving him the #1 contender spot for Lesnar’s title.
Since then, Joe has attacked Lesnar’s advocate, Paul Heyman, and confronted Lesnar in the ring in a spot where everyone in the locker room had to come out to keep them apart for some reason.
The heart of the matter
This past Raw saw The Destroyer attack from behind and nearly choke out The Beast as he was heading to the ring. Now, WWE has released some previously unseen footage of that vicious assault. This week was the first time Joe actually got the drop on Lesnar, leading to this moment:
What’s next?
We still have one more Raw before Great Balls of Fire, so who knows what kind of last minute build-up they’ll have for this match.
Author’s take
This is how you book a threat to Lesnar, post-Goldberg. Between Survivor Series and WrestleMania, Goldberg had been getting the better of Lesnar in the straight-up confrontation department until Lesnar eventually beat him. Now, we have a guy who is as much, if not more than an intimidating presence as the former WCW champion.
Instead of butting heads with him directly, Joe is proving he’s also got an intellectual advantage on The Beast. It’s almost like Superman vs Batman, except more entertaining and Batman is wearing swim trunks for some reason. I know conventional wisdom says Brock goes into SummerSlam with the belt, but I I think WWE may shock us here.
