Sometimes, you just have to throw your hands up and admit defeat. It’s not something that is easy to do for a lot of people. For me, it’s something that I’ve done before. When you have been a Buffalo Bills fan all of your life, throwing your hands up and admitting defeat is something that you are used to doing by Week 11 of the NFL season.
But this isn’t about the Bills. This is about admitting that I was wrong about something WWE related. Again, this isn’t something new to me. I’ve backed certain things that the WWE has done before and have it come back and bite me in the ass. And yet every time the WWE does that, I still go back to support a decision they made because I think it will be “good for business.” And once again, it has come back to bite me in the ass.
And this time it has to do with Brock Lesnar. There were a good amount of mixed feelings when it came to Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Championship. Some people were against it from the beginning. They didn’t like the idea of a part timer being WWE Champion because it was a slap in the face to everyone who works full time. I, however, thought this would be different from The Rock’s reign. The WWE had not had a dominant heel Champion in quite some time. Brock, carrying the Title around and being the bad ass that he is, would bring some legitimacy back to the WWE Title and make it seem like a big deal. Plus, there was no clear plan with Brock like there was with The Rock. With The Rock winning, we all knew it was going to be Rock/Punk, Rock/Punk, Rock/Cena. With Brock, we knew a rematch with Cena was coming. I’ve enjoyed their matches so that wasn’t a problem with me. We also knew that he was likely dropping the Title to someone at Wrestlemania, most likely Roman Reigns. But I thought the time in between would be spent giving Brock the opportunity to fight a couple more guys who he had not fought before, which I was very much looking forward too.
Well, I was wrong. And once again the WWE has screwed something up that could have been so beneficial for everyone on their roster. The fact that it now looks like Brock Lesnar’s WWE Title reign will simply be matches with John Cena and then a match at Wrestlemania is just a gigantic screw up on the part of the WWE. Once again, they failed to look at the big picture. Lesnar’s reign could have been used to help out guys on the roster that could use the rub of just simply interacting with Brock Lesnar. But for some reason, the WWE didn’t want to pay Brock Lesnar the extra cash to work more dates. When you watch RAW and Smackdown nowadays, they barely even mention that Brock is the WWE Champion. A new fan wouldn’t even know there was a Champ. And hey, at least the WWE has done a good job of covering up the fact that their Champ isn’t around!
I was willing to accept the fact that Brock Lesnar wasn’t going to be at every PPV and RAW. I was okay with that. But the blatant ignoring of Lesnar on WWE TV in recent week is just a huge glaring mistake on the WWE’s part that could effect the long term outlook of the WWE. I’m not saying they are going to be going out of business, but Lesnar being around gets people to tune in. And even if just a couple of people interacted with Lesnar during his reign, it could have given them a rub for the long term.
If I’m going to play arm chair booker here, I’m starting from after SummerSlam. You keep the Cena beatdown exactly as it was. Brock comes out with Heyman the next night and brags about the beatdown. I’m keeping Cena OFF TV for this time period. The man deserves a rest every once in a while. A few weeks before Night of Champions, you have Brock and Paul Heyman come out and issue an open challenge to anyone in the back who wants to fight Lesnar at NOC. Out comes Sheamus to challenge Lesnar. They have a match at NOC and Lesnar wins, but Sheamus gives him everything that he’s got in a losing effort. And Sheamus gets a rub because of this.
The next night on RAW, Lesnar beats down Jericho to send him off. Lesnar continues to cause havoc throughout the show until John Cena comes out at the end to take out Lesnar and challenge him to a match at Hell In A Cell. You go through with the double main event I talked about leading up to Hell In A Cell: Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar vs John Cena. Lesnar retains with the help of the Authority. That way, we can transition right into the Team Cena/Team Authority stuff that we are getting right now. And here is where I’m cool with Lesnar taking time off now. The one thing I like about this current Survivor Series storyline is that it is giving some guys a chance to get main event time that would normally not get it.
At TLC, we have a Fatal 4 Way Ladder match with the winner getting a shot at Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble. Who wins that match? Ryback. Yeah, I’m all aboard the Ryback bandwagon right now. I think if you let the guy be himself he will get over. He’s already getting some solid reactions now. I think you continue to let him go on a tear up to the Rumble and you would get people behind him. Ryback comes close to winning but Brock picks up the win in the end. I’ve always said that the Royal Rumble should be a time where they take a risk and give someone a Title shot that doesn’t normally get it. People will watch for the Rumble itself. After the Rumble you have Lesnar then get ready to fight whoever he is fighting at Wrestlemania.
That kind of run, at least to me, would have been much more entertaining then Brock’s current run as Champion. It gives a couple of other guys a rub from working with Lesnar, and that would help those guys out long term.
So how would you re-book Brock Lesnar’s WWE Title run?
Until Next Time,
Justin C
Follow Me On Twitter @JCWonka
