Opinion: Is WWE missing the boat with Brock Lesnar?
Current WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest superstars in the company right now. He is undoubtedly a huge box office attraction and attracts crowds every place he goes.
Lesnar defeated Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 34 last year, and successfully defended the title several times against the likes of Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe etc. His last title defense was at the Greatest Royal Rumble event in April.
According to multiple reports, Brock Lesnar was scheduled to drop the title to Reigns at WrestleMania 34, however, plans changed and the WWE booked Lesnar to successfully defend the title at 'Mania.
In fact, veteran professional wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, explained prior to WrestleMania 34 that the WWE always intended to have Roman Reigns go over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania--the grandest stage of them all. The theory behind WWE's strategy being viewed as favorable towards Reigns, is because several industry insiders believe that the WWE views "The Big Dog" as the face of the company.
A rather intriguing conundrum that any promotion would find itself in--particularly when blessed with a stacked roster, as is WWE--is that booking its top stars against one another is indeed an extremely tricky situation. Logic dictates that in a feud between two top-tier Superstars, the final match of said feud generally has one performer go over and the other lose.
On that note, the WWE's current roster is stacked--to say the least--and one of the biggest box office attractions in both professional wrestling and combat sports history, Brock Lesnar, seems to be more than interested in doing business with both WWE as well as the UFC. On the other hand, Roman Reigns who's much younger than Lesnar is touted by business experts as perhaps the next big draw in WWE.
Considering that, the WWE seems to have set forth the wheels in motion, as regards having Reigns gradually replace Lesnar as the most formidable force in the WWE. Now, bear in mind, that the terms used over here are "the most formidable force in WWE" and not "face of the WWE"--given that Reigns is already the face of the company after having replaced John Cena in that role over the past few years.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that despite WWE having Reigns take over the spot of the most dominant force in WWE from Lesnar--what with Reigns expected to finally defeat Lesnar at SummerSlam--the WWE would be remiss to shun the "Brock Lesnar" brand altogether.
As regards WrestleMania 34 and the Greatest Royal Rumble PPV, plans obviously did change and Brock Lesnar retained the title. He made his first televised appearance on RAW for the first time since April where he refused to even go out to the arena.
WWE is fully aware that fans are divided in their opinions about Reigns, owing to which they may be trying to build the storyline of Lesnar being the "worst champion ever". The expectation is that the fans would eventually lose their patience with Lesnar, and have no choice but to accept Reigns as Universal Champion.
Brock Lesnar showed up at UFC 226 where he confronted Daniel Cormier and challenged him for the UFC Heavyweight title, with WWE asserting the fact that Lesnar wouldn't even show up on RAW or defend his Universal title like a real champion.
WWE even went so far as having Kurt Angle call Brock the worst Universal Champion ever on Live TV. They also recently posted a video with two of WWE.com's editors debating on whether or not Lesnar is a good champion.
The video compared Brock's title defenses to that of AJ Styles, Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton's WWE Championship defenses on Smackdwon. One of the editors also referred to Brock as the worst Universal Champion ever.
Why would WWE refer to their own champion as the worst champion ever, and that too on live TV, and then post a video asking fans on their thoughts when they know what the fan's reactions will be? Does this mean that WWE is turning their backs on Lesnar?
Or are they simply furthering the strategy of attempting to get Reigns over? One ought to note that this did indeed work well for WWE, as "we want Roman" chants were echoing around the arena few weeks ago on RAW. The simple answer is that they are doing what they can to get Reigns over with the crowd--and the WWE Universe is absolutely loving it!
If making a part-timer who's about to leave the company anyway look bad in favour of Roman Reigns, then so be it. Brock won't be in WWE forever, however Roman will be with WWE for the foreseeable future.
The Big Dog is here to stay!
If Reigns looks good then the WWE as a whole would look great. However, the WWE ought to refrain from overlooking to storm that is Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar is one of the top attractions in sports-entertainment, and WWE would be better off continuing to utilize him as a part-time performer in the years to come.