WWE and Brock Lesnar have had a love/hate relationship for some time now. It’s not as if the WWE has never liked Lesnar or Lesnar has never liked the WWE. It was simply that the two didn’t work for a long time, so when the opportunity to come back presented itself, Lesnar took it… but he didn’t want to make it like any other return. He wanted to wrestle similar to how he fought in the UFC: sparingly. This was actually a good thing for his character.
Paul Heyman explains that in an interview with the Miami Herold , saying about Lesnar and his potential WWE World Heavyweight Championship run and schedule:
“I don’t know if any of those critics of privy to an agreement Brock Lesnar may or may not have with WWE. So I don’t understand how anybody can credibly say this is what Brock Lesnar’s schedule is going to be when he becomes the WWE champion. Second, I think the WWE championship is the defended too often and lost some of the prestige because of the beast of monthly pay-per-views. The champion having to defend on every single pay-per-view, let alone at every single arena, has taken away from the special event that is when a champion defends the title.
“Here is the best example I can give you. Why don’t we just do 12 WrestleMania events a year? I mean it’s the brand name in pay-per-view. You know people understand that WrestleMania means it’s something special and unique and doesn’t happen all the time. It’s can’t miss. Well, you can’t do 12 WrestleMania events a year because then you water-down WrestleMania, and it won’t mean as much on the rare occasion you present the brand name WrestleMania. It’s the same with Brock Lesnar.
“If you present Brock Lesnar 52 weeks a year and you have Brock Lesnar defend the title 12 times a year, you’re losing money. You’re not making money because you are watering down the unique opportunity that the audience can have to see an once-in-a-lifetime athlete on the rare occasion that he dons the tights and laces up the boots and goes into the ring to beat people within an inch of their lives.
“Plus, here is one more thing to consider. If Brock Lesnar were to work a full-time schedule he would wipe out the roster at once. There would be nobody left for him to fight. So how can people be clamoring for Brock Lesnar to be work a full-time schedule? Then you’ll have three hours of Brock and Paul Heyman sitting alone in a ring talking to each other because there would be nobody left for Brock Lesnar to conquer.”
In a sense, Heyman is correct when it comes to Brock.
Lesnar has an ability to come off as a monster heel, literally. He is a freak of an athlete, and he uses his God-given size and strength well. The problem with Lesnar is that he comes off as if he hates the company and has no passion for it. Heyman has claimed in the past this was incorrect assuming that, if Lesnar didn’t love his role in WWE, he would not be here.
In a sense, this works best for Lesnar. The schedule killed him when he was with the WWE over a decade ago, which was the main reason he left. He spent a good 2 years in the WWE in the early 2000’s, coming into the WWE in 2002 and leaving in 2004. They were in a rebuilding period, so guys like Lesnar were a beautiful find. He was being used as the next top guy in WWE, but guys like Lesnar although great are not the kind of people you make the face of your company. He just doesn’t want that.
WWE had him go over the top guys of the day. People such as The Rock, Undertaker, and Kurt Angle all lost to the man billed as “The Next Big Thing.” He garnered popularity fast in a time the WWE needed a guy to be big for them. Then when he left, guys like John Cena stepped up and were soon the new face of the WWE. Lesnar could not handle the full-time WWE schedule, so upon his return, he wanted a lighter deal. One that would allow him to wrestle big matches but would also give him the ability to come off as a larger than life character.
Heyman claims that if Brock Lesnar stayed all year, he would wipe out the roster… which is probably true. If WWE kept the same character for Lesnar, he’d end up beating everyone, and each win would mean less for him. Clearly the WWE now loves Lesnar again and Lesnar loves the WWE again, so the schedule works for both parties. If Lesnar becomes WWE World Heavyweight Champion soon, clearly he’d still have a light deal, but like Heyman says, we cannot know what his deal with WWE is truly as we can only speculate.
Also, Heyman is right when it comes to seeing Brock. Him coming around off and on makes each appearance more and more special. This same ideology was done with Andre the Giant and it worked for years. Clearly if Lesnar is getting the reactions he gets when he wrestles with WWE that we can compare his role to that of Andre, that is pretty good for the Beast Incarnate.
What do you think though? Will Lesnar have a good enough schedule that we could enjoy him as WWE World Heavyweight Champion ? Does him coming back off and on hurt or help the WWE?
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