Saturday, August 25, 2012

Re-Booking Brock Lesnar

Remember back in April when rumors started to surface of a Brock Lesnar return to the WWE? The internet was a buzz with talk of Lesnar coming back. People were excited about the possible matches he would have with John Cena, C.M. Punk, Undertaker, and hell, even Triple H. Many thought Lesnar would be a boost to WWE TV and get former fans who left for UFC back into the product. With the $5 million dollar contract the WWE gave Lesnar, even they were expecting big things from him.

But be honest, how many people are actually satisfied with what Lesnar has done so far? The intrigue was there with Cena, but his feud with HHH just didn't click at all. And what is the worst part? We will more than likely be getting another rematch. But not before weeks of "speculation" on whether Triple H will retire or not. But the Triple H debacle is another story. The fact is, Lesnar's limited dates are affecting his perception among WWE fans. We get that he doesn't want to be around every week. And I agree with that. If you want to make Lesnar a big deal and a money draw for you, you don't have him appear every week. But they should have tried to get a few more dates out of him.

The WWE, however, knew the dates schedule going in. So they knew they had to book Brock Lesnar in a specific way to make him a big draw. And have they done that? I would say absolutely not. With the limited time the WWE has had Lesnar, they have not done a good job with him. The WWE is more concerned about making sure their guys look good rather than booking Lesnar properly. But the problem is, they could make more money had they booked Lesnar the right way and still had the chance to make their guys look good at the same time.

So lets take a step back in time. Lets start from the beginning, and lets re-book Brock Lesnar. I understand that some minor things that would affect other storylines would end up changing as well, but right now I'm focused on just Brock Lesnar.

It's the night after RAW, and instead of John Cena closing the show, its The Rock. Cena announced at the beginning of the show that he needs to re-focus after losing to Rock at Wrestlemania, aka, he's taking some time off. As Rock is giving his speech about becoming WWE Champion again, right as he is about to end it, Brock Lesnar's music hits. Lesnar comes out and hits an F5 on Rock. The next week on RAW, John Laurinaitis comes out and introduces Brock Lesnar. Lesnar says that he's back and doesn't answer to anyone. He's here on his terms. He will show up when he wants, and he will kick whoevers ass he wants.

Over the span of the next month, Lesnar makes random appearances taking out the likes of Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, and a couple other mid carders. Finally, Triple H comes out. He tells Lesnar that if he wants to stick around here, he is going to have to fight. Lesnar agrees. Triple H introduces his opponent at Over the Limit, which is Randy Orton. The two brawl in the ring with Orton getting the upper hand as the show closes. At Over the Limit, Lesnar defeats Orton and he looks dominant throughout the match. He kicks out of an RKO and wins after hitting an F5.

After a month off from TV, Lesnar makes a return the night after No Way Out. Shawn Michaels just happened to be there that night. Lesnar takes out Shawn Michaels and breaks his arm with Kimura Lock. Two weeks later, Triple H comes out and challenges Brock Lesnar to a match at SummerSlam. The next week, Paul Heyman comes out and says that Triple H will have his answer at the 1000th episode of RAW. On the 1000th episode of RAW, as HHH awaits Lesnar's answer, Paul Heyman comes out. Heyman tells Triple H that Lesnar is the one thing the COO can't control and it kills him knowing that. Heyman tells Hunter that if he wants his answer, all he has to do is turn around. HHH walks right into Lesnar who hits an F5 and says "See You at SummerSlam."

To limit Lesnar's appearances in the build up to SummerSlam, we get promos of Lesnar training every week. There's no need to make everything as tough and complicated as the WWE did with the Lesnar/HHH storyline. At the contract signing, the two agree to make the match a No Holds Barred match. At SummerSlam, Lesnar and HHH have a brawl. They fight all throughout the arena. There's some blood in there too. The match ends when HHH taps to the Kimura Lock. After the match, Lesnar reapplies the hold and "breaks" Triple H's arm. The show ends with a bloodied HHH being carted off on a stretcher and Lesnar standing tall on the ramp.

We don't hear or see anything involving Lesnar until the RAW before Night of Champions. Paul Heyman comes out and talks about how dominant is client is. He talks about Hell In A Cell in October, a match that his client is made for. Heyman says its an environment made for Lesnar, and no one can bear him in it. He says that at Night of Champions, he will be offering an open invitation to anyone to fight Brock Lesnar at Hell in A Cell. At Night of Champions, Lesnar and Heyman wait in the ring. Just as they are about to leave the gong goes and the lights go out. When they go back up, the Undertaker is in the ring staring down Brock Lesnar. Lesnar and Heyman leave the ring as Taker watches on. The next night on RAW, Heyman announces that Lesnar will accept Undertaker's challenge. Again, there is no need for Lesnar to appear every week heading into the PPV. I felt like some of Lesnar's appearances were wasted heading into SummerSlam. Heyman can do enough talking and keep a feud going well enough on the mic that Lesnar is not needed.

At Hell In A Cell, Lesnar dominates Undertaker. He just gives Taker a beating. Taker puts up a fight, but it is Brock Lesnar standing tall at the end. And what else does this do? It keeps Undertaker off of Wrestlemania. Some people think Undertaker is done at Wrestlemania being 20-0, but some also say Taker still has a match or two in him and could come back early if needed. If I was booking, I would have no desire to see Taker/Lesnar at Mania and would much rather see it here at Hell In A Cell. There is history between the two in this type of match after all.

Now is where things start to pick up a bit. The next night on RAW, Lesnar takes out WWE Champion C.M. Punk. This leads to Punk vs Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. Again, Lesnar is not needed every week. And can you imagine the promos between Heyman and Punk? I would pay just to see those alone. And of course, at Survivor Series, Brock Lesnar defeats Punk to win the WWE Championship.

So now Brock Lesnar is WWE Champion. But still, he does not have to appear on every show. This is also where things get tricky. We know that Rock has a WWE Championship Match at the Royal Rumble. And we know that the big money match is Brock vs Rock. So what happens at TLC? In all honesty, I would do the contract signing between Rock and Lesnar there. Again, as I said, there are a lot of moving parts here and other things would be going on. If it was up to me, there would be some kind of big feud John Cena would be involved in that could close the show. Or maybe the World Title match would be big enough to close the show. I would just love to eliminate the show completely, but that would lose the WWE money.

After the contract signing the build starts to Rock/Brock at the Royal Rumble. The match takes place, and we have a ref bump. With the referee down, C.M. Punk comes out to the ring. While everybody expects Punk to go after Lesnar, he instead catches Rock with a kick to the head and GTS. Lesnar then picks up Rock and delivers an F5 for the win. Punk's reasoning for going after Rock is simple: He didn't get a rematch against Lesnar because of The Rock's guaranteed WWE Title Match at the Royal Rumble. Having Rock/Brock for the WWE Title eliminates that "What Happens" scenario you face at Wrestlemania 29 if you do the match their and both men are likely to leave after. And earlier in the night, John Cena just happened to win the Royal Rumble Match.

Now don't forget there is a clause in Lesnar's contract, if I remember correctly, that allows for more dates to be added come Wrestlemania time. I would probably have Lesnar defend the WWE Title at the Elimination Chamber. Again, if I were booking Lesnar, he would already be known as an unstoppable force at this point who would love to inflict pain in the Elimination Chamber.

So obviously, this sets up two big matches at Wrestlemania: C.M. Punk vs The Rock and John Cena vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title. With a card like that, you wouldn't even need to have The Undertaker wrestle at Mania. Cena would go over at Wrestlemania, winning the WWE Title he hasn't held since October 2010. C.M. Punk also defeats The Rock. It's essentially a show to get over the WWE's two top guys as big time players.

As I said, there would be a lot of moving variables with this and certain things would have to be booked differently here and there. But the WWE has missed the boat with their booking of Brock Lesnar. Instead of making him look like the unstoppable force he should be, he's just seemed like another guy that appears every so often with no reason to be there.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to let me know.

Until Next Time,
Justin C
Follow Me On Twitter @JCWonka

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