Brock Lesnar - A Part-Time WWE World Heavyweight Champion

In my opinion, one of the only things in WWE at the moment that is keeping my attention is the fact that Brock Lesnar is now WWE champion. Summerslam was 2 weeks ago, and since I’ve been seeing tweets about the validity of Brock’s run because he is part-time and some negativity towards his victory. I just wanted to say my opinion and question some of the negative opinions that these fans seem to have. 

First of all I completely understand and appreciate the criticism that Brock Lesnar is a part-time superstar who only appears a set number of dates according to his contract. However, this isn’t any superstar, I’d totally get it if it was Batista or even Cena working part-time and winning the belt but this is Brock Lesnar - other than his multiple runs as WWE Undisputed/WWE Champion and even a stint as IWGP Heavyweight Champion prior, Brock is a NCAA collegiate champion and a UFC Heavyweight Champion. There is a reason why Paul Heyman keeps referring to these accomplishments in his promos and that is because they scream LEGIT. Out of anyone in the WWE, the most legit/real fighter is Brock Lesnar - yeah, Batista had fights in MMA but he never won the most prestigious prize in MMA. Anyway, my point is, is that Brock can have the belt for as long as he wants and nobody, NOBODY, can complain about a UFC heavyweight champion not losing. The counter-arguement to this of course is - “this is wrestling, it’s storyline and narrative driven” and yes, it is but even within Kayfabe - Brock is a legit badass and a machine, most recently he conquered the Undertaker’s streak which every year for probably the last 6 or 7 years has been the fans’ main event of Wrestlemania. 

Again, the criticism can be made of “why have a part-timer conquer the streak” and that’s because it comes down to the fact that if Taker lost to say, Roman Reigns, the question has to be raised, even within Kayfabe - why couldn’t CM Punk do it? Why couldn’t Shawn Michaels? or HHH? or even Big Show and A-Train in a handicap match? It wouldn’t really make sense. Not to mention that putting such a big title on a newcomer to help “put him over” may only hinder him and if in a few years they haven’t reached his full potential it’ll most definitely look like a waste. In my opinion, the only guy that within the world of wrestling that could have beat Undertaker at Wrestlemania would be Brock, Cena or Hogan in his prime. Obviously, the latter is impossible and Cena is positioned so highly as that superhero babyface that beating Undertaker would only allow more fans to turn on him (although a heel turn would have been fun). So is it really surprising that the most legit guy on the roster was the guy to conquer the streak?

This leads me to Summerslam - If Brock had just conquered the streak and then was beaten by Cena I think we’d all agree with the fact that the streak ending would have been just another ploy for Cena to be the underdog that we all know WWE want him to look like and for him to overcome the odds (which arguably could happen at NOC, hope I haven’t jinxed it). But no, WWE seemingly has booked it the right way and had Brock demolish Cena which is definitely the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen Cena in a match. For this, the part-timing criticism of Brock may be one of his - and the WWE’s - biggest strengths at the minute due to the prestige of the title. Brock dominating Cena in such a way puts him over big to begin with but Brock having a long run, with Heyman as the mouthpiece of course, Brock could really bring the WWE World Heavyweight Championship back to a level of prestige that it hasn’t had for a while. Instead of looking at Brock being a part-time champion - view him as a special attraction, because that is what he is. Also, for those who are critical of the same guys getting the belt over and over, this is someone different - someone that WWE can take a new direction with. Remember, if the championship isn’t on the line as much as well, it may add prestige and excitement for when Brock actually does have to defend it.

Perhaps, the biggest argument towards Brock being part-time as a negative thing may be this weeks RAW. Instead of Brock making an appearance, WWE aired a promo which, for me, worked just as much as an in-ring promo to hype the match for Night of Champions. Perhaps, it works best with Lesnar because WWE’s editors can make Brock’s mic skills shine. Whether or not you enjoyed this of course is an opinion but I really did and I additionally enjoyed the promo prior to Summerslam, which is why I believe that if WWE keep this up it can be the best WWE Championship run since, at least, CM Punk’s.

Another criticism which I saw was that this gives Cena the opportunity to win the title for a sixteenth time, equalling Flair’s record of championships. I feel like I am the only one that found that criticism to be counter-productive because the only way that Cena can’t equal Flair’s record is with either WWE never giving him the belt again (yeah, unlikely) or Cena maintains having the title and never loses it. I feel like this criticism was just fans looking for something to be negative about but I felt like I wanted to address it, maybe others would feel the same as I do? Or, maybe you could tell me your point of view in the comments below.

Finally, I just wanted to add that having a part-timer as champion may also effect the rest of the card and their performances. For example, currently, the Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose storyline seems to be the focal point of RAW’s which Brock doesn’t appear on, for me anyway. Therefore, IF booked correctly, WWE could also use this time as a way to boost the prestige of the ever-so-lacking mid card titles which are seemingly cursed in recent history but again, trying to think optimistically, it means that the rest of the card has the chance to climb the ladder and - to quote CM Punk - “grab Mr. McMahon’s imaginary brass rings.”

Carl Maddison

Twitter - @BomaKneee

Blogger - http://talkwrestlingtalk.blogspot.co.uk/

Bray Wyatt - For Now and For the Future

A few weeks ago on RAW we all heard the first ‘boring’ chants from a WWE audience in refetene to a Bray Wyatt promo, this got me thinking about his recent run since his feud with Daniel Bryan and his ultimate loss to John Cena. I’ve seen a lot of fans on Twitter playing up the usual ‘Cena burial’ argument which brought me to write about what I think WWE should do with Wyatt and his family, why I feel like people are classing his step down from the main event as a burial.

Undeniably, since his debut, Bray Wyatt has been one of the most interesting characters on the WWE roster and in my opinion he still is. First of all, I’ve seen complaints that he appears to cut the same promo week in week out with different words. To be fair, for the most part I agree but I don’t see why that is such a hindrance when some of the biggest names in wrestling did that for the majority of their career and made millions for themselves and the company, for example, how many times have you heard Hogan talk about his 27 inch pythons and Cena introduce himself with the same “my name is John Cena and the Champ is here” shtick, of course followed by the ultimate never give up and never back down worked into his promos. Despite his criticism, he’s still the biggest name in the company and is obviously in the main event. This begs the question, why does Wyatt have to come up with a completely different topic in each promo when the majority of wrestlers cut around 1 topic for the majority of their career (this isn’t criticism of Cena or Hogan). I feel like IWC especially has adopted Wyatt as the current “anti-Cena” guy and that appears to come with a risk of fans looking for negatives to appear different and cool, sort of what BEGAN to happen post-mania with Daniel Bryan.

Perhaps, the most criticism of Bray Wyatt has been since his defeat to Cena at Payback. Fans have appeared to see this as a burial which confuses me as for decades, the way wrestling works is that the superhero baby face eventually overcomes the odds and beats the heel. However, I can get the grievance that Cena overcoming the odds has been overdone so much that he doesn’t even overcome odds and it comes off as a burial. What fans haven’t seemed to think about is that the problem may be with the WWE roster or creative instead of just being with Cena ‘burying’ everyone. Currently, Bray is feuding with Jericho which is obviously a step down from Cena but the question has to be asked, who was Bray supposed to be feuding with instead? The main event has all of a sudden become stacked with Orton, Reigns, HHH and Cena all being in different feuds. I believe this is one of the reasons that fans are saying Bray has been buried because their are very few on Cena’s level to begin with so anyone other than maybe Randy Orton or HHH would seem like a step down. At the minute, it would seem like WWE need to keep heat on guys like Bray while the main event stories continue, only to use them later in the year or beginning of 2015. This is why I personally don’t think Wyatt has been ‘buried’. It is obvious to me that the WWE still have faith in him after giving him an interview segment with Jericho last night in which he was the main focus for 3/4’s of the duration. At the current moment I think Bray is pretty safe, he’s in a solid long term-ish feud with Jericho which he’ll most likely win and hopefully move onto something just as interesting. Because of this, I’m starting to think that wrestling fans, especially the smarter fans, are becoming harder to please, it appears that they NEED to have their guys going over every match otherwise there is a storm of critical tweets, not to say that criticism is never deserved though.

An idea I did have for Bray after this feud would be to win the IC or US belt. I know, what about the curse of the mid card titles? However, if treated right, I think it could be very successful. For instance, have Wyatt beat Miz for the IC belt - harming his ‘money maker’ while doing so - and then let Wyatt cut promos treat the belt as if it was Sister Abigail, maybe even further, have him talk about how it’s the only thing that matters in WWE and now he can gain more followers and on and on. Surely, having Bray Wyatt come on the Titantron every week telling the crowd how prestigious the belt is and how much it means to him and his family would only increase the value of the belt as well which has been diminished a ridiculous amount in the last 10 years. However, doing this may take a risk as if it isn’t done properly, Bray would ultimately end up in boring feuds and would no doubt suffer the same fate as Sheamus and Miz (although they didn’t help themselves).

In more recent RAW episodes, I haven’t heard any ‘boring’ chants during Bray’s promos which would suggest that he remains to be over with the majority of the crowd and that it was just a one off but this becomes worrying as a wrestling fan. In the current WWE roster, Bray, arguably cuts the best promos and also has took part in some of the most interesting feuds in recent years with Bryan and Cena. If wrestling fans can’t get stay focused on the product enough to keep following Wyatt without being bored then other than their favourite indie guys having 5* matches every week I don’t know what more can impress them. All in all, for now, personally I feel that Bray is safe where he is and hasn’t been buried by Cena but with WWE stacking and focusing on the main event, we can only hope that he won’t get lost in the shuffle.