Posted in: Mr. Tito
MR. TITO STRIKES BACK - Why Did WWE Let Brock Lesnar Defeat Undertaker at Wrestlemania & John Cena at SummerSlam?
By Mr. Tito
Dec 16, 2014 - 11:59:26 PM

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During late 2007, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced the signing of former NCAA Heavyweight Champion and WWE Superstar, Brock Lesnar to a deal to begin fighting for the promotion. Lesnar was 3 and a half years removed from exiting the WWE, as Lesnar gave his notice and wrestled his last match with the WWE at Wrestlemania 20 by losing to former WCW Superstar, Bill Goldberg, at that event. Brock Lesnar was reportedly burned out by the intense WWE road schedule and he began demanding a limited schedule like other superstars (like Bill Goldberg - NO houseshows). Lesnar was still under contract with the WWE and had to sign a no-compete clause just to leave the WWE in 2004. A tryout with the Minnesota Vikings, few trips to Japan, and a few legal battles with the WWE over that no-compete clause later... UFC signed him to a deal.

Despite the tarnish that Brock Lesnar had on him following his WWE exit after Wrestlemania 20 during 2004, he was a major draw for UFC. Not only that, but Lesnar was a legitimate fighter and won the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Getting back to the drawing part... 3 years removed from the WWE and a bad exit, yet he was still highly known as a name. UFC had a former WWE wrestler legitimately winning at the top of their promotion and their popularity skyrocketed. Just look at their Pay Per View buys, according to MMAPayout.com.

See the pattern? Lots of close to or above 1,000,000 buys with Brock Lesnar on those UFC Cards. In fact, since Brock Lesnar's exit from UFC on 12/31/2011 (UFC 141), UFC events have struck 1,000,000 buys only ONCE since his departure. That is not to knock UFC or its competitors on the events since December 2011, but the fact remains that Brock Lesnar is pulling in many casual fans to the sport that may not normally buy UFC events. This column in no way, shape, or form is attempting to bash UFC. Just noting that Brock Lesnar is a big name that non-MMA fans know and buys were higher when Lesnar was on the card. Facts.

3 years later, Brock Lesnar's WWE contract is about to expire. Brock initially signed a 1 year deal between 2012-2013 but opted to sign a 2 year extension following that deal for 2013-2014 between Wrestlemanias. The deal calls for about 3-4 Pay Per View performances per year and a limited amount of appearances (non-wrestling) outside of those shows, such as appearing on RAW, for a reported $5 million per year. With Lesnar now fully healthy, as he had intestinal issues that shortchanged his first UFC run, he is showing reported interest in returning to Mixed Martial Arts. After some heat following his 2011 "retirement" and joining the WWE, Lesnar and UFC President Dana White appear to be on good terms. However, another MMA promotion, Bellator, could make an offer to Lesnar that he cannot refuse... Thus, a bidding war between UFC and Bellator could occur during 2015 if Lesnar truly wants to return to MMA.

And believe me, both UFC and Bellator will trip over themselves to get Brock Lesnar. Why? WWE turned this part-time wrestler into an unstoppable monster to obtain short-term gains in return for long-term damage to its own brand.

Just look at 2014 alone... Brock Lesnar ended the Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak. Ended the streak! It's something that the WWE wouldn't let Shawn Michaels (twice), Triple H (three times), Batista, Randy Orton, or CM Punk do, along with keeping John Cena away from Undertaker at Wrestlemania. WWE booking not only let Brock Lesnar win, but they let Paul Heyman and Lesnar repeatedly brag about "ending the streak". Worse yet, it was a 100% clean win. Granted, the Undertaker is an old man now, but that streak was everything to him... To follow that up, Brock Lesnar DESTROYED John Cena at SummerSlam 2014 in an embarrassing squash. Cena was a jobber in this match and was humiliated by a non-selling Lesnar who just delivered German Suplex after German Suplex. WWE just sacrificed their #1 babyface star to a part-time wrestler that could walk during 2015. On top of that, Lesnar was now the WWE Champion where he remains to this day.

That's not to mention his 2 out of 3 wins against Triple H during 2012-2013, who is one of the most dominant WWE superstars of all time (and EVP of WWE to boot). That's a big win to brag about.

UFC or Bellator gets the guy who ended the Undertaker's streak, beat Triple H in a series of matches, and destroyed the WWE's #1 babyface? Yeah, the whole argument of the WWE has been "Pay Per View is dead" to create their little WWE Network. Watch what happens to UFC's Pay Per View buys when Brock Lesnar rejoins the promotion. Hell, CM Punk might even boost UFC's buyrates which I discussed in another column on 12/7/14. (cheap plug!)

How could the WWE Creative Team and upper management be so stupid? Why are they building up a part-time wrestler to be too strong instead of focusing on using Lesnar to get other talent over?

The argument will be made that Lesnar is being built to be incredibly strong so that when someone within the WWE beats him, it shall be a big moment. What? That's not how pro wrestling works. Wrestling is all about "heat" and "suspension of disbelief". The WWE, in the past year, just showed us that Brock Lesnar could accomplish the unthinkable in defeating the Undertaker at Wrestlemania and destroying John Cena at SummerSlam. DESTROYING JOHN CENA. Think about the many, many wrestlers that John Cena has defeated in the past decade. He is the ultimate wrestler who "gets his heat back". If you beat John Cena, it's almost guaranteed that he'll get his win back over you. If you beat Cena, it's by a very thin margin and probably due to controversy. Not Brock Lesnar. He destroyed him at SummerSlam.

How on earth is Roman Reigns going to look credible in defeating THAT monster? It's going to look so forced at Wrestlemania 31 during 2015 unless Roman Reigns can capture instant momentum somewhere. Reigns is still new to singles wrestling and has yet to impress with his in-ring abilities despite several Main Event opportunities given to him. He's still a little green. All he has is his look, which Vince McMahon and Triple H get hard over, but the in-ring ability and mic skills require years of development at this point. The heat is just not there, yet, unlike Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, his fellow Shield members, who are far more complete as wrestlers. Ambrose and Rollins can speak well for themselves on the mic, thus being able to generate heat for themselves, while already having singles matches that people can actually remember. Yet, Roman Reigns is the "chosen one" by Vince/Triple H.

It's a consistent trend of the Vince McMahon / Triple H duo as the top managers of the WWE Corporation. They are either focused on (a) utilizing older WWE Superstars to make a short-term gain or (b) pushing the wrong full-time wrestlers to main event level. For (a), the WWE has given us the returns of the Rock, Brock Lesnar, Batista, and now the WWE debut of Sting while retaining the Undertaker for the once-a-year performance at Wrestlemania and Triple H for an occasional match. In each case, those wrestlers are taking up spots of full-time performers and yet for the most part, have been busts in their return. The Rock produced 2 mediocre matches with John Cena and ditto with CM Punk, and yet Rocky went 3-1 in those matches. Seriously! Batista returned after about a 4 year hiatus to not only win the Royal Rumble, but to reportedly be scheduled to win the WWE Title at Wrestlemania 30 against Randy Orton. Fans, thankfully, rejected this and forced the WWE to change their booking to let Daniel Bryan win the WWE Title against Batista/Orton instead. Brock Lesnar, of course, has been a wrecking ball throughout the entire WWE.

Part-time wrestlers, many of which debuted with the WWE more than 12 years ago (Batista, Lesnar) with others having their peak years 15 years ago (Rock, Triple H). And Sting... He's one of my all-time favorites, but damn, not enough "Just for Men" in the world could hide his gray hair in his 50's. I'm sure that many younger fans could care less about an older guy from a promotion that died during 2001 (WCW)..

Do you start to see where CM Punk was getting at for his 2013 losses during his recent interview with Colt Cabana? He went 0-4 against the Rock (twice), Undertaker, and Brock Lesnar during 2013. Sure, those 3 part-time superstars can still draw, but the fact remains that those guys are avoiding most RAW shows for the year and aren't appearing on WWE Houseshows. CM Punk was and the icing on the cake was seeing Batista walk into the WWE to handed a Wrestlemania main event opportunity. How on earth could anyone not blame CM Punk for being mad? Instead of trying to build up the full-time performers, the WWE keeps trying short-term gimmicks to get Pay Per View buys and now, WWE Network subscriptions.

WWE has built up Brock Lesnar too much by sacrificing important pillars to its promotion. Instead of Brock ending the streak, why not give it to a NXT call-up instead? Undertaker is clearly getting older and thus, someone like Roman Reigns could beat him and fans would believe it. Bray Wyatt would have been perfect to "end the streak" for 2015's Wrestlemania 31, for example, and he could have earned the crown of being the mythical WWE character from the Undertaker. Randy Orton needs a big win in his career and getting revenge on the Undertaker, which HBK and Triple H could not, would be a major feat for him.

Destroying John Cena at SummerSlam 2014 was uncalled for. To be consistent, I said that John Cena losing to the Rock at Wrestlemania 28 was also a mistake. You DO NOT sacrifice your top babyface wrestler for part-timers, especially cleanly. In the case of SummerSlam 2014, it was a destruction of Cena and their follow-up match was such a joke. Ditto for their Royal Rumble 2015 effort. SummerSlam was such a deflating moment for the WWE and John Cena and the only person that it helped was Brock Lesnar. Ratings SummerSlam 2014 has been "meh" and like what was seen following Wrestlemania 28's Rock defeat of John Cena, many loyal WWE fans are upset about Cena losing to outside guys. Cena is clearly WWE's #1 draw and yet the WWE attempted to get that short-term pop by appealing to part-time wrestlers who have NO interest in wrestling full-time. Cena does... You hear no complaints about wrestling houseshows and doing many appearances. Ever!

At the expense of their own full-time performers or legacies, the WWE just destroyed itself by building up Brock Lesnar to be too strong. He could easily get on the mic after a UFC or Bellator match and brag about how great he was in the WWE and can win anywhere. I know, pro wrestling is pre-determined, but wrestling is all about heat... When Lesnar has too much heat and his opponents in the WWE lack heat or credibility to appear convincing to defeat him, long-term damage is done when you let Lesnar destroy everybody.

Dana White is LAUGHING at the WWE right now. Not only is he going to steal their disgruntled CM Punk performer, but now he gets his former UFC Heavyweight Champion and destroyer of the WWE back into his promotion. What a steal and Lesnar, thanks to his previous history of drawing 1,000,000 Pay Per View buys, will be worth every penny.

WWE needs to let Brock Lesnar go, say "goodbye" to the Rock, never let Triple H or Undertaker wrestle again, and let Batista make as many Guardians of the Galaxy sequels that he wishes to make. Push your full-time wrestlers and listen to your fans. However and this is my part (b) discussion from above, just because Vince/Triple H personally loves Alberto Del Rio (gone), Sheamus, Miz, Jack Swagger, and now Roman Reigns, doesn't mean that the majority of fans will throw money at them. Recent history shows how WRONG the WWE has been at selecting their newest WWE Superstar to anoint as the top guy. Listen to your fans when guys like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt, Cesaro, and Dean Ambrose are getting over and figure out how to properly push and use them. If confused, just watch your own WWE Network to see how to book wrestlers properly.

WWE runs the risk of becoming a total joke when they actually pull the trigger on Roman Reigns defeating Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title at Wrestlemania 31. Roman Reigns is NOT ready for prime time, let alone looking credible in defeating Brock Lesnar who has been booked to be unstoppable. WWE runs the risk of many fans leaving the WWE to follow UFC/Bellator with that specific loss.

GREAT to be Brock Lesnar... He's gonna get PAID!

SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE!

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