Opinion

Why Brock Lesnar’s WWE Exit Can’t Come Soon Enough

Published

6 years ago

April 18, 2018

The crowd fell almost silent as the bell was rung, and an air of disappointment washed over the entire arena in New Orleans. Brock Lesnar, rather surprisingly, pinned Roman Reigns clean at WrestleMania 34 last Sunday to retain his WWE Universal Championship.

This reaction was nothing to do with the fact that the supposed villain had overcome the hero of the piece, nor was it that we wanted to see Roman finally conquer his long-time foe. It was the realisation that Lesnar would be sticking around in WWE for a while longer and would be remaining our champion. But he’s a big draw, right? Surely, we should be happy to have such a big name in the company? Brock was at one time a fan favourite, and as recently as a couple of years ago was still looked upon favourably by the WWE Universe, but a now virtually non-existent schedule and an even more non-existent move set have seen him drop way down in a lot of people’s estimations.

What occurred at WrestleMania was wildly different from what everybody was expecting. After virtually a full year of build up and hype, Reigns was nailed on to emerge victorious, conquer the beast and finally pluck that thorn from his side. The fact that Brock had already announced his return to UFC and was yet to sign a new WWE contract only served to add more fuel to the fire and made the result a foregone conclusion. But it was not to be. WWE shocked the world by having Brock retain and added insult to injury by having him decimate Reigns. The Big Dog was left battered and bloodied in a brutal finish to the match, taking six of Brock’s F5’s along the way.

A man so tough, he grew a third arm just for extra punching fun.

The Beast Incarnate was now not only standing atop of WWE mountain with the Universal Championship in his grip but he also had a brand new spanking WWE deal. The company swiftly announced that Lesnar had signed on the dotted line and would take on Reigns yet again at the Greatest Royal Rumble PPV in Saudi Arabia later this month. There’s every reason to believe that Brock will lose the gold and finally be on his way, but we’ve been fooled into thinking that multiple times now. The rematch makes no sense on one hand. Roman, the challenger, lost his title opportunity in New Orleans, therefore he should have to earn another shot. Then on the other hand it makes a little sense. WWE want Reigns to win the belt and receive a great reaction from the crowd. He is inexplicably adored in countries like India and Arabia, so his victory will go down a treat and leave Vince McMahon stroking his ego some more, thinking we have all taken to Reigns finally. It’ll be interesting to see how much the boo’s and jeers intensify 3 nights later when WWE return to the States…

However, all may not be well with WWE’s relationship with Lesnar. We’ve seen various reports from reliable sources in recent weeks that Lesnar and Vince had a heated backstage confrontation after the curtain fell at WrestleMania which supposedly led to the champ throwing his Universal Championship belt at the boss. Something like this coming out can only serve to cause damage to the WWE Universe’s already poor perception of Lesnar. It is well documented that he has very little time or respect for people both inside and outside of the company, so adding into the mix his diva like behaviour will surely convince WWE to finally act and cut ties.

I for one will be thrilled to see Lesnar leave. Part timers and nostalgia still have a large part to play in WWE, but with Lesnar it has always felt different. Whenever Stone Cold, The Rock or Undertaker return you can see how pleased they are to be back. Lesnar doesn’t give even the smallest of fucks. He is widely perceived as entitled and lacking any sort passion for the business. He simply can’t wrestle and relies on brute strength with no real move set to speak of. He has failed to distance himself from his MMA background and operates as if he is still in the Octagon of UFC. WWE tried their best to use these well-known facts to help get Roman over. He spent weeks calling out Lesnar over his inadequacies during the build to their showdown, though it did little to help Roman’s cause. Despite all of this, the main source of distaste towards Brock will forever come from his limited work schedule. Regardless of your feelings towards Reigns, at least we will see the title every week once it is around his waist.

This image is seared in my mind forever. I struggle to perform sexually because of it.

Throughout the last 16 months, Lesnar has competed in only 21 matches. That’s spread over roughly 70 episodes of RAW, monthly PPV’s, Big 4 PPV’s and any live shows along the way. By comparison, WWE champion AJ Styles has competed in over 200 matches in that same period. Lesnar’s sporadic appearances have often forced WWE to work around him, to focus less on the main event scene and close the show with mid carders. For guys like The Miz it was a blessing in disguise. His 2017 was out of this world, but it says something when the Intercontinental Championship scene is having to take centre stage in the absence of your ‘top guy’. The build to SummerSlam last year was great, with Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman and Reigns putting in all the hard work, but it always felt like it was lacking something. Simply put, its difficult to build a proper storyline when your champion is never around.

The worst thing about Lesnar for me is that even when he does show up, his matches are almost always trash. They aren’t even close to being main event quality considering the absurd amount of money he receives for them. In a day and age when WWE can regularly churn out 5 star matches from the likes of Styles, Seth Rollins, Nakamura and Finn Balor this doesn’t sit well with us fans. The frustrating thing is that Lesnar is capable of putting on good matches from time to time. His champion vs champion meeting with Styles at Survivor Series last year was phenomenal (pun intended) and the fatal 4 way at SummerSlam was a match of the year contender. These instances are so few are far between that even when they do come around, it’s still very hard to justify his prolonged absence. Not to mention that his opponents, especially in the case of Styles, must put in almost all the groundwork to protect Lesnar.

When he eventually does turn up and puts on an underwhelming performance in a main event or showcase match, as he did with Reigns at WrestleMania, it’s infuriating. It’s all too easy to conclude that the majority of that is due to a lack of effort. You see it in every sport in the world. LeBron James or Cristiano Ronaldo can have bad spells but will always eventually come good, they know their poor performances can have negative effects on others around them. This has far too often been the case with Lesnar in recent times. His matches with Strowman, Goldberg, Joe, Reigns and all others have failed to live up to the hype, but he does nothing to improve. He’ll take 3 months off, come back and let the other guy do all the work.

Even Paul Heyman is confused to why all Brock does is shout. The man is the living, breathing embodiment of ANGERRRRR

The first time I saw Lesnar take somebody to Suplex City, I loved it. It was a fun thing which you just knew was going to take off, especially with the live crowds. However, either a change in direction from WWE or Lesnar personally have led to this once coveted destination turning into a holiday from hell. Fans will now regularly boo Lesnar’s heavy handed offence and have stopped counting along to multiple suplex’s. The key reason for that must be Lesnar’s shift to a much less varied style. His matches have become droll parodies of themselves. It’s 10 minutes of German suplex’s and F5’s, sporadic bursts of direct punches and unnecessary violence accompanied by potato faced screams.

With everything in mind, it’s impossible not to want WWE to bid farewell to Lesnar. His departure would change the landscape of WWE in a huge way and lead us to a new dawn where the main event on the biggest night of the year doesn’t get drowned out by “this is awful” chants. A RAW without Lesnar could be centred around a younger and more talented superstar who is available every night of the week. Rollins and Balor have both shown what they can do in a main event spot, Joe and Strowman are two of the most over superstars in recent years with bags of potential and NXT houses tonnes of future stars. For now, the most obvious plan is to have Reigns dethrone Lesnar and open a bevy of top tier challengers coming forward to claim their spot.

The roster is currently the best that it has ever been. So good in fact that WWE opted to have John Cena v Undertaker, two of the biggest names in the company’s history, be a last-minute WrestleMania add-on. The women’s division, despite dipping recently, has been outstanding for the last couple of years. NXT is without a shadow of a doubt the A show right now, with younger and hungrier talent chomping at the bit.

WWE do not need Lesnar. They didn’t last time, they don’t this time and they certainly won’t need him going forward. The Next Big Thing is no longer Brock Lesnar. The Next Big Thing is waiting in the wings…

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About Chairshot Radio Network

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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

Published

2 months ago

August 2, 2024

Adam Balaz

It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?