10th Sep2020

Opinionated: Brock Lesnar leaving WWE is a good thing

by Chris Cummings

Now, this isn’t just going to be an article in which an anti-Brock guy rips on Brock Lesnar. I mean, sure… I’m not really a fan of Brock Lesnar in 2020. Back in the mid-2000s when Lesnar was working with the likes of Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle, putting on Iron Man matches on Smackdown and being positioned as the “Next Big Thing”, I was all for this big beast of a wrestler being given that gigantic push to the top of the card. He was a new face, he could work, and he had a look that made everybody stop and take notice. It’s 2020 now, some 18 years after he made his WWE debut, and I feel like it’s way beyond the time for him to hang up his WWE gear and step away.

So, it’s been in the news (and by news, I mean wrestling news) this past week or so that Brock Lesnar is now a free agent and no longer under a WWE contract. WWE have since removed his merchandise from their online shop, and there have been reports that “The Beast Incarnate” is negotiating with UFC again. Now, we’ve heard all of this before. We’ve heard these sorts of reports in which Lesnar talks to external companies but winds up back under the WWE banner again. This could very well happen here, but I think this is the right time for WWE to wave goodbye to Lesnar and for Lesnar himself to seek other opportunities elsewhere.

Brock has been one of the focal points of WWE since he made his return to the company back in 2012. For the past eight years we’ve seen Lesnar main event WrestleMania’s and various other pay-per-views. We’ve seen him hold WWE gold on many occasions for long periods of time. We’ve seen him come and go, seemingly at his discretion, and if I’m honest… it’s been tiresome for much of the time. He’s had some huge moments over his return tenure in WWE. He beat the snot out of John Cena upon his welcome-back to the company in 2012. He ended The Undertaker’s WrestleMania winning streak that most never thought would end, back in 2014. He’s closed the biggest show of the year with Roman Reigns in both 2015 and 2018. He destroyed beloved WWE Champion Kofi Kingston in mere seconds on an episode of SmackDown in 2019 to win that belt again. The guy has been portrayed as a monster, an unbeatable beast and a major face of the company for a long time. What else is there for him to do? He’s worked with most of the big stars in WWE. He’s captured countless titles. He’s won a Royal Rumble. He’s ended The Streak. Hell… he’s even a former King of the Ring. There’s basically nothing left for him to do, and so… he shouldn’t. It’s time to give way and let some other guys become “The Beast” of the WWE. It’s time to stop bringing back the Minnesota native every few months, have him destroy a younger full-time talent, and give him the belt for a few weeks. It’s time to change course without Brock Lesnar being involved.

Another positive related to Brock no longer being under a WWE deal, is that it opens up plenty of cash for WWE to sign some other talent (not that they really need any) or to pay some of their existing talent a little bit more and keep them on board. It’s also, and we’ve seen this come into play very recently, opened up the services on screen of Paul Heyman. Heyman has been the mouth-piece for Lesnar for almost two decades, and it’s about time somebody else was able to get some of that rub from one of the best talkers in WWE. They tried this before with Curtis Axel and Cesaro, but because Heyman was managing Lesnar at the time, both of these fell apart before they really began. Heyman, now, could do for someone else what he did for Lesnar and CM Punk, and offer that valuable verbal skill. We’ve seen Heyman align himself with Roman Reigns in the last week or so, so that could really help change how fans see Reigns, and ignite a brand-new heel in WWE in the process. If Lesnar was still in WWE, this wouldn’t be happening.

I think many fans have had their complaints about WWE’s reluctance or inability to often push and build new stars on their RAW and SmackDown brands. We’ve seen some exceptions to that rule, such as Daniel Bryan back in 2014, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Charlotte Flair, but generally the ability or willingness to build new stars has been lacking for a while. Lesnar is one of the part-time older names that many fans point to as one of the major problems with WWE being able to move forward. While WWE are still leaning on names from the past like Brock, Goldberg, The Undertaker, Kane, The Big Show and Triple H, it means they’re not fully investing in their full-time and younger wrestlers. This isn’t just a Brock thing. We saw it recently with The Fiend losing easily and cleanly to 53 year old Goldberg. This harmed Bray Wyatt’s character, but it also set a bad president to how fans view The Fiend going forward. He was weaker than a guy who has barely wrestled over the past 16 years and is twenty years his junior. Not good. Lesnar does the same thing, and although it’s less of an issue because Brock Lesnar is a genuinely unsettling bad-ass, it still doesn’t help when it comes to building up a future roster.

Brock has brought a lot to the world of WWE over the years. He’s provided some entertaining moments and matches since his first debut in which he decimated Spike Dudley with a massive powerbomb. Who can forget his big victory against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 19? His awesome loss to Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out 2004 in which Guerrero won the WWE Title for the first time? His 1-hour Iron Man Match on SmackDown in 2003 against Kurt Angle? His triple-threat match against John Cena and Seth Rollins at Royal Rumble 2015 in what many consider to be one of the best triple-threat matches of all time? He also brought many eyes to the WWE product when he returned from his run in UFC and in doing so may have been the reason that many fans of WWE are currently, well… fans of WWE. He’s a shoe-in as a Hall of Famer one day, and he’ll always be remembered as one of the big stars of the 2000s and 2010s in pro-wrestling history. Yes, it’s time for him to walk away and for WWE to live life without him, but he has certainly given plenty for us to fondly remember too. It’s just the right time for “The Conqueror” to conquer somewhere else.

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