Brock Lesnar: Not Done with WWE

[Hanley!]

I don't know what they should do now really, because no matter who wins it seems far from ideal.

Reigns is painfully unprepared for this main event. I'm not a blind hater of the guy. A year ago if you had asked me if I'd rather see Reigns or Bryan main event Wrestlemania 31, I would have said Reigns. I probably would have said it even six months ago. But they did nothing to prepare Reigns for that spot. He never got over enough with the fans as a singles performer, they didn't let him work any interesting angles and he hasn't even feuded with Lesnar at all. They've barely interacted. How often is the main event of Wrestlemania not booked as part of a personal feud?

If Reigns wins the title, the fans will shit all over it. His career can go one of three ways from there. They either realise their colossal error and depush him and his career is ruined forever. Or they keep pushing him regardless and create an even more horrific version of John Cena: someone who has no in-built fanbase and was disliked almost from day one, which I have to believe will spell disaster for their ratings. Or they turn him heel.

Having him win and remain face is therefore a horrible idea, no matter which way you slice it. And given that Reigns' future headline status in WWE is far from certain right now, I'd much rather we not crown another champion who fans can't even remember 10 years from now. That stuff degrades the title and the company's history.

Turning him heel to win the championship won't be much better because he'd be turning heel on Brock Lesnar, and Lesnar cannot work as a face right now. He's not around enough, which makes him appear entitled. Which is not a face trait. He needs Paul Heyman to keep his stories going when he's off television, and nobody is going to look like a face with Paul Heyman as his manager. And finally, everything about Lesnar just says heel right now. He's ruthless, he's dangerous and he doesn't give a shit about anything. That character cannot be the hero. It doesn't work.

And again, Reigns isn't working as a face, but that doesn't mean he'll necessarily work as a heel either. Putting the title on a guy who has so far been a failed project is still a risky venture.

The alternative is that Lesnar keeps the title and that doesn't sound great either. Lesnar has been the best champion in years, I agree. He looks great, and the belt looks great. But the show sucks worse now than it has maybe ever, and I don't think those things are mutually exclusive. We've done the whole absent champion thing, and we've suffered from it and now it's time to go back to a champion who's going to show up.

Besides, Lesnar's reign has gone on long enough. It should end soon. Very soon, or it will get tiresome. It's time for him to drop the belt. Or a memorable reign risks ending in an anti-climax (though that might be unavoidable at this point, considering how they've booked his Wrestlemania match).

If I had to choose, I'd say have Lesnar win. But make him drop the title over the next month. Either at Raw after Wrestlemania or at Extreme Rules. What you do with Reigns from there, I don't know. I'd try to pull him into a feud with someone else to get him away from the title for a while. Maybe turn him "tweener", much as I loathe the word, to see if a badass face character can be salvaged or if he should turn heel.

I still think the best option WWE has for the title in 2015 is to put it on Rollins soon and have him work with all the faces on the roster. If he cashes in on Lesnar, he can have pay per view matches with Orton, Cena, Bryan, Ziggler, Ambrose, maybe Reigns, maybe Lesnar. He could hold it until Survivor Series and have a really good run. That's not possible for Reigns or Lesnar right now.

[Everlong]

It's still unbelievable to me that we haven't seen Bryan vs. Lesnar yet, and that WWE dropped the ball to give us that match at WrestleMania.

[VaderBomb]

Why would Vince rehire and give Brock "full-time pay for part-time work" if he's going to lose the championship in a few days to Reigns who isn't even over with the fans while chasing the belt?

It seems likely that Lesnar is walking out of WrestleMania as the champ following this news.

[Locke]

Brock won't drop the title now until he's taken Punk's record, says Vince's ego.

[Racing Guy]

The WWE has really painted themselves into a corner with this one. You can't have Reigns win because the fans will hate him even more. If he wins, you take away from all the hype that they've built up with Lesnar. Plus Brock will be around for at least a couple more years so why have him take a loss now? Heyman can't turn on Brock because they've already done that angle before. They have no good option at this point.

[PorkChop]

There's actually no good outcome for this match.

[The Legend]

Why would Vince rehire and give Brock "full-time pay for part-time work" if he's going to lose the championship in a few days to Reigns who isn't even over with the fans while chasing the belt?

It seems likely that Lesnar is walking out of WrestleMania as the champ following this news.

Because he looks at Brock Lesnar as a draw whether he's champ or not.

[Str8Shooter]

Why is Reigns ruined if he loses? I don't get that line of thinking. Brock has been built up as an unbeatable monster for a long time and is easily the most credible guy on the roster in terms of his ability to destroy people. If you can lose to anyone and not look terrible, it's him.

[Locke]

Why is Reigns ruined if he loses? I don't get that line of thinking. Brock has been built up as an unbeatable monster for a long time and is easily the most credible guy on the roster in terms of his ability to destroy people. If you can lose to anyone and not look terrible, it's him.

Agree. Honestly, all they'd have to do is make Reigns hang in there a bit and look better than Cena did, and then when Brock wins have him help Reigns up and shake his hand or do a nod of respect or something, and walk off. That way it ties into that whole "I don't respect you - But you will" thing they said on that weird snowed-in RAW, and also the whole "If I can't take that title I'm taking a piece of you" or whatever. Maybe Reigns does so well he teaches Brock a bit of humility? I dunno. They could swing something and have Reigns lose just fine while not "ruining him."

[The Legend]

Why is Reigns ruined if he loses? I don't get that line of thinking. Brock has been built up as an unbeatable monster for a long time and is easily the most credible guy on the roster in terms of his ability to destroy people. If you can lose to anyone and not look terrible, it's him.

Agree. Honestly, all they'd have to do is make Reigns hang in there a bit and look better than Cena did, and then when Brock wins have him help Reigns up and shake his hand or do a nod of respect or something, and walk off. That way it ties into that whole "I don't respect you - But you will" thing they said on that weird snowed-in RAW, and also the whole "If I can't take that title I'm taking a piece of you" or whatever. Maybe Reigns does so well he teaches Brock a bit of humility? I dunno. They could swing something and have Reigns lose just fine while not "ruining him."

You really want to get Reigns over, when Brock shakes his hand have Reigns deck him.

[VaderBomb]

Why is Reigns ruined if he loses? I don't get that line of thinking. Brock has been built up as an unbeatable monster for a long time and is easily the most credible guy on the roster in terms of his ability to destroy people. If you can lose to anyone and not look terrible, it's him.

Agree. Honestly, all they'd have to do is make Reigns hang in there a bit and look better than Cena did, and then when Brock wins have him help Reigns up and shake his hand or do a nod of respect or something, and walk off. That way it ties into that whole "I don't respect you - But you will" thing they said on that weird snowed-in RAW, and also the whole "If I can't take that title I'm taking a piece of you" or whatever. Maybe Reigns does so well he teaches Brock a bit of humility? I dunno. They could swing something and have Reigns lose just fine while not "ruining him."

You really want to get Reigns over, when Brock shakes his hand have Reigns deck him.

I was thinking of this outcome the other night and while it's not ideal it could be likely.

Brock beats Reigns, Reigns refuses to shake his hand and lays him out, joining The Authority which will lead to dissension between Reigns and Rollins. They can book Lesnar for the time as the heel that is too good to join Triple H's faction. Rollins eventually turns face to take the title off Lesnar sometime in the spring/early summer. Rollins is killing it as a heel right now but in order to turn Reigns, the limelight will most likely get shifted in Roman's favor. Rollins can get over as a face easily at this point and I wouldn't put it past Vince to derail his heel push in favor of attempting to get Reigns over in the long run.

Seth has to use his MITB contract before July and my prediction is that Brock faces Taker in a rematch at SummerSlam. Therefore at SummerSlam they book Brock/Taker II with Taker going over (It's Vince and it's bound to happen whether we like it or not) and Rollins vs Reigns for the title with Reigns winning. Lesnar can win the championship back from Reigns at Survivor Series, in turn joining the Authority which will make Reigns turn face (this time, a bit more over if all goes according to the McMahon plan).

Then at WM32 in Texas, we get Taker vs Sting and Brock vs Bryan and the Authority goes away forever after the faces rally together under the leadership of Daniel Bryan with some help from Stone Cold Steve Austin in an anti-Triple H/Steph type role.

[Hanley!]

Why is Reigns ruined if he loses? I don't get that line of thinking. Brock has been built up as an unbeatable monster for a long time and is easily the most credible guy on the roster in terms of his ability to destroy people. If you can lose to anyone and not look terrible, it's him.

I don't think it's so much because a loss to Lesnar hurts him in kayfabe. It's what it represents when it comes to his push. They decided to have him win the Rumble and face Lesnar at Wrestlemania and had clearly set everything up so that he could become their next guy. So now if he loses to Lesnar, that's not just a loss. That's the company admitting that they were wrong and that this isn't the guy. That's how fans will see it. And that'll be hard to recover from for Reigns.

I think Reigns is ruined anyway though. They've put him in a situation where he really cannot win people over. If he loses to Lesnar, the company will have given up on him and we'll think of him as a failed experiment and a chump. If he wins against Lesnar, we'll resent him for getting the title before he's ready and he'll be hated at every arena he goes to. And it'll be worse than Cena, because at least Cena was popular first and had a built-in fan base of kids when crowds started to turn on him. There's no way Reigns can become the merchandise-spinner that Cena was 10 years ago.

So they'll have to either depush him, persist with his push even when it's costing them money, or turn him heel. The last one seems like the only good option at this point, but with Rollins and Lesnar firing on all cylinders at the moment, I'm not so sure there's room for him at the top of the card as a heel either. If they could contrive some way for him to join the Authority, that would be for the best. Maybe as Rollins' muscle man. They can try the face turn with him again a year or two down the line then, if they think they can make it work this time.