Prior to Wrestlemania 28, rumors began online that former WWE champion, Brock Lesnar, had signed a contract to return to the WWE. The Raw following the event, Lesnar made a return to the company and started a feud with John Cena. I have to say, I didn’t expect Lesnar to return to the WWE, at least not after Wrestlemania, especially considering that he recently retired from MMA, where he was the highest paid fighter in the UFC. So far, the WWE has booked Lesnar really well and his return has built well to the Extreme Rules pay per view. One of the main reasons for this is his appearances have been short, but had an impact, which adds a special appearance to the storyline. A great example of this is when Lesnar returned to the company, the segment was only about five minutes but generated a lot of buzz for the WWE. The following week on Raw, the Cena/Lesnar brawl took place, which really added a lot to the storyline for a few different reasons. Most importantly, Cena accidentally got legitimately punched, which adds to the storyline of Lesnar bring legitimacy to the WWE and Cena bleeding also adds to the storyline because you rarely see blood on WWE TV.
Raw was in England the week after that and Lesnar obviously wasn’t going to travel to make a live appearance, but the video package they showed really helped develop the storyline. The video package and Lesnar’s subsequent promo during the contract signing this past week on Raw seemed to attempt to turn Lesnar heel as he seemed to be “anti wrestling” and above the WWE. I don’t know if Lesnar is going to get heat from the crowd because some of the audience wants to see Cena lose despite the opponent. Extreme Rules takes place in Chicago, which is one of the more noteable cities that is critical of John Cena and it’s also where CM Punk won the WWE title so it should be interesting to see the crowd reaction for the Lesnar vs. Cena match at the PPV.
Speaking of PPV, I think the WWE should take the UFC approach so to speak for booking Lesnar in matches and only have him actually wrestle at PPVs because people will have to pay to see him in a match, which allows the WWE to get the most return for their investment and again in adds a special appearance because Lesnar isn’t in action on Raw every week. It’s ironic that the WWE is using Lesnar’s notoriety from the UFC to generate PPV buys because the UFC did the exact same thing when they signed him to use his WWE fame. The storyline is based on Lesnar bringing legitimacy to the WWE and how the match at Extreme Rules is booked seems to be critical to the success of Lesnar’s run in the WWE. Fans have been watching Lesnar legitimately fight for the past few years and if the match at Extreme Rules looks unrealistic it could sour some fans on Lesnar in the WWE because worked MMA looks terrible. If Lesnar is going to use an MMA style in the WWE and it looks blatantly worked, it could halt the momentum on Lesnar’s return. The bottom line is the match generated buzz for the WWE and it gives fans to order the PPV, which is more important than it usually is for a PPV because the WWE has to give the fans a reason to order another PPV after they paid $60 to watch Wrestlemania. It should be interesting to see the match at Extreme Rules and the other feud during Lesnar’s run in the WWE.
Until next week
That’s My Story and I’m Sticking To It
Dr. Wrestling
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