Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon Are Reportedly Still at Odds Over Contract Negotiations

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon are reportedly still at odds over contract negotiations between each other. As previously reported, things between both parties got so intense during the Feb. 23 edition of “Monday Night Raw” that Lesnar walked out and didn’t appear on the program as previously advertised.

These differences were then reported to be about Lesnar’s future with WWE. It’s well known that a bidding war is about to begin for Lesnar’s services, as his three-year contract with WWE comes to a close, MMA promotions such as UFC (where Lesnar has reigned as Champion before) and Bellator are now knocking upon the Beast’s door.

A stalemate in negotiations is reportedly what sent Lesnar out the door on Feb. 23, where McMahon stood firm on his offer to Lesnar, and Lesnar stated that he wants something different. According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, even two weeks after Lesnar’s walk-out and appearance during the March 9 edition of “RAW,” relations between “The Beast Incarnate” and “The Boss” are still unsavory.

Dave Meltzer says the following about the situation,

“Regarding the contract issues with Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon, nothing has changed from two weeks ago.

Logically, it would not be a surprise if they don’t until after WrestleMania. For Lesnar, the best bargaining position is not today. There are two ways of looking at his best timing. The old-school wrestling way would say his best timing is the day before or day of the show. The big picture way of looking at his best timing would be the day his current contract expires and after he gets a solid offer from UFC, or Bellator.

Lesnar has to use the threat of going to UFC for all it’s worth and he can’t truly use the UFC as leverage until he’s able to legally negotiate to the level he has an offer he can use. 

Lesnar’s timing for the most part has been fortuitous. WWE’s network numbers are up, but they need to stay up or the stock market will turn on a dime against WWE. The network numbers are not reliant on talent as we’ve seen, or even booking. It’s all about gimmick offers and big show timing. A crappy WrestleMania or Royal Rumble build is likely to mean more for network subscriptions than a super build for any other match, or gaining or losing marquee talent. However, the network being up is fortuitous for him because WWE is no longer cost cutting like crazy, and wouldn’t be as reluctant to offer the type of deal Lesnar has gotten on his last two contracts.

The C.M. Punk situation also worked in his favor. WWE is so desperate publicly to claim they don’t share a fan base with MMA. The obvious situation is that with a percentage, they are denying the obvious, and with another percentage, they are correct. WWE’s difficulty in drawing in arenas that have had a UFC event the same week pretty much tells the tale about them not being competition from a live event status. The historical rise and falls of WWE numbers coinciding with those of UFC as a yin-yang could be viewed as coincidental, but not when WWE PPVs, including WrestleMania, have been clearly hurt if a big UFC event is on the same weekend. But with Punk leaving, if Lesnar follows, there will be questions asked about losing talent, even though there is probably nobody else on the roster this would matter to. Nobody else is crazy enough or headstrong like Punk, and over enough with Dana White or Lorenzo Fertitta, to be able to make that move. And nobody else on the roster is like Lesnar. 

Right now he could try the power play of not agreeing to drop the title unless he gets the terms he wants, and that would be what wrestlers in the past would do in the same situation. But the title isn’t taken as seriously now and he doesn’t have that power written into his contract. The implication would be that he could be viewed in breach, different from non-contract days. In the end, one wouldn’t think there would be an issue of him dropping it, although it’s not like there aren’t numerous cases of that exact same thing happening in WWE history.

In the end, the belief still is that Lesnar will end up staying in WWE because it makes the most sense because of his age. The only question is if Lesnar has some Punk mentality in him, in the sense he wants to try one last time to accomplish something in sports. If he does sign a new deal, his window is closed for good. If he does have any competitive sports instinct left in him, it is possible it would be like Punk in the sense that a pro wrestling decision may be one he looks back on with the “what if?” question and has regrets. Honestly, I don’t buy that situation, but it is at least a possibility.

He can always take one last chance, because the reality is, if he signs to do a few UFC fights, as long as he doesn’t have too much shine knocked off, he can still come back to pro wrestling. Perhaps he could even up his value with a successful run, or at the least, up his value to Vince McMahon, who is more likely to overpay to bring back an outsider than he is to pay someone who never left.

But if Lesnar had that, he wouldn’t have left UFC when he did. The only wild card is that he’s really fully healthy and three years ago when he left, he wasn’t. That is certainly what they’ve been wanting people to believe for the last six months ever since the game started being played.

Right now, I’m told the situation is that neither Vince nor Lesnar wants to budge from their current position. To make the deal, one, or more likely both, will probably have to budge. And in the end, both know it, and right now there is no pressure on Lesnar to be the one to budge. 

He can walk into UFC and he has the opportunity to make more money than in wrestling, and he may be able to cut a sweet deal in Bellator, but when you look at the numbers they gave Rampage Jackson, that’s not even in the ballpark of what it would take for Lesnar, and you’d need big-time PPV money to put what Lesnar would want on the table.”

Editor’s Note:
It will truly be interesting to see what happens on March 30 and beyond with Lesnar and WWE. Very interesting, to say the least.