KB’s Review: Beast Mode Is Back And That’s How It Should Be

Bear with me on this one. Earlier this week, Brock Lesnar cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the Universal Title for the third time. Given that there have been eight champions, that’s quite a bit of dominance, especially when the title is only about three years old and Lesnar has held the title for about five hundred days more than anyone else. All that being said, Lesnar winning the title back at Extreme Rules was the right call and the only one the company could have realistically made.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: I don’t like this either. Lesnar winning the title back feels like going with the safe route that we’ve been down for years now. It’s annoying, it doesn’t help get us anywhere new and it’s another case where the stars that have been built up are shoved to the back for the sake of going with another old school star. Oh and how awesome is it going to be to have an absentee champion again after just three months of a full time one?

At the end of the day though, it makes the most sense to put the title back on him. Lesnar has certain attributes that make it hard to go with someone else and while that might not be the best thing for the hardcore fan, it makes a lot of sense from the company, which is going to make the decision that works for them business wise. That’s what we’re going to take a look at today: why Lesnar is champion again and some of the positives that come from it.

First and foremost, Lesnar is one of the few real stars that the company has left. You can point to whatever reasons you want (and there are a ton of them) about how WWE needs to create more stars and how this doesn’t make the problem any better, but there is little denying Lesnar’s status. He comes off as one of the biggest deals the company has to offer for all kinds of reasons.

How can you not dig this guy:

You can attribute it to his UFC background, his size and power, his look, the way he’s been protected, his history or whatever else, but Lesnar feels more important than anyone else. You know as soon as that music hits that something is about to go down and it isn’t likely to be good. That reaction when the music hits is what makes fans want to see what Lesnar is doing and it’s severely lacking from almost anyone else (Maybe they need better music?) and Lesnar has that quality in spades.

To tie into that, and probably top it in a lot of ways, WWE needs something to give them a shot in the arm. I know Lesnar feels like the safe bet, but what they were doing with Seth Rollins pretty clearly was not working. You can blame that on a lot of things (pick any two of the following: Baron Corbin feud, Rollins not being all that interesting, the Becky Lynch story, a lack of good heels, having Lesnar looming over him less than two months after beating him, BURN IT DOWN having no meaning and still being called the Beastslayer when the Beast is right there) but there isn’t much of a way around it.

Lesnar is just a bigger deal and someone that is going to draw more interest than anyone else they can focus on. Now that he has the title again, WWE can go about taking the title from him and building up the next big thing as a result. Now given their track record so far, I don’t see that as going well, but it’s a blueprint they’re familiar with and they can at least give it a good shot. Assuming they don’t go with Rollins or Roman Reigns again (This time for EXTRA sure!), they might be able to make a new star so they don’t have to focus so much on Lesnar and we can finally break this cycle once and for all.

That’s what it really comes back to: WWE needs the star power to get fans interested again, as they seem to have either given up on or are incapable of drawing in an audience with interesting stories and quality storytelling. Instead it’s the usual quick fix of showing off older stars (like with next week’s Raw Reunion, because the idea works) and that’s where Lesnar fits in as both a current and former star.

At the same time, remember that the FOX move is coming a lot sooner than you might have realized. There isn’t much time left to cover things as we move closer to the October 4 start date and WWE had to do something. SmackDown Live’s ratings, as well as Monday Night Raw’s, are down and if you put interest in the Monday show, the Tuesday one is likely to follow. WWE needed to do something to calm down the FOX and USA executives and this probably their best bet in the mid range term.

Maybe he could be a star:

The other major reason to put the title back on Lesnar is the anticipation of him showing up. With the roster being as huge as it is and with as much television time as they have to fill every week, there are only so many people who haven’t been seen to death. That certainly isn’t the case with Lesnar, who wrestles a handful of times a year. He still feels like a special attraction, which just goes back to the star power deal all over again: Lesnar feels different because he is different in so many ways, including not having been run into the ground by trotting him out there for a match every single week.

On a more personal note, the move gets rid of the eternally annoying Money in the Bank briefcase only about two months after it was put into action in the first place. Now that everyone else doesn’t have Lesnar hovering over them with the briefcase, it might actually seem like some of them matter a little bit more and aren’t just the middle management villain of the month.

Consider Corbin (I know, I know). How much of a threat was he when it was all about who won the title and got to deal with Lesnar and the briefcase? You’re not going to get very far with that as your main selling point. “When I win the title, I can come up with all new ways to cower before Lesnar and avoid him cashing in on me!.” That doesn’t quite the have best ring in the world but at least now people can come after the title instead of having it and then treating Lesnar like the monster in their closet at night. If you have someone who feels like a top villain, they could go somewhere, but that wasn’t working with the briefcase around.

You can’t see this enough:

Finally, you now have the easy layup of a rematch between Lesnar and Rollins at Summerslam. Since there is so little time between Extreme Rules and Summerslam and the regimes are changing anyway, there is a lot of logic to going with a rematch for the title instead of trying to put in some big match that hasn’t had the time to be fleshed out. As has been the case with a lot of the issues with the whole situation, this might not be the most interesting choice in the world (I wasn’t exactly thrilled with it either) but it makes the most sense given the situation that everyone is currently in.

Overall, Lesnar winning the title again might not be the most fun thing in the world, but it’s what makes the most sense considering where we are at the moment. You can list off probably a dozen reasons why that is a major problem for WWE (and it certainly is), but there is little denying that Lesnar is the biggest star they have at the moment. Putting the title back on him isn’t going to fix all of their problems, but it’s going to be the safest pick they can have. Until WWE fixes their long term issues, get used to being in Beast Mode.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28 wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.

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