Brock Lesnar: A Legacy of Legitimacy

* Big 10 College Wrestling Champion
* NCAA Division 1 National Wrestling Champion
* WWE Heavyweight Champion
* IWGP Heavyweight Champion
* UFC Heavyweight Champion

Marvel at what amounts to just a small snippet of Brock Lesnar’s championship accomplishments. I’m leaving out multiple fighting awards, PWI accolades, and college honors. My friend constantly calls Brock Lesnar a “human cheat code” and I truly feel that there could not be a more apt description of the man. He stands at 6’3” and weighs in at over 280 pounds of what appears to be pure muscle, and at one point in his life he could do a clean shooting star press. He came into MMA and professional wrestling and left nothing behind in his wake. And, as Paul Heyman loves to point out, he did a lot of it with a nearly life ending case of diverticulitis.

The man cannot be stopped.

This Sunday, a mere six days away, wrestling fans worldwide will sit down on their couches and watch Wrestlemania 31 (or as /r/squaredcircle calls it, Wrestlemania Play Logo). People will watch Seth Rollins take on Randy Orton, they will watch John Cena try to finally take down Rusev, they will watch seven men put life and limb on the line in a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, and they will watch Roman Reigns take on WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar in the main event of the evening. Fans dread this main event. Writers and forum commenters worldwide have already beaten that angle into the dirt. They do not want to see Roman Reigns be the one to defeat the one in twenty one and one. They refuse to accept what WWE is trying to spoon feed them. They all believe that Daniel Bryan or Dolph Ziggler should be in this spot. They all believe that Vince McMahon is dreadfully out of touch. Whatever.

I’m not here to write about that.

I’m here to write about Brock Lesnar.

People have their focus in the wrong place. People hate Roman Reigns so much that they forget that he is about to go toe to toe with a once in a lifetime athlete and performer. And honestly? That once in a lifetime athlete and performer still has a shot to walk out of Wrestlemania with that belt around his waist.

Roman Reigns’ and Brock Lesnar’s game of tug of war on Monday night proved one thing above all else. Fans do not want Roman Reigns to come within sniffing distance of that belt. A fairly tepid Staples Center crowd got real vocal when Roman Reigns touched that belt, and I guarantee you Vince heard them. Vince makes terrible decisions. He had Batista win the Royal Rumble last year. Remember? But ultimately, Vince listens. And just because he hasn’t listened yet, doesn’t mean he isn’t going to. Randy Orton and Batista in 2014 would not have felt like a Capital Punishment main event, let alone a Wrestlemania one. This year is a different story. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar can still feel like a Wrestlemania main event. Roman Reigns is willing to fight someone as he proved at Fast Lane. And all Brock Lesnar does is fight. Mania will be a fight.

Brock Lesnar just needs to win.

CM Punk, supposedly, ushered in the Reality Era with his infamous “pipe bomb” promo from Las Vegas. He took a sledgehammer to the fourth wall and said things that people thought they would never hear on an episode of Monday Night Raw. But, for the most part, the Reality Era has felt very devoid of real reality. However, the WWE fans are clamoring for reality. Or maybe, more accurately, the WWE fans are clamoring for legitimacy. They want Daniel Bryan in the top spot not because he is the best talker or the best looking. They want him there because he is the best wrestler and if you put him in the ring with Brock Lesnar the two of them would put on the best match.

They want legitimate competition.

Because even on a show filled with predetermined angles and fake fighters, they still want some sense that the best are being rewarded and “winning.” That’s why shows like NXT and Lucha Underground have the fan adoration that they do. These shows focus on putting great competitors in the ring with each other. Each match feels like it matters, because the wrestlers are trying to one up each other. It’s a natural environment of competition.

Brock Lesnar was made for competition. He got bored with collegiate wrestling so he went to pro wrestling. He got bored of pro wrestling so he tried his hand at football. After that he explored Japan and after that he went on to MMA. The man is a competitor and honestly, has slowly turned face over the last few weeks because the fans realize that he is the hungry one, not Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns feels mass produced. Brock Lesnar feels raw. Roman has shown one flash of being what the fans want in the match against Daniel Bryan. Brock Lesnar has shown it for his entire career.

The fans want someone that feels like he actually deserves to be a champion.

In the video I linked at the top of the article, Lesnar talks about how he might win the belt and will leave for UFC. These contract negotiations and the Lesnar walkout a few weeks ago have made the title situation far more interesting than any bit of Vince booking could have. And if Vince is listening? He’ll have Brock go over. He’ll have Brock disappear and show up whenever he wants to. In an ideal world, Brock holds the strap for a few more months or even another year. Every time he shows up, you get the special attraction, legitimate fight feel. Every contender feels important. Every match feels like life or death. That’s what the fans want.

If Roman Reigns wins, it feels like just another day at the office. It feels like Cena version 2.0 and Hogan version 3.0.

The ones that are truly remembered are the ones that stand out.

I pray that Brock signs an extension. I pray that Brock walks out as champion. I pray that Roman Reigns has a twenty minute fight and proves to us that he belongs and isn’t just some WWE produced pretty boy and that after Mania, can go on to have a hell of a career. But Mania isn’t his time.

The company as a whole needs to come out of this looking strong and legitimacy is the way to do it.

Brock Lesnar is the way to do it.

Writer’s Note: When I wrote this article, nothing about Brock had been announced. He just took fifteen minutes on Sportscenter to announce that he had signed a new contract with the WWE last night. This is a huge moment sports entertainment. Vince somehow got this news to break on a legitimate news outlet. This echoes everything I just spent this article writing about. Vince and the WWE care about legitimacy. Make this decision mean something. Let Brock win.

If you want to discuss this further, feel free to contact me @JustShillinglaw on Twitter!