Here we are once again. Sitting, scalpel in hand. Two days away from Brock Lesnar stepping into the ring to defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. When I started this "retrospective" so to speak, it was under the guise that this match at Wrestlemania COULD be his last. We all know better. Brock Lesnar sat down with ESPN's Michelle Beadle and announced both his retirement from MMA and his re-signing with the WWE, but more on that later…
Where were we? Oh Yeah. Lesnar had beaten the Undertaker. Ended the streak. Left fans dumbfounded, and the wrestling world completely shook. What does one do when accomplishing such a feat? You take a vacation until Summerslam.
Now, before we get to Summerslam, at the start of the road to Wrestlemania, Paul Heyman was touting that his client was the unnamed Number One Contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The match with taker was born out of the open contract Lesnar was granted to try to appease the beast, since he was not, in fact, the Number One Contender. So, when Cena won Money in the Bank… because Daniel Bryan was stripped of his title for not fighting enough… (The irony does not escape me as I write a trilogy of columns on Lesnar) – The Authority didn't want Cena as Champion. Heyman said he had a man who could correct that. So off we went with Cena vs. Lesnar 2.
This match hit the ground RUNNING, err… Brawling really is the better verb. Its pure chaos. The crowd was going GUANO all over the place. Lesnar was being heavily cheered. An F-5 rocked Cena early. Then Brock started germaning (I'll "verb" it if I want!) – and germaning. AND… GERMANING! The offense was methodical and violent. Cena tried to fight back. Key word… TRIED! Lesnar was a one man suplexing slash wrecking machine. The story was well done and the way this match went down was amazing and shocking. I can't recall seeing a Championship match like this, and it was fantastic. Rewatching this… the knees to the body from Lesnar are legit nasty looking. Also hilariously Paul screaming "HERE COMES THE PAIN!" for the suplexes is great.
The rally points for Cena were so well executed. The AA out of nowhere was a great choice considering how often despite the odds, Cena snatches victory from the jaws of defeat. Same with locking in the STF. Lesnar won this match and became the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. In the most impressive display of a whooping I can recall seeing in not just a match of this stature, but also for WWE's 2nd biggest show of the year!
An era was born.
I was skeptical of this. I had come around on Lesnar as a part time attraction. I wasn't sure about his schedule meshing well with being the Champion. Especially considering we got the rare occurrence of Lesnar working consecutive Pay Per Views. Night of Champions followed Summerslam, so of COURSE the WWE World Heavyweight Champion should defend on Night of Champions. If they wanted a long reign, though, this would mean we'd end up with some big breaks later in the calendar year. But maybe WWE wasn't keen on a long reign from Lesnar because what we got?
Cena wanted his rematch. The Authority was like "Bro, you're NUTS. You got destroyed. NO WAY we're going to let you have a rematch." He insisted, eventually they relented. So we had a rematch. Cena/Lesnar 3. Fans were torn thinking this would end up with Cena back being the Champion. WWE went out of their way to make Cena look ridiculously strong after the destruction he took on Summerslam (because of COURSE Cena can't look weak… ever, or at least… not for long) – The story Heyman preyed on the fact that to beat a Beast, Cena would have to BECOME a beast.
Again the reaction for Lesnar continues to be strong. Even against Taker. He's basically bordering on facedom. He's gone away from his cheating ways which plagued his earlier matches, especially with Triple H. This match was slightly more competitive. AA hit Lesnar kicked out at 1 and change. Then Brock locked in a Kimura. Lesnar did dominate early on. Knees and Germans were the order of the day. These two have great chemistry. All three of the matches were good, this one was the weakest of the three. Part of that is the finish. PART of that it was the same feel and recipe of their Summerslam match. It worked from a story aspect, but I always wish they would have sold the Summerslam match more, and used someone else here. I think Orton would have been a perfect opponent here. Plus I do want to see Lesnar vs. Orton, but? More on that later.
Ultimately booking Cena into this match and how they treat John? The finish, or non finish takes away from this one. If keeping the championship with Brock was the plan all along, and you were going to have Cena fight Lesnar at the Royal Rumble?! Why not let someone else fight Lesnar here? So earlier when I talked about Lesnar not cheating? Well… he doesn't technically cheat here. A third attitude adjustment, and another STF where Brock can't get to the ropes, or stay on the ropes, and a FOURTH AA, and before the count, Rollins attacks CENA?! Curb stomps Brock, goes to cash. Cena intercepts. Cena runs Rollins off. Lesnar retains in a strangely conceived finish (the writer is being KIND with that description) – But they save this with where they head with Lesnar's NEXT match, but before that:
With these two matches, in concert with the Punk and Taker matches we saw Lesnar really hitting a stride in a WWE ring since his return. Still a freak of nature athletically. Strong as a bull with the legit credentials as a fighter make for this excellent blend. After not seeming like they knew what they wanted to do with Brock when he returned? They found a great groove with him, his matches, and stories. The addition of Heyman, no doubt, helped with this.
And… We're… Back. This is one of the breaks I was dreading with Lesnar. He wrestles in August AND September. AND THEN?! *crickets chirp*
I was getting behind the sporadic, "Big Fight/Event" feel a Lesnar appearance gave off, but DAAAAAYYYYYYUUUUUMMMMM… this one wore on me. To not have the champion around in any fashion for, basically, three months was a bit too long. Thankfully the pay off for this time off was quite amazing.
We saw the story of this match kick off at Night of Champions. Rollins cost Cena and curb stomped Brock, but didn't successfully cash in. Cena still had a claim to title match. Rollins was awarded this spot because he helped in getting Cena to reinstate the Authority. Rollins continuing to claim he is the future of the WWE makes a huge step up the card for this match. The story and backstage segments especially involving Rollins and Lesnar really stood out. Rollins continued to build on his amazing 2014, where i considered him to be the WWE's MVP. So his spot in this match was well deserved, and he damn sure made the most of this opportunity!
Fun side note, I was AT this Pay Per View in Philadelphia. It was one of the best matches i've had the pleasure of seeing live. At one point in time my buddy who I went with was legit nearly ripping the sleeve of my Mizdow shirt off. Our section was jumping up and down, and most of the floor and lower bowl stayed standing for the whole match.
The reactions for the three in this match were interesting. One of the largest pops Rollins has gotten since turning on the Shield. Lesnar clearly the face by crowd reactions. This one hit the ground running. Suplexes, the suplex on J and J continues to be an awesome moment. Lesnar just throws suplexes on suplexes on suplexes. The release verticals were a nice tweak. So Lesnar dominates the first five minutes. Then Rollins and Cena team up on Brock. Brock gets another kick out of the AA at one. But the two on one to take out Brock is a good story. Try to slay the beast so they can have a chance! One thing that added to this match was with the thoughts that Roman Reigns was winning the Royal Rumble, a match with all three of these guys made sense. IF it was a "passing of the torch" type match with Cena, or the end of the Shield Saga with Rollins, or just if he is the one who can stop the beast.
This match was bell to bell awesome. There is so much excellence. It was paced perfectly. The crowd was on their feet early on and stayed standing. I wrote in a dissection about this night and the "Reigns Reaction" That this crowd was having the time of their life. It was so much fun. It was crazy to be where we were for this match, and where we finished the night.
The trio of AAs and then curb stomp on Lensar REALLY makes him seem like an indestructible character from your nightmares. Lesnar kept taking an inhuman beating. Tackled through barricades. Thrown through ring steps. And dude… kept… getting… up! He was Jason Voorhees. We saw Rollins channel his inner HBK with the elbow drop from the top rope onto Lesnar on the Spanish Announce Table. This led to a great section that was just Rollins and Cena. While they teased Lesnar being out. Stretcher made a cameo and everything. The last quarter of the match had all kinds of near falls and false finishes. Cena's pop up sit out power bomb was nice. Rollins helped maintain an advantage with J and J. I remember I was SURE after Cena's AA to J and J, his AA to Rollins was the end. Ditto with Rollins hitting the Curb Stomp. and then… the Phoenix Splash?!? THE GERMANS! THE BRIEFCASE SHOTS! THE CURB STOMP COUNTERED INTO THE F-5! THE… THE… THE…
Okay… I got a LITTLE worked up there. The last 4-5 minutes of this match are wrestling perfection. The back and forth. The finishers, kick outs, counters. It was Lesnar "took to the brink" for the first time since he lost to Triple H. It was a STAR making performance for Seth Rollins. It was yet ANOTHER classic that John Cena was a part of! Everything led to the Beast rising and retaining his WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Might have seen our match of the year in January. It'll certainly top some lists. Some said it was the best triple threat match they ever saw. If it isn't at the top of the list its near it!
Which leads us to THIS:
In 48 hours Brock Lesnar will defend his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the 2015 Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns. A match Reigns has been rumored to win for over a year. He's been tabbed as the NEXT guy since the Shield became such a break out entity. Throw in the added fact that this COULD have been Brock Lesnar's last match in the WWE for the foreseeable future? And the writing was on the wall.
BUT?!
As I said a couple thousand words ago, Brock has re-signed with the WWE. A three year deal. Which means? The finish to this match is a little more up in the air. They may still want to have Reigns have his Mania Moment. They can ALSO continue to have Brock Lesnar carry that title and continue to make his title defenses, MUST! SEE! This news sent a wave of energy through the IWC. At the very least the match's conclusion was now even more up in the air. They could go any which way, AND they still have:
No matter what happens, we KNOW we have three more years of Brock Lesnar. More matches. Hopefully more epic feuds. There are a laundry list of guys I'd love to see matches with. A one on one with Rollins. I mentioned Orton. Clearly him versus Daniel Bryan is the ULTIMATE Davis vs. Goliath. ANY of the NXT 5… With three more years there is a LOT they can do. There is even whisperings of a huge match between him and the Rock to help sell out "Jerruh World" (What this Eagles fan calls Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium.) There is a LOT on the table.
His return started off questionably. The Triple H trilogy definitely hurt him, and it seemed like the WWE wasn't entirely sure what to do with Brock for that first year plus. But they seemed to figure it out. He along with Heyman figured it out, and what we got was someone who has had one of the greatest years in Wrestling history. Yes, he wasn't around full time, but his impact has been amazing. He has altered the way we see wrestling. How the WWE sees a champion. He may not have another year like he's about to cap off, but dammit it will be entertaining to see him try!
Thanks for coming along this trip down memory lane. Enjoy Wrestlemania!
Till the next time, Scalpels down!
