Why Brock Lesnar is Starting to Lose His Appeal in WWE

By Trace Johnson | Sep 28, 2017

Brock Lesnar has been extraordinary from day one of his WWE career, but he has been as impactful as any superstar since debuting in 2002 inside and outside of the squared circle.

Brock Lesnar’s initial WWE run from 2002-2004 saw him climb to the top of the WWE in a short amount of time before calling it quits and walking away after a less than stellar match with Goldberg at WrestleMania 20. After several other adventures such as pro football and the UFC, Lesnar made his return to the WWE the night after WrestleMania 28 in 2012.

And since that return, Lesnar has been the most dominant force in the WWE over the past five years despite operating on a part-time basis. While many will say he doesn’t need to be on TV every week because it takes away the intrigue and specialness of when he is on TV, others aren’t so supportive of that claim.

Many criticize Lesnar’s WWE work schedule and think he needs to be on TV more than he is, especially while operating as the Universal Champion. He has had more appearances than usual in 2017 having already wrestled in 12 matches so far this year including five pay-per-view matches and seven live event/dark matches.

In addition, Lesnar has made several appearances on Monday Night Raw this year while serving as the Universal Champion. He’s been on TV more as of late, but that is not the issue at hand anymore.

Making Lesnar feel special by not having him on TV every week is a smart move business-wise, but it is not appropriate for the Universal Championship, Raw’s most important championship. Call it old-fashioned, but the world title needs to be on TV more frequently like it always has been.

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Lesnar can still be The Beast Incarnate without a championship because honestly, what does having a championship do for a man the stature of Lesnar? He is one of the most recognized athletes in the world regardless if he has a championship or not and some of his best work in the WWE has been without championship gold on the line. Having the title on Lesnar also takes away the opportunity from full-time, present-day stars.

Nobody will view Lesnar any differently if he is not the Universal Champion. The other issue involving Lesnar has been his one-on-one matches in recent memory. His one-on-one matches are becoming duplicated anymore with all of them feeling the same.

Lesnar has not competed in a televised one-on-one singles match that has gone over 10 minutes in duration since defeating Randy Orton at SummerSlam in 2016. With his amateur wrestling background, you’d expect an athlete the caliber of Lesnar to produce more than he has been producing in recent memory or at least on the level he was producing from 2002-2004.

Much of this can probably be attributed to how the WWE books him and how much the company wants him to perform because being such a valuable commodity, they don’t want him hurt. But that technique certainly hasn’t been applied to other superstars in the past or present.

In fact, with Lesnar wrestling on a part-time basis, that would warrant more out of his matches than a full-time wrestler. His UFC background and style might have something to do with his current in-ring work as well.

Lesnar being a part-time wrestler is not an issue because it does, in fact, make every one of his appearances feel more special. But when you wait sometimes months to see him wrestle on a pay-per-view and you pay money to see his match, your expectations are high.

And when you see Lesnar in under 10-minute main event matches at pay-per-views that are becoming carbon copies of each other, you don’t feel like you got your monies worth and it feels like a waste of time. And that can be argued for his two most recent one-on-one pay-per-view matches against Samoa Joe at Great Balls of Fire and against Braun Strowman at No Mercy, matches that went 6:25 and 9:00 in duration respectively.

It is likely Lesnar will keep the Universal Championship until WrestleMania 34 and it’s still unknown when his next WWE appearance will be. And with his current future up in the air, Raw’s most important title is on the sidelines.

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The Beast Incarnate’s uniqueness is starting to fade and the WWE needs to deal with this problem head-on.