WWE SmackDown: Brock Lesnar is the worst person to start the FOX era as WWE Champion

By Trace Johnson | Sep 18, 2019

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 23: Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker battle it out at the WWE SummerSlam 2015 at Barclays Center of Brooklyn on August 23, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images) /

The Sept. 17 edition of WWE SmackDown saw the next challenger for Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship come to light in the form of The Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar.

Last night’s post-Clash of Champions edition of WWE SmackDown found out just how big of a fighting champion Kofi Kingston is when after successfully defending his WWE Championship against Randy Orton the night before, Kofi agreed to defend his title against the most dominant force in the WWE.

Kofi put a 10-year saga with The Viper behind him after pinning Orton clean and leaving no doubt at Clash of Champions, but there was no rest for the wicked and last night’s show started out with 6-man tag team action pitting The New Day against Orton and The Revival. In some ways, this match put an end to the issues with The Revival as well considering how much damage Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder have done to The New Day in recent memory.

It was an action-packed match that had plenty of exciting moments, but it started to feel like it was going to de Deja Vu with The Revival and Orton one-upping The New Day. It looked like Dawson and Wilder were setting up Kofi for one of those huge, tandem RKO’s, but Big E took Orton out on the outside and that gave Xavier Woods enough time to execute a huge elbow drop from the top rope to Wilder after Kofi had countered them into a double-DDT.

The match came to an end when Kofi nailed Dawson with a Trouble in Paradise to get the win for The New Day. However, there was no time to celebrate and as The New Day was celebrating, Brock Lesnar’s music hit and The Beast Incarnate, flanked by his advocate Paul Heyman, came out. At that point, you knew what was coming, but Heyman told Kofi that his client was challenging him to a WWE Championship match on the upcoming first SmackDown on FOX.

Kofi told Woods and Big E to leave the ring so he could handle this situation by himself, and Kofi answered the challenge for the fight of his life. Lesnar acted like he was going to shake Kofi’s hand, but in a flash, he turned it into an F5 to send a message to Kofi that he’s coming for his title. This seems like an unwinnable situation for Kofi and that’s a bad omen for the future of the WWE Championship.

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It’s well-documented how much time Lesnar has had the Universal Championship over the past two-plus years. He had so many lengthy, pain-staking title reigns that just sucked the life out of the perceived top title in the WWE. And unfortunately, it appears as though history is going to repeat itself on Oct. 4. It makes sense to have a big title match on the debut episode of SmackDown on FOX, but giving Lesnar the title would set the main event scene back.

In terms of just star power and a big name to be the WWE Champion, Lesnar passes the test with flying colors. FOX knows that having a superstar like Lesnar, a world-renowned athlete, is good for business, but there’s more to it than that. If Lesnar dethrones Kofi and takes the WWE Championship, all the work that Kofi has done with the WWE Championship since winning it at WrestleMania 35 will go to the wayside.

Lesnar is rarely ever on TV, so if FOX thinks having him as the blue brand’s top champion will help out with ratings, the network will likely be sorely mistaken. Not only that, but it could actually hurt the ratings for the new-look SmackDown considering fans know they won’t have to tune in very much because Lesnar is never there. He’d likely only have a couple of title defenses in the coming months while Kofi has had countless title defenses over the past few months.

Kofi could keep the title hypothetically, but it would almost have to come courtesy of some type of a non-traditional finish. It feels inconceivable that Kofi will actually pin Lesnar and retain his title that way. The more realistic outcome seems to be Lesnar winning the WWE Championship, which is the worst way to start out the FOX era of SmackDown given all of those examples already mentioned.

With the upcoming draft, putting Lesnar on the blue brand would be a solid move, there’s no denying that. And having him on the blue brand for the first time in years would be a big get for FOX, but he doesn’t need to be in the championship picture. It’s almost like Vince McMahon forgot that Lesnar can be in feuds and matches that don’t involve a championship. Let him be The Beast Incarnate, let him be the dominant force that he is, but without a championship.

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It’s not needed and it would do absolutely nothing for his perception. Simply put, beginning this new era of SmackDown on FOX with Lesnar as WWE Champion would be setting the title back and essentially eliminating the blue brand of a world title.