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WWE SmackDown: WWE Championship isn’t needed for Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez

By Trace Johnson

ANAHEIM, CA - OCTOBER 23: (L-R) Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar exchange blows in the first round of their heavyweight title bout during UFC 121 on October 23, 2010 in Anaheim, California. Velasquez defeated Lenar by first round TKO to become the new UFC heavyweight champion. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA - OCTOBER 23: (L-R) Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar exchange blows in the first round of their heavyweight title bout during UFC 121 on October 23, 2010 in Anaheim, California. Velasquez defeated Lenar by first round TKO to become the new UFC heavyweight champion. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) /
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The Oct. 4 FOX debut edition of WWE SmackDown was one of the biggest nights the WWE has seen in a long time and through the course of the two-hour show, many marquee moments occurred, especially including the final ten minutes of the show.

Friday night’s WWE SmackDown was a night 20 years in the making for the blue brand, which made its FOX debut that included a WWE Championship main event between champion Kofi Kingston and challenger Brock Lesnar.

However, things would go south quickly for the title reign of Kofi, who was in the midst of a six-month WWE Championship reign that began at WrestleMania 35 when he knocked off Daniel Bryan in arguably the match of the year in the WWE in 2019.  It was safe to assume Kofi could lose the title to The Beast Incarnate, but nobody predicted just how it would play out.

After both Kingston and Lesnar were in the ring after their introductions, the bell rang and Kofi got a running start at Lesnar.  The Beast Incarnate caught Kofi and quickly turned it into an F5, which resulted in the win for Lesnar in no more than 10 seconds.  Everyone was shocked at how quickly Lesnar defeated Kingston, but the post-match shenanigans are what has everybody talking.

Rey Mysterio’s music hit just days after he and his son were viciously attacked by Lesnar on Raw, but Mysterio wasn’t alone.  He was flanked by Cain Velasquez, the man who initially ended Lesnar’s UFC Heavyweight Championship reign years ago and one of the most respected MMA competitors of all-time.  Lesnar looked like he had seen a ghost and Velasquez wanted a piece of the new WWE Champion.

He took down Lesnar and began throwing punches left and right.  The Beast Incarnate managed to escape, but the shots had been fired and fans everywhere are anticipating the inevitable Lesnar vs. Velasquez showdown.  Make no mistake, that is a potentially big money-drawing match for the WWE and it will spark plenty of interest, but the company has gone about it the wrong way and it tarnishes so much work that had been done prior to Friday night.

Looking at it in terms of Kofi, this was an absolutely degrading and disgraceful way to end his tremendous six-month title reign that took 11 years to get.  It was well-documented how long it took Kofi to finally reach the top of the mountain and it was undoubtedly the best feel-good moment the WWE has had in a long time when he won the big one at WrestleMania.  But instead of giving him a proper match and sendoff as champion, he lost in mere seconds.

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This completely degrades one of the longest-running superstars in the WWE and an individual that has done so much for the WWE.  For a show that went off the air three minutes early, they really couldn’t have worked things out to where Kofi got a real match instead of a squash match?  Think about it like this, Seth Rollins came into SummerSlam kayfabe injured and beaten at the hands of Lesnar.

But even though Lesnar hit him with multiple F5’s, Rollins kicked out of them all and managed to dethrone The Beast Incarnate to become Universal Champion.  A healthy Kofi couldn’t even get an offensive move in and couldn’t even kick out of one F5 on Friday night.  It was the worst way the WWE could have gone about doing this match, but the other key issue involved with what happened is the fact that Lesnar is now the WWE Champion.

Why does Vince McMahon feel the need to keep putting his biggest championships on a guy who will rarely defend them or even be on TV?  It couldn’t make any less sense.  You can have Lesnar do the exact same things he has been doing for years, but he doesn’t need a title to validate anything.  Do you really think the pending Lesnar vs. Velasquez match will be viewed any differently now that the WWE Championship will likely be on the line?

That title means nothing for that match and that makes the title feel less important.  It would make much more sense to keep the title on full-time competitors like Kofi that can defend the title every pay-per-view and be on TV every week.  It’s the same issue that has been brought up for years now with Lesnar, but yet McMahon still keeps putting titles around Lesnar’s waist.

It’s safe to assume FOX had a big say in putting the title on Lesnar and setting up the Lesnar vs. Velasquez match, but even at that, Lesnar doesn’t need the title and this heavyweight showdown doesn’t need the title either.  And even if Lesnar loses to Velasquez, it would still result in a part-time competitor holding the title, but in this case, Velasquez has even less legitimacy in being the WWE Champion than Lesnar has at this point.

dark. Next. The Slaying Of Kofi Sends The Wrong Message

Go right ahead and have this UFC meets WWE battle, but it doesn’t need the WWE Championship to validate anything and all that does is hold back truly-deserving superstars from becoming champion.