Brock Lesnar Retired And I Was OK With That | Opinion
One of the more memorable moments for me during this past Wrestlemania was the surprising and genuinely emotional retirement of one Brock “by God” Lesnar. After losing his match to Oba Femi, a tearful Lesnar removed his boots and left them in the ring, the universal signal that a wrestler is retiring,
Now, I know a few things; Comic Book characters never stay dead, The Rolling Stones will never stop touring and wrestlers have a really hard time staying retired. However, in this case WWE went as far as to move Lesnar to the “Alumni” section of their website and it seemed like we maybe, possibly, had really seen the last of The Beast Incarnate.
Fast forward to this past week’s RAW and not only is Lesnar back, but he’s already got a contract for a rematch against Femi (that he seems to have written himself?) in Europe. Not only that, but it will assuredly lead to a SummerSlam “rubber” match between the two, where we might actually see Lesnar retire as the event is on his home turf Minnesota.
It’s Not That I’m Mad, Just Disappointed
To say that Lesnar’s return comes with mixed feelings is to say that when he returned last summer it was to mixed feelings. Is Brock a great attraction and one of the most dominant presences in WWE? Yes. Was he wrapped up in a bunch of unseemly things involving the former chairman of the board? Yes, yes he was. I would have been OK if Brock simply went away and farmed trees or did whatever he does on that compound of his in Saskatchewan.
So, when Brock returned to face John Cena on his retirement tour, it was distasteful, but made sense. Lesnar was one of the biggest obstacles that Cena never really overcame and one more match between the two seemed like a good idea and then maybe the end for both of them.
However, when Brock then squashed Cena at the ridiculously named Wrestlepalooza, my heart sank. “He’s going to be around for a while, isn’t he?”I said out loud to the no one else that was in the room at the time. “Yeah” I answered. “Yeah…”
So when Lesnar unlaced his boots at Wrestlemania, I literally breathed a sigh of relief. I wouldn’t have to have that reminder of one of the darkest chapters in WWE (and that’s saying something) crushing people with the three things he does.
Now, as a fan, I’m faced with it all over again. Here’s a guy who is by and large very entertaining, but also not someone I particularly want to see on TV. The conflicted feelings run deep, and what makes it worse is that what seemed like a legitimate and emotional moment at Wrestlemania was taken away. Considering how few of those moments we got this year, that just makes it sting a little bit more.
What’s Done Is Done And It Should Stay Done
Where does that leave me as a viewer? Do I want to see Femi beat Lesnar? Of course I do, and I did. I saw him handle the Beast like, well, like Lesnar would have handled someone 15 years ago and made my peace with that being it for Brock.
To put it flatly, I simply don’t care about a trilogy between Femi and Lesnar. From a story telling perspective, from a legacy perspective and from a building Femi up as the “next big thing” perspective, it just doesn’t make sense and screams of someone in WWE saying “we got a lot of heat out of these two, lets see how hard we can squeeze the stone.” I would much rather see Femi built up by tearing through current stars, which the man has proven he can do,
If we are going to ignore everything about Brock Lesnar and play along with this one final cash grab off his slowly turning purple back, then fine. Let’s get it over with. But it just goes to show that the TKO era of WWE isn’t about anything right now other than milking things with name recognition at the cost of realizing the future.
Jeff Moss is a writer, creator and developer in animation, comics and pretty much anything else he can get his mitts on. Pro Wrestling has always been his passion for reasons even he doesn't understand.