In the midst of a wild college football weekend and the NHL’s Winter Classic, WWE held its Day 1 PPV on New Year’s Day inside State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. And the biggest story coming out of the event wasn’t how good the women’s match was or Beth Phoenix’s return, but Brock Lesnar winning yet again.
Brock Lesnar Wins Again
The original card had Big E defending his WWE Championship against Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and Bobby Lashley. And Roman Reigns was to defend the Universal Championship against Brock Lesnar. However, due to Reigns testing positive for COVID, Lesnar was added to the WWE Championship match as a last-minute change. And to no one’s surprise, Brock Lesnar came out victorious.
#TheBeast is back on top!#WWEDay1 @BrockLesnar pic.twitter.com/Qt9vyFDl2B
— WWE (@WWE) January 2, 2022
But why does Lesnar need the WWE Title? Does Lesnar really move the needle that much? In the eyes of WWE, Lesnar does. But to the outside audience, many continue to question why the company continues to go back to older superstars when they have younger stars on the roster they need to build up. There is a reason why fans are looking for alternatives. Wrestling fans continue to get see the older generation continue to get pushed in WWE over the younger generation.
For the second time, WWE has decided to end the title reign of a “younger” superstar in favour of putting the belt back on Lesnar. Both involve members of the New Day. First, Lesnar defeated Kofi Kingston with relative ease back in October of 2019. Then at WWE Day 1, Lesnar pinned Big E to win the WWE Championship. But why couldn’t Big E keep the title and have a longer reign? Instead, WWE made everyone in the match look bad outside of Lesnar. Especially the champion.
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There was a better way of handling things. Granted Lesnar was advertised for the card, but it is not his fault Roman tested positive for COVID. He did not need to be in this match or even win the title. Those four guys would have put on a solid match regardless of whether Lesnar was in there or not. But in typical WWE fashion, they wanted Brock Lesnar, who quit the company back in 2004, to win yet another WWE Championship.
Now, who knows if Lesnar was supposed to win the Universal Title from Roman Reigns, which still would not have made sense unless they were heading towards a trilogy of matches. But in WWE’s mind, they wanted someone to carry the title that could draw with Reigns off TV for a while. But they have that draw on the roster, but unfortunately, the company has built one star since the Ruthless Aggression era.
WWE’s Time Honoured Tradition
Time and time again, WWE will have the older superstar stop the momentum a younger guy is building up because they want the headline match to be guys from the past. Go back to when CM Punk was WWE Champion, there was no reason for The Rock to beat him at the Royal Rumble that year. John Cena and The Rock did not need to be a championship match. Then the company stops Daniel Bryan’s first big reign as champion in favour of an older superstar. And most recently, Goldberg defeating The Fiend for the Universal Title, who was so over. Nobody wanted Goldberg and nobody needs Goldberg to be around.
While I understand Brock Lesnar is a draw, does he really need the WWE Championship again? Granted we finally could see a Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley title match we have been dreaming about for some time now. But again both guys are older, but that is who the company wants to promote still. They continuously live in the past and believe that going back to what worked in the past will work now. And that just is not the case.
Yes, the shock factor of Lesnar defeating Big E was there, I guess. But as the Undertaker said in one of his more recent interviews, it was a mistake for Lesnar to end the streak. He did not need it for his resume. It was better suited for a guy like Roman Reigns. Case in point here, does Lesnar need another WWE title reign to add to his resume, no. It would have been better for Big E to go over in this situation to show, he can carry the company as champion.
Unfortunately, WWE will never change its ways and we will be stuck with Brock Lesnar constantly winning titles and ending championship reigns of guys more deserving than him.
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