Matt O’Brien writes and maintains the Wrestleview.com poll every two weeks.
Brock Lesnar left WWE in 2004 in search of fulfillment outside of professional wrestling. He was still a young man when he left that a return seemed inevitable. Lesnar tried football before finding success in UFC. As far as he had gotten away from wrestling, fans still wondered if the day would come when Lesnar would set foot in a WWE ring again. That day finally came nearly eight years after he left, and ten years after his television debut. He immediately entered a program with John Cena, which built to an incredible match at Extreme Rules. With Lesnar’s return match now in the rearview mirror, Wrestleview readers were asked who they were most excited Lesnar face. The most recent Wrestleview poll garnered over six thousand votes. Here are the results:
Who are you most excited to see Brock Lesnar face now that he has returned?
Big Show 2.51% (155 votes)
CM Punk 29.18% (1,800 votes)
Randy Orton 4.26% (263 votes)
The Rock 7.57% (467 votes)
Sheamus 6.57% (405 votes)
Triple H 31.98% (1,973 votes)
The Undertaker 15.5% (956 votes)
Other 2.43% (150 votes)
Total votes cast: 6,169
Coming in at the bottom of the pack was Big Show. Fans may not remember the Lesnar-Show matches from 2002 and 2003, but they were pretty good. Big Show became the first man to defeat Lesnar, and helped the Next Big Thing turn baby face. They also had a stretcher match in May of 2003 that was very entertaining. Several years later, another battle of the bulls would be very interesting.
Randy Orton, like John Cena, came in around the same time as Brock Lesnar, but didn’t hit the main event scene until after Lesnar left. Orton was also on a different brand, and a heel. A showdown was very unlikely. With Orton now a top baby face, and much more experienced, a match between them seems natural, yet how that match would play out is hard to imagine. Orton isn’t really an ideal Lesnar opponent, and vice versa.
The World heavyweight Champion may reside on Smackdown, but Sheamus is still a potential opponent for Brock Lesnar. In terms of size and style, Sheamus is possibly the best possible matchup for Lesnar among the new breed of WWE stars.
Lesnar only took a few months after his television debut to become champion. The man he defeated was The Rock at Summerslam 2002. It was the one and only pay per view match fans got to see between the two. Given Rock’s recent Wrestlemania match, and his promise to work more dates, it would be foolish not to put these two in the ring together again. Just the way they would wrestle each other would be interesting to watch play out. How would Lesnar, now working a UFC style, work with Rock, now a Hollywood star?
There is a segment of wrestling fans out there anticipating a Wrestlemania match between Lesnar and Undertaker. There is no guarantee that will happen, but fans started craving the match when the two had a stare down at a UFC event not too long ago. After Brock defeated Rock in 2002, he went onto a spectacular feud with Undertaker, which culminated in a violent Hell in a Cell match. The two men then reignited their feud one year later, and were slated to tangle again before Lesnar left. This time around, Undertaker is not the American Badass character. Lesnar is no longer the kid he was. Undertaker and Lesnar would likely have a very good match, and those who remember their first series would love to see them go at it one more time.
Coming second place in the voting was CM Punk. The WWE Champion has held the title for nearly eight months, longer than anyone in the last couple of years. Wanting to see the top champion in the company fight Lesnar is natural. It also makes sense because it is a fresh matchup for Brock. This is another instance where just the idea of how these two would fight one another is enough to make you want to watch.
Finally, coming in at first place with thirty-one percent of the votes was Triple H. The Game is a fresh match for Lesnar despite that they coexisted during Lesnar’s initial WWE run. In 2002 and 2003, Lesnar and Triple H were the faces of their respective brands. HHH was the face of Raw, while Lesnar’s playground was Smackdown. This was during a time when Raw and Smackdown stars didn’t appear on the same shows as often, so Lesnar and Triple H never really had a chance to do a program. Even if they did have the time, both were heels for most of the time. Now that he is a veteran in an authority role on WWE television, Triple H is one of the best choices for Lesnar to face. They began a program the night after Extreme Rules, which seems to slowly be working towards a climactic clash at Summerslam.
Brock Lesnar will not be around for the long haul. WWE has him for a year, and a very limited number of dates for that year. The best decisions must be made with every one of his appearances. He already has John Cena in his bucket list, now it’s time to see what is next for man who was once the Next Big Thing.
Matt O’Brien
Columnist, Wrestleview.com
mattman5436@yahoo.com