Over the last few years, there has been a lot of disdain towards Brock Lesnar by WWE fans, primarily because of his part-time schedule. When he holds a World Championship (which seems to be most of the time nowadays), there’s further disdain because he isn’t exactly the definition of a “fighting champion”.
After all, fans want to see a champion that’s present week in and week out and not one who simply comes to collect a paycheque. But it took a while for many to realize that their disdain was focused on the wrong person entirely and if you actually look at the entire situation from Lesnar’s shoes, he’s anything but the bad guy.
Lesnar isn’t a fan of pro wrestling and he’s been open about it. He’s an athlete who likes competing. Being a smart person, he has constantly used UFC and WWE to leverage each others’ offers and get the best possible deal for himself. In fact, in 2018 he had come very close to securing a deal with the UFC (which would have seen him challenge then-Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier) but due to the ESPN deal they had, they simply couldn’t come to terms with a deal.
UFC President Dana White said that he doesn’t blame Lesnar for going to WWE and that Vince McMahon “threw the vault” at him, indicating that he once again did the best to his abilities to retain Brock Lesnar. There’s no bigger fan of Lesnar’s than Vince McMahon and for reasons unknown, the Chairman of WWE seems hellbent on keeping The Beast Incarnate around for as long as he can.
And as for Lesnar, he simply needs to do what’s in his best interest. Sure, it means that he has his own private space that’s separate from the locker room and he’s anything but social, but the fundamental part of all of this that we must remember is that at the end of the day, this is still a job.
Are we in the right to blame Lesnar for wanting (and successfully getting) the best possible contract he can for doing lesser work? If anything, the disdain seems to be more out of bitterness and jealousy. Who wouldn’t want to work for a few hours a year and earn millions? To put things in perspective, let’s look at Brock Lesnar’s insane 2019 match statistics (Thanks to Reddit):
Before Survivor Series, Brock Lesnar has wrestled a total of 6 matches in 2019. The total time he’s spent wrestling comes up to a mere 27 minutes and 30 seconds. His average match length is just 4:30 seconds. You might be wondering what his shortest and longest matches are. His longest match happens to be against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam which was 13 minutes and 25 seconds – undoubtedly his best match of the year.
His shortest match, of course, was against Kofi Kingston on SmackDown where he won the WWE Championship in a mere 10 seconds. While WWE knows that Lesnar wrestling short matches can be good, Lesnar is a superstar who can have a classic long match if he wants to. He simply knows what he wants and has no qualms saying no to the higher-ups – something that many superstars seem to struggle with. Moreover, his leverage and negotiation power is off the charts, which means that he can have matches that last two minutes or even lesser if he wants to.
To wrestle just 2 and a half minutes in Saudi Arabia and earn millions is a feat that many wish they could achieve but it just goes to show what an incredible businessman The Beast Incarnate really is. He’s without a doubt the best businessman in pro wrestling today and could be the industry’s best businessman in years. Nobody except Hulk Hogan in WCW has been able to come up with a better contract than that, which is why he must be praised for his negotiations with WWE and the way he handles business.
When you can work less and earn more, why even try after a point? That’s why Lesnar gets to pick and choose who he gets to have a proper match with.
