The following editorial was written by Neil Raymond and does not reflect the opinions of WrestleZone as a whole. We encourage you all to discuss Neil’s thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post or by tweeting him @NeilfromNYC
Brock Lesnar’s Universal Title reign has proven to be historic. As in it’s probably the worst world title reign of the last 10 years. He’s rarely on RAW, rarely defends the title, and when he does it’s always the same feud and result. Paul Heyman will talk about how great Brock Lesnar is, someone will threaten Heyman, they will have a stare down or brawl with Brock every other week of the feud and then Lesnar will win the match. It’s hard to find a fan who doesn’t think that Lesnar’s title reign has been incredibly stale and ineffective. He’s a part time wrestler, he should be putting new stars over not keeping the world title away from RAW for months. Granted, this is Vince McMahon’s fault, not Brock’s, but him being complacent and not doing anything to keep himself interesting is a problem too.
It goes deeper than that, the Universal Title is basically a failure. When the creation of this new title was first announced, the fan reaction was very negative. The name was considered to be terrible and the title itself was heavily booed upon its debut. The first champion, Finn Balor, forfeited the title a day after winning it. The second champion, Kevin Owens, was booked as if he was a mid-carder before losing the title to GOLDBERG in a squash match.
Yes, the same Goldberg whose prime was 18 years ago. 18 YEARS AGO. Naturally, Goldberg only had one title defense… when he lost the title to Brock Lesnar. Since Brock won the title he has beaten a red-hot Samoa Joe (killing his momentum), a red-hot Braun Strowman, AJ Styles in a needless title VS title match and Roman Reigns in a feud that was dead from the start. Those along with a couple of multi-man matches along the way.
The worst part is that his reign makes no logical sense. Why would Kurt Angle agree to him rarely defending the title? Why would the McMahons? What happened to the 30-day title defense rule? Why can’t Braun Strowman cash-in his MITB briefcase in advance and win the title by forfeit? What is Braun even waiting for when he’s a monster character? Brock Lesnar’s title reign has gotten a grand total of 0 wrestlers over, has provided a grand total of 0 memorable matches and 0 memorable feuds. Seriously, name at least one match or feud during Lesnar’s Universal Title reign that will be talked about a year from now? His feud with Samoa Joe? His feud with Reigns?
Next Page: How To Fix WWE’s ‘Brock Lesnar Problem’ w/ The Universal Championship (cont.)
