Well, the one good point has been that John Cena got a bit more of a positive reaction. During the build-up to WrestleMania 28, WWE Creative decided that they wanted a 50/50 split on the fans in Miami, half rooting for The Rock, half rooting for Cena. Being as Rock calls Miami his home, that didn’t happen, and when Lesnar F-5’d Cena at the Raw on April 2nd, it looked like Cena was going to get booed even more. The way they’ve booked Lesnar, as a no-nonsense monster only looking after the dollar has caused a shift, and after the BRUTAL beating Cena took at Extreme Rules (both legit and worked)? The fans were cheering more for Cena over the last week. Who would’ve even guessed that, after such a monstrous re-entry into the WWE, Creative would have booked Lesnar to LOSE to Cena at Extreme Rules?
The rumored plan was for Lesnar to decimate Cena (which he did) and have Cena win the match, but have to be stretchered out, making Cena the winner of that battle, but Lesnar really having won the war. If you saw the PPV, you know this is far from what happened: Cena won, took the mic and spoke on an injured arm, but had enough juice to give a speech to the Chicago crowd. Word is that Lesnar went HAM in the locker room, running down officials and the like. I heard Dave Meltzer say that some of this was Lesnar working the boys in the back, showing them that the speculation that Lesnar can/will quit anytime is really real, but that he did step over the line. Whatever the case may be, he was back on Raw the following Monday night, with two odd things occurring: a storyline being set up where Lesnar attacks and injures Triple H (which is said to be setting up a match between them at Summerslam), leaving John Cena to have a match at the next WWE PPV (May’s Over The Limit) against. drumroll please.John Laurinitis.
Yup, you read that right. This whole angle between John Cena and Brock Lesnar culminated in Laurinitis being Cena’s main heel opponent. Feels like a waste, no? If someone had listened to me, and they wanted to have Summerslam capitalize on Lesnar’s drawing capability, why not have slowed down your use of Lesnar and up the ante for the next big pay-per-view? Word from F4W takes it a step further: WWE’s mentality going into this is that, yes, Lesnar is being paid a lot of money, but it’s not spending money to make immediate money. They’re spending money on a dude who isn’t their top guy to help put over their top guys, i.e. Lesnar losing to Cena to make Cena look better. Which is cool, I mean you’re spending the money, use it how you want, but I’d think that if you’ve got one year contracted, you’d try to eek out as much loot as you can while you can. Having idiotic storylines get crushed to put someone over who IS ALREADY OVER seems like a waste, and a letdown for the guys (especially people who were MMA heads who might have started watching more WWE because of Lesnar) who could potentially stay on due to Lesnar’s current run. I hate to say I told you so.
In the end, Vince is doing what he always does: finding was to make more loot while protecting his baby. And in a world where WWE has a monopoly on the majority of pro wrestling business right now, it’s understandable. But for a fanbase who is itching for new blood and new talent, this recycling of the same superstars, year in and year out, shows how out of touch Creative is, and makes me hope/pray/wish that someone comes to their senses, so the long-term money WWE can and will make isn’t corrupted by a fanbase who doesn’t give a damn about who gets brought in. Especially when this crop of superstars is dried up and they’ve not cultivated new talent to carry that torch.
Or I may just be crazy. RIP The Bella Twins, welcome back Layla! Until next time...
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