Is Brock Lesnar Really the Draw That WWE Portrays Him to Be?

            Ever since Brock Lesnar’s return to the WWE in 2012, his WWE run has been very different than his first run in 2002-04. He pretty much has the same persona character wise, but his in ring abilities have changed drastically. He doesn’t do those triple powerbombs anymore, he doesn’t jump off the top rope anymore, & he doesn’t even speak anymore. Instead, Paul Heyman does all the talking for him including his ring announcing.

            His matches have become very predictable at this point especially since he captured the WWE Universal Title. In majority of his matches all he performs is his Suplex City routine, and a couple F5’s and he wins the match. His matches with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34 & The Greatest Royal Rumble have been particularly boring. It’s no secret I’m a big Roman Reigns fan but I feel these matches with Lesnar have been huge disappointments. These matches, have not been able to showcase Reigns’ true in-ring abilities. Reigns has a ton more in his arsenal but due to WWE wanting to make Lesnar look dominant it hampers all his matches.

            Lesnar’s Universal Championship reign has nothing extraordinary attached to it outside of WrestleMania 33 when he captured the belt defeating Goldberg. That was his best match in his reign involving the title but even that match was nothing but Lesnar hitting Suplex City & F5’s. His matches versus Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, & Reigns have been forgettable. In the Fatal 4 Way match for the title at Summerslam featuring Strowman, Reigns, & Joe even saw him barely participate in the match yet, still managing to win. His match versus A.J. Styles was a pleasant surprise but that wasn’t due to Lesnar at all. It was due to Styles abilities as performer to work a match.

            The Universal Title has become irrelevant in a lot of fans eyes because Lesnar hardly even defends the title. After his WrestleMania title victory (Which was April 2^nd, 2017), Lesnar didn’t defend the title until months later July 9^th at the Great Balls of Fire PPV vs. Samoa Joe. The question of that is whatever happened to the WWE’s 30-day title defense clause or did they give Lesnar special privileges. During that time the title wasn’t even in too much of a conversation during that period. Lesnar hasn’t even had a match on any of the shows Raw or Smackdown since his 2012 return. He took another long break in title defenses from when he faced Braun Strowman at No Mercy on September 24^th, 2017 until his title defense at the 2018 Royal Rumble on January 28th of this year, which made it 4 months between title defenses.

            Overall, NO Brock Lesnar isn’t that big of a draw anymore in my eyes due to rarely competing, limited in-ring performance, & making the WWE Universal Championship almost irrelevant.