The curious case of brock lesnar

Brock Lesnar is a special attraction in professional wrestling. He is chiseled out of granite, he is a legit bad ass and his performances have a big event feel. Lesnar came on the scene destroying guys left and right throwing around massive men with cat like quickness. His meteoric rise within the ranks of wwe was that of no other man. Brock had the ncaa championship pedigree with Goliath like strength and a George Nada kick ass attitude.
He was clearly the next big thing in professional wrestling. Until, he decided not to be. Lesnar was not suited for road life with all of its ups and downs tempting all of its "demons". So, he quit. Lesnar gave his notice going into a huge match with Bill goldberg, who was also finishing up wwe, at wrestlemania 20. Goldberg versus lesnar was the irresistable force taking on the immovable object but the crowd, knowing both men were leaving, never gave the match a chance and the epic battle that could have been became an infamous gaff at wrestlemania.

Lesnar tried football not playing since high school and was the final cut player of the Minnesota Vikings. He wrestled in Japan with limited motivation and won the iwgp title mainly because of his look and reputation but wasn't long for trips to japan. Then brock lesnar found ufc and even with a debut loss people were pretty certain this guy would find some success inside of the octagon. Lesnar decimated heath hearring, overwhelmed randy couture, destroyed frank mir and withstood Shane carwin.  Brock was chiseled out of granite could seemingly take people down controlling them at will and becoming one of ufc's most marketable stars. Unfortunately, a contest against Cain Velazquez and a very dangerous life threatening battle with diverticulitis ended his mma career. Immediately after brock announced his retirement after a loss to Alistair overeem the buzz began about a wwe return.

Lesnar made a triumphant return to wwe Monday night raw after wrestlemania 29 and has become a destroyer ever since.  He has left superstars like John cena, triple h, the Undertaker,  Roman Reigns and most recently randy Orton in a heap as lesnar stood victorious. In a typical brock lesnar match the crowd goes bananas for the spectacle that is the beast incarnate welcoming his prey to suplex city. Lesnar brings a real feel to each of his matches as was proven when he cut randy Orton wide open, hard way, with a stiff elbow shot. Lesnar, who tried his best to protect Orton left a gash in Randy's head that needed 10 staples to close up. However, the reaction I saw after the summerslam match was a need for something new from brock lesnar. It seemed like people are beginning to sour on the prototypical brock match of suplex, suplex, suplex, suplex, suplex, suplex, suplex, suplex and f5 for the win. Randy Orton is a top star representing one half of the newly separated brands and he got almost no offense what so ever and was made to look like a meager bum against raw's beast. Plus, lesnar then f5'ed the commissioner of the smackdown brand leaving raw to look far superior to the smackdown brand, which needs to appear strong. The question has to be asked is brock lesnar's shelf life coming to an end? If the answer is yes then wwe has to use lesnar's next big time challenge (wrestlemania) as a means to create a new major star. Lesnar had to be signed by wwe with the intention to build a new big time guy, lesnar has been booked starting at wrestlemania when broke the streak to build a new big time guy and a win over lesnar would certainly build a new big time guy. Everyone has a suggestion as to who should receive the big win and I am no different. Seth Rollins is an established top guy, Roman Reigns is an established top guy and with Kevin owens just winning the universal championship he will quickly become an established top guy. I believe the win should be given to someone who can gain the most; a guy who has the experience to handle the big win but is also unestablished to the wwe universe while also being believable and real so that the wwe universe will accept as a legitimate entity. Samoa joe is the best and most deserving challenger to defeat brock lesnar. A motivated joe can be credible, big enough and agile enough to match up with brock making it an epic battle. Samoa joe has the ability to handle the physicality of brock and believability to topple the conqueror. Samoa joe will step directly into the new monster role creating fresh match ups in the wwe with guys joe has already had high profile matches with on the independent and international level. Brock Lesnar does have a shelf life and I believe with his ped usage found in the ufc, the info of his special treatment being discovered as well as his act in wwe reaching a plateau the time to pull the trigger on a lesnar loss catapulting a challenger to the top of the card. Samoa joe is the guy, the time and venue is wrestlemania. The match would be a huge spectacle and the result would help change the landscape of the wwe for the future allowing samoa joe to end his career where he belongs: a top spot on the biggest professional wrestling promotion in the world; but, that's  just this mark's remarks.

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NXT stays strong or how to run a promotion

Following the brand split and draft one thing became abundantly clear: the nxt roster will be changing drastically. Finn balor, American alpha, Mojo rawley (who cares), Alexa bliss, Carmela and Nia Jax all got drafter to raw or smackdown during the draft; bayley is only a matter of time. Samoa joe and nakamura have to counting down the days and I feel the revival is not far behind either. Not to mention sami zayn before and Apollo crews, Enzo and Cass, the vaudevillains and baron corbin were called up right after wrestlemania. That is 19 potential known commodities leaving nxt within four months. That would cripple just about any major television wrestling brand to its core; however, nxt just rolls along without missing a beat.

They are using samoa joe, shinsuke nakamura and bayley the best they can but, more importantly, what they are doing is bring in fresh faces behind all of the top talent. Austin aries arrived and is making no way jose seem legitimate, American alpha put of author's of pain very strong, Bobby roode was introduced seemingly being put at the top of the card, wrestlers like Johnny Gargano, Tommaso chiampa, ty dillinger, Andrade almas are being featured now. They have completely rolled over the entire women's division aside from bayley and Asuka successfully. Not to mention hideo itami has come back. Finally, with the success of the cruiserweight classic I'm sure some of the wrestlers will join nxt before starting on raw.  Nxt managed to refill almost their entire roster seamlessly and successfully. As a wrestling fan for a long time I have never seen a roster turn done so well. To have so much talent leave without a let down on the show speaks volumes of the strategy of focus on top guys while building the under card so that everyone is ready to step up as the top stars are elevated to the main roster. The amount of focus on featuring the mid card guys so they are constantly growing and progressing is remarkable. Why is this strategy not being used at the main roster level is beyond me. While Undertaker, Bret hart and Shawn Michaels carried the main events performers like Steve Austin,  triple h and The Rock honed their craft en route to being the next top stars. This worked with stars like Jericho, angle, edge, guerrero, batista, Randy Orton and John cena! Then it kind of stopped, unexplicably.

NXT has resurfaced this archaic strategy and it is working like a charm. The perfect mixture of building stars with established veterans and time to develop characters, grow as performers and hone their skills before they are rushed to main events before they are ready makes NXT easy must see television.
Could you imagine if raw was focusing on Seth rollins challenging Finn balor and Roman Reigns versus rusev while also allowing cesaro, owens and zayn to build legitimate credibility instead of lousy win some lose some meaningless stuff that gets no one over? So, when the main events inevitably become stale they can rotate guys in and out and the fan base actually believes it to be viable. What a wonderful wrestling world it would be. If cesaro finally got to challenge Seth rollins or Finn balor for the universal championship and it actually meant something the product would be so much more interesting and entertaining. Imagine if you didn't know for certain who was going to win a royal rumble because wwe was able to have multiple established bona-fide challengers involved in the match. It would be incredible! It's not impossible, nxt shows you how to do it every week. And, amazingly, nxt is a very good show most all the time. 

Are you not watching nxt, yet? You should be. It is easy to watch and a tremendous show. NXT is a great reminder of how good wrestling can be, how simple cohesive stories and quality in ring wrestling can produce great wrestling shows that are just so good. Summerslam will be the biggest wrestling event of the summer in North America but nxt takeover: Brooklyn will likely be the better performance of that weekend. It will have all the emotion, drama and athleticism of summerslam without the convoluted mish mash that pro wrestling has become.

That is just this marks remarks and if you like what I have to say or you would like to tell me what you think please subscribe to this blog, like the Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/amarkremarks and follow on twitter @amarkremarks thank you very much and please keep supporting.

a real american american

Jack Swagger is finally coming into his own. It has taken several reinventions of himself, a veteran manager and even a Russian patriot boasting the accomplishments of Vladimir Putin. But so what? He is finally getting there and if wwe plays their cards right swagger can become a star on the second biggest show of the year, SummerSlam. The american patriot character is as old as the stars and stripes itself but swagger and Colter give it a fresh look and feeling. Here is the question though, what happens with swagger when it is no longer Rusev challenging his support for the red, white and blue? Can a wrestler in this era get over solely on being a patriot? Jack Swagger is an amateur wrestling star with great size, strength and quickness but has just missed on breaking out several times. Now, he stands against the glass ceiling again and will try to patriot lock his way right through it. The crowd will be hot and the flag match stipulation allows Rusev to not really lose and with the real life tension in the world the time is now to propel the all american american american to heights he has never seen before. Where swagger goes next is what is really up for debate because you can't always fight foreigners but wwe needs to take advantage of swaggers momentum and the "we the people" push from the live audience. I hope jack and zeb canride the wave and creative can keep them hot.
Speaking of hot, the opposite of that is TNA wrestling as of press time. The unfortunate thing is that it has nothing to do with what is happening within the six sided ring. While their television is often hit or miss all tapings will be missed if there is no television. How a company can make so many blunders on an epic scale is beyond me. Now it may cost them their brand and the sad part is that the talent of the TNA roster is quite impressive. It is a shame that no one in that wrestling promotion felt the need to ever focus on wrestling, but perhaps instead, they can sign another old ufc release that mma has no use for. With a talent pool as deep as theirs; with the likes if Aries, roode, young, lashley, storm, low ki, and on and on it is clearly the right choice to fill programming with over acted backstage junk and long winded promos from the incredible owner, Dixie Carter. And by incredible of course I mean no credibility.
Let's not forget Samoa Joe when discussing TNA wrestling. Joe, in my opinion, will go down as the most under utilized performer on the TNA roster. How no one within impact can find a way to use an extremely talented, athletic and completely unique character such as Samoa Joe boggles my mind week in and week out. It seems like not long ago Samoa Joe was having an amazing introductory feud with Kurt Angle and a show stealing performance with aj styles and Christopher Daniels. Truth be told, it was long ago, relative to TNA at least, and the days of high hopes are long gone replaced by feelings of desperation as fans hope the TNA brand can survive instead of prosper.
Finally, as we head toward SummerSlam and an expected Brock lesnar title win, instead of harping on the idea that the title won't always be on television let's get excited for the rebirth of the intercontinental championship. With lesnar, a part timer, getting the belt the opportunity to resurrect the secondary belts and make them important again is great. The ic title has always been the working mans belt and can be a great way to solidify and elevate the next wave of top guys and there is no better time then when the heavyweight belt will not be seen all of the time. I think Brock will be a very strong and necessary champion and the elevation of the secondary titles only adds to the plus sides of lesnar becoming the man. But, that is just this marks remarks.