In Samoa Joe, WWE Has Found Perfect Opponent for Brock Lesnar

In April 2012, Brock Lesnar exploded back onto WWE television, obliterating John Cena with an F-5 and announcing to the wrestling world that his reign of dominance was back and stronger than ever.

Since that fateful night, he has captured two world championships and thoroughly decimated industry icons like The Undertaker, Randy Orton and Cena. He has run over full-time competitors like Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose and is almost always presented as being above his fellow sports entertainers.

Until recently.

The rise of Samoa Joe to the position of No. 1 contender has presented The Beast Incarnate with an opponent every bit as dominant, ruthless and unabashedly intense as himself.

On July 9, The Destroyer will challenge The Beast for the WWE Universal Championship in the main event of Great Balls of Fire.

And he could not have come along at a better time.

Too Dominant?

Lesnar's resume since 2012 features one-sided ass-kickings of Cena and Orton, the two most decorated stars of this generation. He decimated them, leaving them lying in heaps. He ended The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania and laid waste to the mighty Triple H inside a steel cage.

He brought Goldberg's return tour to a screeching halt on wrestling's biggest stage and reclaimed his position atop the industry in the process.

Lesnar has almost been presented as too dominant, an unstoppable force and immovable object rolled into one.

Joe arrives at a time when WWE Creative desperately needs a full-time star it can present as adequate competition for its fire-breathing dragon of a champion. Through strong booking, Joe has found a chink in Lesnar's armor and proved the champion human.

He attacked Paul Heyman, silencing the silver-tongued spokesman for The Beast. He showed no fear in confronting Lesnar face-to-face. He, arguably, got the best of him in a pull-apart brawl that commenced. And to cap it all off, he used the element of surprise to his advantage by attacking Lesnar from behind and choking him out with his trademark Coquina Clutch.

Joe's actions have created an air of vulnerability about Lesnar that has been missing for quite some time. Even in Goldberg's repeated besting of The Beast, it always felt more like a fluke than sustained dominance.

Joe's success is different. It feels different. It feels like one man having another's number; like he is being presented as Lesnar's equal at a time when no one else has been given that distinction.

That feeling, and WWE's presentation of Joe, has been absolutely integral to the early success of their rivalry.

A Physical Match

Joe, like Lesnar, spent his career as the physically superior competitor to many of the men he shared the squared circle with. He beat them into oblivion and finished them with his Coquina Clutch or his devastating Muscle Buster.

Unlike Cena, Orton, Rollins or Ambrose, Joe is an incredibly physical wrestler whose offense looks like it hurts and whose strikes will compare favorably against Lesnar's offensive onslaught.

Their war on July 9 will be among the most physical matches in WWE history, a battle of not only championship gold, but also physical superiority.

After Joe has thrown down the gauntlet, choking both the champion and his advocate unconscious, it is up to Lesnar to respond in kind. Can he actually knock Joe unconscious, or has he met his match inside the squared circle?

Does Joe have his number in the same manner in which Cain Velasquez did in UFC? Is The Samoan Submission Machine too much for Lesnar at 39 years old?

Or will Lesnar overcome a dangerous challenge from his most imposing opponent to date?

Those are stories that should play out when the Superstars take to the squared circle in Dallas.

Whatever the case may be, the WWE Universe is genuinely interested and excited about a championship bout for a number of reasons. One, the title is actually on the line for the first time since WrestleMania, and two, it has a legitimate threat behind whom it can throw its support.