Brock Lesnar: Why Superstar's WWE Return Is Perfect Segue from The Rock

It was speculated for quite some time, but Brock Lesnar finally made his long-anticipated WWE return on Monday.

Lesnar brought the pain by delivering a devastating F5 to John Cena and looks to be the ideal transition from The Rock.

Lesnar was seen at a Fort Lauderdale airport over the weekend, so it was thought that he would appear either at WrestleMania 28 or on the following Raw.

He retired from UFC after being decimated by Alistair Overeem in his final fight and had been given clearance to work out a deal with WWE if he wanted to.

The former undisputed WWE champion had said that he would be open to returning as long as he didn't have to work a full schedule, and it looks as though that has come to fruition.

During Cena's promo in which he was calling out The Rock to congratulate him, the Miami audience was chanting for Lesnar and when he entered, the roof just about blew off the arena.

While the fact that everyone knew Lesnar was in town took away from the surprise a bit, it was still surreal to see him back in a WWE ring. It will be extremely interesting to see how things might play out between Lesnar and Cena, but it was certainly a great move by Vince McMahon and company to bring him in.

The Rock is an actor right now first and foremost, so it was no secret that he would be returning to Hollywood after defeating Cena on Sunday.

He gave his goodbye speech and said that he would be back one day and that he would become WWE champion. After stirring the audience into a frenzy, it was a good decision to refrain from having him and Cena address each other.

Normally, wrestling fans would be complaining about The Rock showing up for a month and leaving, but because of Lesnar's return, it allows The Rock to slip out of the spotlight.

The WWE could have easily lost a ton of steam with The Rock leaving, but replacing him with Lesnar will ensure that there isn't a lull of any kind.

Also, it gives Cena an intriguing storyline after losing to The Rock. Cena has already feuded with pretty much everyone on the roster, so there was no logical program for him to work, particularly one that would make people forget that The Rock beat him cleanly in what was supposedly the biggest match of his career.

With Lesnar in the picture, however, all of that is in the past. In terms of star power and marketability, Lesnar isn't at The Rock's level, but the hardcore fans have been clamoring for his return for quite some time and the fact that he was a UFC star should help garner some mainstream attention as well.

Leading up to WrestleMania, fans didn't want to miss a second of Raw due to the buildups involving Cena, Rock, The Undertaker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, CM Punk, Chris Jericho and others, and there was some concern that there would be a nosedive in interest without all of that.

Lesnar has everybody talking, though, and should prevent the post-'Mania dip that everyone always talks about.

It's quite unclear how often Lesnar will appear and when he might wrestle, but it seems obvious that something big is being built up between he and Cena.

The next major pay-per-view isn't until SummerSlam in August, so I would expect periodic appearances from Lesnar during that time and a match between the two at SummerSlam.

The Rock will be back at some point, but instead of constant complaining regarding his departure, there is excitement regarding Lesnar's return—and that makes everything well worth it from WWE's perspective.