Brock Lesnar: A Look at Lesnar's Return on Raw and Where It May Be Headed

Monday Night Raw was awesome. Simply awesome. 

It was one of those rare occasions when I found myself saying, “This is why I’m a wrestling fan. This is why I tune into what some call a male’s soap opera.” 

I highlighted some of the things that I liked and that we may have learned from last night’s awesome episode here, and aside from the raucous Miami crowd that probably screamed “Yes!” over 1,000 times, the highlight of the show was the huge return of Brock Lesnar, who planted John Cena with an F5 at its conclusion. 

So, now that “The Next Big Thing” is back, I wanted to take an in-depth look at where his return could be headed. 

PWInsider.com (via WrestleNewz.com) gives us a nice breakdown of Lesnar’s contract situation and the WWE’s initial plans for him: 

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Multiple sources report that Brock Lesnar has signed a one-year deal with WWE that will see him work through WrestleMania 29 in New Jersey next year. 

Lesnar has signed on for a minimum of two appearances per month over the next year plus additional appearances during the build to WrestleMania 29. The belief is that Lesnar will make around 30-35 appearances over the next year but WWE likely has the ability to negotiate additional appearances, if he’s willing to make them. 

As seen on RAW, The Rock teased a run with the WWE Title. Speculation is that Lesnar will eventually challenge The Rock for the WWE Title at WrestleMania 29. 

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My thoughts: If Lesnar is going to be appearing for the WWE that much, then he’s probably going to be wrestling more than once. 

Given that Lesnar returned by planting Cena into the canvas with an F5, logic says that his return feud will indeed be against “The Champ.” These two had a brief rivalry in 2003 that saw Lesnar retain the WWE Championship against Cena at Backlash, and it looks like we’re going to see them go at it again a whopping nine years later. 

There has been speculation for a while now that the WWE wanted to announce the WrestleMania 29 main event a year in advance like they did in 2011, and that’s why many are thinking that Cena vs. Lesnar is going to headline the biggest pay-per-view of the year in 2012. 

Well, that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. 

As noted, I think that Lesnar is going to get in the ring more than once, and if I had to guess, I’d bet that his return match is going to take place against Cena at SummerSlam. The WWE has been looking to give SummerSlam more of a “big-time” PPV feel over the last few years, and this is the type of match that could do just that. 

While the WWE could theoretically extend Lesnar vs. Cena all the way to SummerSlam, I’m not so sure we wouldn’t be sick of that feud by then, especially if Lesnar’s going to make as many appearances as he’s rumored to. So, you have Cena vs. Lesnar at SummerSlam, and then what? 

Well, how about The Rock vs. CM Punk leading to The Rock vs. Brock? 

We saw on last night’s Raw that The Rock teased that he’d be going after the WWE Championship, and of course, the man holding the WWE title is none other than Punk.

As we’ve seen, Punk has made it pretty clear that he isn’t a fan of The Rock’s return to the WWE, and since The Rock also made it clear that he isn’t done wrestling, the stars are aligning for a Rock vs. Punk feud. 

Now, I have no real idea of what The Rock is going to be doing as far as his movie career goes or how many appearances he will be able to make between now and SummerSlam. But the WWE can put on an absolutely loaded pay-per-view in August if The Rock’s title dreams lead him to a WWE Championship match against Punk there, while Lesnar faces Cena. 

Admittedly, I’m not necessarily a fan of two part-timers dominating the main event. But as Triple H might say, The Rock vs. Punk and Cena vs. Lesnar would both be good for business. 

SummerSlam would likely have its highest buyrate in the PPV’s history, and depending on how those matches play out, you could easily start the build toward Rock/Lesnar (for WrestleMania 29) at this PPV, even if it’s not going to involve the WWE Championship. 

This is the popular rumor that’s floating around, so I’m not exactly creating it myself. But based on the teases we’ve seen, all of these things seem likely at the moment. 

Oh yeah, there’s that Undertaker guy, who might have something to say about all this as well.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring or Twitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.