WWE News: Limited Schedule Will Significantly Damage Return of Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar returned to the WWE on Monday night to a thunderous ovation, giving the company a major boost following WrestleMania. Expectations must be kept low, however, because the former UFC champion won't be working a full schedule.

Nick Paglino of WrestleZone.com reports Lesnar won't be held out of the ring for a full year, but his appearances will be limited.

"

According to several sources, the latest on Brock Lesnar's in-ring return is that he will be returning to the ring "well before" WrestleMania next year, however he will not be working a full-time schedule with the company.

"

That changes everything. It will be extremely difficult for him to build up any meaningful momentum if he doesn't appear on weekly television. Storyline progression becomes more difficult when there are gaps between appearances.

It's something the company should have learned during The Rock's feud with John Cena. They billed it as a one-year battle, but in reality Rocky was gone for a significant portion of that time, besides a couple of appearances on the TitanTron.

Things didn't really start to heat up until he returned on a full time basis.

While this report doesn't say exactly how often Lesnar will show up, he's being advertised for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view at month's end and the proceeding Raw telecast.

It wouldn't make much sense to throw him into a match so soon after his return, so he'll likely be at Extreme Rules to make his presence felt like he did on Raw.

After making such a major and immediate impact by giving an F-5 to Cena, it would seem to make more sense to capitalize on that momentum by using him as much as possible to help avoid the usual downtime after the year's biggest pay-per-view.

With a proper build, his celebrity status would have allowed him to become one of the company's biggest stars. However, it's tough to work everything out to where he doesn't have to show up every week, yet still gets a monster push.

The WWE Universe has illustrated recently that they have a high level of respect for superstars who had to overcome adversity to reach the top, such as Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. Letting Lesnar showcase ahead of those guys without working a full schedule won't be easy.

Give the company credit for going all out to bring him back, since he will attract fans. However, Vince McMahon should have worked harder to convince him to become a full-time superstar again.

Since that doesn't appear likely, Lesnar's return will never reach its full potential. It's disappointing because the initial crowd reaction proved he could have been a massive hit among fans if he was around every week.