Brock Lesnar's Championship Run Is Backfiring on WWE

Brock Lesnar is the Beast Incarnate, a highly evolved killing machine that wreaks havoc on everyone put into his path.  He has been extremely dominant in every facet of the sport and that dominance has taken him to the top of the pro wrestling business.

But the hard truth is that Lesnar is simply not around anymore.  He may be the WWE world heavyweight champion but he is just not being utilized in situations other than the pay-per-view environment and that fact is backfiring on the company.

The basic premise of Lesnar 2.0 likely sounded good on paper to many fans.  The Beast's career would be reborn in 2012 and it would involve an evolution from that of a full-time ring performer to that of the fighter on demand.  That fighter would be used only in big-money scenarios and only against established stars that could match his moneymaking potential in the ring.

And his list of opponents in the past two years reads like a who's who of talent in WWE.

John Cena, Triple H, CM Punk, The Big Show and The Undertaker have all stepped up to Lesnar and all have fallen in his shadow.  Each time they were paired with Lesnar, the card generated excitement and anticipation among the WWE faithful.  They just could not wait to see Lesnar in the ring and also to see if anyone could stop him.

But no one can even slow him down.

credit: wwe.com

Truth be told, he fits in this role.  Who else could pull off the gimmick, who else could roll through WWE like a Sherman tank and completely crush everyone in his path?  Lesnar has the size, the strength and the pedigree to not only make it convincing but to make it extremely believable at the same time.

Even the most jaded WWE fan could surely look at Lesnar and agree that he is an invincible champion. There just seems to be nothing he can't do and there is never a test that is too big for him.  In the ring he appears to feel no pain and on the mic he is cold as ice.

He is the Terminator of WWE except there is no John Connor around to stop him.

Again, it looks good on paper.

But this plan to keep Lesnar off TV and use him very sparingly is perhaps not working that well at all. The reason for that is the sheer amount of holes that exist on WWE's main event scene.  Simply put, there are not enough guys on that level to distract fans from the fact that Lesnar is not there.

CM Punk is long gone, Chris Jericho recently left once again and both Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns are at home recovering from surgery.  That essentially leaves only John Cena and Randy Orton as WWE's top-tier main event stars.

credit: wwe.com

Dean Ambrose is catching fire of course and Seth Rollins continues to shine as part of The Authority but neither man has consistently been featured as top-level main event stars. Until they are, it may be difficult for some fans to consider them as top draws just yet.

If there was ever a time for the top titleholder in WWE to shine and to be featured prominently on TV, it's now.  But that is just not the case.

Fans recognize Cena as the top guy in WWE and as such, he is expected to represent the company to the masses.  He is the locker-room leader and the man that the entire company is built around.  And even though he is not the man with the gold, he is still expected to lead the way.

But that does not lessen the impact that the WWE world heavyweight champion should have on the company and on the fans.  His time on the card is just as important and his place in the company should not be trivialized or disregarded because his name is not John Cena.

Lesnar is the man that should not just be fully effective as the champ but should perhaps even overshadow Cena as WWE's top draw.  The way that Lesnar has been built, constructed from the ground up as the human demolition, has put him in a class all his own.  No one can touch him; no one can measure up to the pain he brings every time he steps into the ring.

And no one can hope to best him in a straight-up singles match unless he is an established star himself.

Therein lays the problem of Lesnar's current WWE run and maybe even a big reason why he is not being used on TV that much at all right now.

In addition to the need to portray Lesnar as the big-fight champion, the fact is that there are really not enough big names for him to work on a regular basis.  Of course, a thin main event roster could greatly benefit from Lesnar's presence on the card but the way he's being presented dictates that he only face top guys.

And right now there are just not enough top guys that fit the bill.

But for many fans, the overall vibe of the WWE product on TV is arguably not the same anymore.  No Lesnar means no Paul Heyman and that is a big deal, especially in a company that thrives on the ability of its performers to entertain on a very high level. Heyman is definitely one of those performers.

The fact is that the industry's top championship is not even a factor at this point.  Fans know it's there and they know that Lesnar is likely just a phone-call away but that does not really make much of a difference. Every WWE Superstar on the roster should historically always be working toward that ultimate main event status and the top spot as the WWE world heavyweight champion.

But now they're really working to just help keep the company afloat until Lesnar comes back to spice things up once again.  And to a great number of fans, the product is growing stale in the meantime.  No matter what the plan may be, the truth is that WWE needs its champion and the fans need excitement on the main event scene once again.