Brock Lesnar Is Best Option as WWE Champ with No Sure Successor

On Sunday, March 29, WWE world heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar will defend his title against No. 1 contender Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 31.

If everything goes according to WWE's plan, Reigns will win the title and carry the company into the next generation as its franchise player, the face of the sports-entertainment empire.

As the era of Reigns dawns, though, there are very real questions concerning his ability to be the guy in Vince McMahon's company. He is solid enough in the ring, but his promo skills leave a lot to be desired, and his drawing ability is untested outside of local, non-televised live events.

Why McMahon would hitch his wagon to a guy with so many questions surrounding his ability to lead the company remains a mystery, especially when the best option to carry the title for the time being is the man currently standing tallest on the WWE mountain.

Lesnar is a champion unlike any WWE has had in a very long time.

He is legitimate, thanks to his past in both amateur wrestling and mixed martial arts, and fans do not have to be convinced that he is an ass-kicking machine. His dominant victories over John Cena and The Undertaker, not to mention his overcoming injury to win the Royal Rumble Triple Threat match, affirmed that he is the baddest man in professional wrestling.

The Beast Incarnate is believable in that fans can sit back and, scripted or not, legitimately believe that no other WWE Superstar can conceivably defeat him. That is an incredibly rare feat that WWE Creative, despite all of its other shortcomings over the last year, has managed to accomplish with the booking of Lesnar.

Furthermore, he is an attraction the likes of which simply do not exist in today's industry.

Unlike the rest of the WWE roster, which has been overexposed by the incredible number of television hours the company fills each week, Lesnar benefits from the fact that every one of his appearances means something. They are used to hype major pay-per-view matches or tell the latest chapter of a story.

The company simply does not waste the number of appearances that Lesnar is contractually obligated to make on throwaway segments.

Best of all is the fact that Lesnar does not have to appear on Raw or SmackDown in order to hype his latest title defense. Paul Heyman serves as his advocate—and the most gifted promo man in the business today can sell the idea of a monumental clash with the simplest of interviews.

So why would Vince McMahon, the creative genius that he is, risk throwing away the best champion he has had in years on a guy who may or may not actually succeed in the role?

Sure, the allure of a new franchise player, one he can trust to sell out arenas and serve as the face of his company in the same way that John Cena currently does, is strong. But the wrong decision could set the company back years.

Meanwhile, Lesnar is a champion who could one day be used to put that surefire star over, giving him the last bit of rub he needs to achieve true superstardom in sports entertainment.

Risking it on Reigns, who has not demonstrated everything necessary to be the savior of the company, would be a monumental mistake.

With Reigns not yet at the point where fans, critics and even management can decisively state that he is the star of the future, WWE's best option is to keep the title belt on Lesnar and allow the second-generation Samoan star and others to continue to develop to that point.

Add to that the fact that McMahon could even erase CM Punk's 434-day WWE title reign from the history books, and the continuation of the most dominant championship run of the last decade looks to be an even better proposition.