Brock Lesnar: Who Needs Him More, WWE or UFC?
Brock Lesnar is a wanted man, and for good reason. There is no bigger box-office draw in the wrestling or mixed martial arts world than he is. He brings people to the arena, he gets people to pay $50 to watch him fight on television. He moves the needle more than any other fighter in MMA today.
However, MMA is not the only arena that Lesnar has been a part of. He first made his name as a top-draw in the WWE from 2002-2004. He was given one of the biggest pushes in company history from his first day on the job.
After leaving WWE in 2004, he tried to pursue some other things. He was given a tryout for the NFL and even made it all the way through the preseason before being cut by the Minnesota Vikings.
After the NFL experiment failed, Lesnar made his way into MMA. He started with K-1 in 2007. After winning his first fight with them, he signed with UFC, where he has been ever since. He was given a big push right away and even won the heavyweight championship in his third UFC fight.
There had been some speculation that he was looking to make a return to WWE after he was involved in a stare down with WWE superstar The Undertaker following his loss to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121. Those rumors turned out to be false.
But it got us thinking which company needs him more, UFC or WWE?
Here are five reasons that both companies need him, and after that, the final verdict about which organization needs him more.
UFC Needs Heavyweights
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Let’s be honest, UFC’s heavyweight division is pretty thin. There are three guys at the top right now—champion Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos and Brock Lesnar—after that, you don’t know what you are going to get.
Shane Carwin is probably the next best guy, but he is coming off major surgery and will have to prove that he is healthy before he can be thought of as one of the top heavyweights.
Beyond that, everyone else is either past their prime (Mir and Nogueira) or just not a top-level fighter (Nelson, Rothwell). One guy who has talent and can move up the ranks quickly is Brendan Schaub.
But still, this division in UFC is not the deepest in the world, and they need as many heavyweights as they can get.
WWE Needs Something New
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WWE has fallen into a major rut lately. Their stories aren’t very well told. They don’t know how to build anything anymore. Their championships mean nothing.
Bringing in Lesnar could be a nice shot in the arm for WWE. He is a tremendous athlete, and the company knows exactly what they would be getting with him.
The biggest problem that WWE has had in the last few years is they have no idea how to try something new. They are starting to get a tiny bit better at that, but they are still far away from doing it consistently.
They need to try and get something new going.
UFC Still Needs Drawing Cards
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Right now, UFC is the hottest promotion in the world. They sell the most PPV’s of any company, regardless of who is fighting on them.
However, people will only turn out in droves to see stars. Average viewers don’t care how good Frankie Edgar is; he isn’t seen as a star and his fights aren’t going to draw people in (unless he’s fighting B.J. Penn).
UFC is going to get a lot of buys no matter who is fighting, but to get those mammoth numbers that they have gotten accustomed to, they need to have drawing cards.
There is no bigger drawing card in MMA right now than Brock Lesnar. In two fights last year, he sold nearly 2.2 million PPV buys. The next closest was GSP, who sold 1.7 million. People want to watch Lesnar fight, and UFC knows that.
WWE Needs Stars
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If you have followed WWE the last five years, they haven’t done a good job at creating new stars, and that’s putting things lightly.
They haven’t made a legitimate star since John Cena and Randy Orton—that happened back in 2005-06.
This company is starving for some star power. Part of that is their own doing because they are so afraid to have anyone beat Orton and Cena that it makes it impossible for them to get anyone else over.
Bringing in Lesnar would be one of the biggest moves that they could make. In fact, the only one that would be bigger than that would be if they could bring The Rock back into the fold. Sadly, that won’t happen because The Rock is out making “The Tooth Fairy”.
UFC Needs Lesnar As a Contender
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One of the reasons that UFC is as white hot as it is today is because of Lesnar. Ever since he joined UFC in 2008 all of their revenues have increased. He makes people tune in, and regardless of why they tune in, they still tune in.
UFC needs him to be a contender because that means more revenue and more mainstream publicity for the company. The loss to Cain Velasquez was actually a blessing in disguise because it made Velasquez into a mainstream star, and his first fight as champion will do big business no matter who he fights.
Lesnar’s upcoming fight with Junior dos Santos is going to sell because of Lesnar and the build that he can provide on “The Ultimate Fighter”.
If he doesn’t remain a real contender, his drawing power will crumble, and UFC will not be as big as it is. That may sound a little hyperbolic, but he has brought in legions of new fans because of his name.
WWE Needs To Increase Interest
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No one cares about WWE anymore. They have a large core audience that will watch every week, no matter what they do. But they aren’t selling anyone on anything.
Their business is down across the board, and that’s what happens when you have a stale product.
Lesnar could bring the company some much needed mainstream publicity. If it were to happen, WWE would be the talk of the sports world for a long time. They need to get people interested in their product again.
They could work on making coherent storylines and getting rid of the lame comedy every week, but we don’t have time for rational solutions.
UFC Can Work Around Lesnar
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These last two pro-UFC slides are more about what the company can do for him, as opposed to what he does for the company.
One thing that’s very important to Lesnar is spending as much time as possible with his family. He has said that in almost every interview that he has done.
Working in UFC, he is afforded the luxury of only having to work a couple of times each year. He doesn’t have to be on the road anywhere near as much with UFC as he would with WWE.
It makes the value of UFC to Lesnar that much greater.
WWE Isn’t Cool Anymore
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In keeping with the fact that WWE needs to increase interest, they need to become cool again.
There was a time when pro-wrestling, specifically WWE, was actually cool. You weren’t embarrassed to tell people that you watched it.
Now, it’s humiliating to admit that you watch wrestling. People will laugh or silently judge you in their minds. It’s really sad to see how fall the product has fallen in the last few years.
People want to point to the PG-direction, but that’s not it. If the company was building things properly, no one would care that it’s PG.
They need to make their product cool once again. Lesnar is as well-known as any former WWE star and a cool bad-ass character. He could bring some of that old school wrestling back to WWE.
UFC Can Give Him More Money
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One thing that is easy to see when you listen to Lesnar talk is that he understands the business aspect of things. He seems to have set a goal to earn as much money as he possibly can while his name still has some cache.
He will earn more money in UFC than he ever would with WWE. He has developed his own clothing line and collected a vast number of sponsors in his short time in MMA. He gets paid $400,000 per fight from UFC, not including fight bonuses and PPV revenue.
He has a lot of freedom in UFC to do what he wants, when he wants to do it. He would not be afforded that luxury in WWE.
WWE Needs A Big Drawing Card
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WWE’s business has really fallen on hard times lately. They don’t draw anything on Pay-Per-Anymore. Their house show attendance is down. They don’t have anyone who is going to draw big anymore.
In fact, earlier I mentioned that Lesnar alone drew 2.2 million PPV buys in 2010. For the entire year, WWE had about 2 million domestic PPV buys.
Lesnar drew more buys for two events than WWE did for 12. I am not saying that Lesnar in WWE is going to draw one million buys every month, but he will get more people interested in the product again.
This company has killed their two biggest drawing cards—Cena and Orton—because people are tired of seeing them in the main event against the same people month after month after month.
Since they don’t want to make a new star, they could bring back an old one who will work wonders for business, assuming they don’t screw it up.
Final Verdict: WWE Needs Lesnar Far More Than UFC
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UFC would still be very successful with or without Lesnar. They wouldn’t get as much coverage as they do without him, but they would still be the biggest fighting promotion in this country.
WWE needs a lot of things right now. They need to create interest in the product. They need to shake some things up to get people firmly behind them once again. They need more star power, because they have buried guys that they have tried to make stars.
A guy like The Miz is a perfect example. He is made to look like a joke every single week, yet he is WWE champion. The problem is the way that he has been booked. No one cares about him at all. They don’t see him as a main event guy, and that’s because they have to protect Orton and Cena to the point that people hate watching them week after week.
Lesnar would not be the answer to all WWE’s problems right now, but at least it would be something new that people would care about for a little while anyway.
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