WWE: Why I Don’t Want To See Brock vs. Shane by Matt Corton
When I go on leave for a few weeks, as I’m about to, I have to write a series of holiday handover notes to my clients, to my bosses and to the people who I want to do bits of my jobs while I’m away, to make sure everything is running smoothly in my absence.
Now I’m not about to sit here and say I need to write my editor in chief a handover for my impending 2 week absence, or that the site will run anything but smoothly while I’m away, but nonetheless I have a few little notes for this article that I really don’t want to leave without having said.
As ever with me, I have good notes and bad notes. I do like to start with a positive, so the first note I want to write about is that I really enjoyed Summerslam. I am happy to forgive a few mismatches in card placement, a few strange booking decisions and a few misfiring spots on a 4-hour show. Three-hour PPVs are tighter, it’s true, but as a special event I don’t mind seeing a bloated Summerslam once a year, particularly when I see a great – truly great – match from AJ Styles and John Cena and a very, very good match from Seth Rollins and Finn Balor.
Finn’s injury is unfortunate, Roman Reigns being back in the title picture is unfortunate and Sasha Banks’ injury is unfortunate, but more than anything, there’s just one aspect of things coming out of Summerslam, though, that gives me reason to write my bad note.
Heyman’s overreaction to the F5 to Shane McMahon, the ongoing storyline about the paltry fine Brock Lesnar has received and Shane’s comments on SmackDown leave me with the horrible feeling they want to do Shane vs. Brock at some point.
I don’t ever want to see Shane vs. Brock.
There are really quite a few reasons for that. For one; Shane’s match with ‘Taker at ‘Mania gave me nothing to make me think that he can have a really good match. For two; I think there are many more better opponents for Lesnar than Shane – I think it’s a waste of one of his four matches a year. For three; I want to see Brock Lesnar’s next opponent really test him – force him to do something more than suplex and bounce on his toes and I don’t want that person to be Shane because when the wrestler does come along who finally beats him, it needs to be a clean win, not a lucky fluke, and I think the impact of that will be lessened by it happening after a part-time Commissioner tests him.
I hope I’m wrong about this being where it’s heading, but I guess there’s a second direction it could take which isn’t quite as bad. On SmackDown this week, Orton said that his paths would cross with Brock again. So that’s Shane and Randy (plus Heath Slater?) who have legitimate beefs with Brock Lesnar at the same time, and Survivor Series is being held on November 20th.
But even if all this is heading to Stephanie/Brock and Shane/Orton being part of some kind of Raw vs. SmackDown match-up at Survivor Series, well, I don’t want to see that either.
As a quick aside, I’m surprised Survivor Series is still a PPV. It has been used so poorly as a PPV for such a long time, that the gimmick is really a bit spent. Replacing it with a King of the Ring (where the whole tournament is at the PPV) or by bringing back Elimination Chamber (I really miss that gimmick, if used properly) would have much more impact I think, but even at any of those events I wouldn’t want to see Orton vs. Brock again or Brock vs. Shane.
Let’s face it; Orton vs. Brock was a bad match that led to an interesting ending. I didn’t enjoy it at all and I haven’t enjoyed Brock’s last few matches because I don’t think ‘squash’ matches should appear on PPVs and I really do think that’s what they’ve all been in the past year.
That said – if he faces him, Brock should squash Shane. I don’t want Shane McMahon to be the one, over Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton and others, to push Brock Lesnar to his limit. It wouldn’t make sense. A part-time wrestler, no matter how he’s booked, shouldn’t push Brock Lesnar to anywhere near his limit unless he’s called The Rock.
Even if it’s all couched in a survivor series multi-man match, though, all that would do is set up the feud so it would be one-on-one at a later date, there’s no way Survivor Series ends either feud if it’s a multi-man match, which means I’d have to sit through it all twice.
Options 1 and 2 from this don’t fill me with any joy whatsoever, but true to form when worrying about how things are going to go when you’re away for a few weeks, not watching the storylines like a hawk, there’s a third, even worse option
After Summerslam (and usually ignoring Survivor Series) is when my mind starts to turn toward Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. Not a full turn, mind, just a sort of ‘tweener half-turn.
The third option that causes me such distaste is that one or other of Orton and/or Shane will face Brock but with the added impact that it will be at Wrestlemania.
Being Brock Lesnar’s ‘Mania opponent really has taken on a new status since the Beast’s undefeated streak began. Whilst it might not be on the same level as Undertaker’s Streak (so good it gets a capital letter), the beating of Brock Lesnar, when it finally happens, will have almost as much of an impact as when the Streak ended, because the guy has been presented as such a monster, so undefeatable, that it would give any wrestler’s profile a boost to beat him.
Having Shane lose to him in what would be a suplex-heavy match, one you’d have to make ‘hardcore’ for any of Shane’s offence to mean anything, does nothing for that. It adds nothing except a match for Shane to have, but I’d much rather see Shane vs. frankly nobody at all. His role on TV as the SmackDown Commissioner is the perfect role for him and the only role I want to see him in.
So really, regardless of whether I’m talking about scenario 1, 2 or 3, I just don’t want to see Brock vs. Orton or Brock vs. Shane, at all, ever.
Brock vs. Joe, yes. Brock vs. Owens, yes. Brock vs. Nakamura, definitely. Brock vs. Jericho I’d consider. Brock vs. Styles, 100 times yes. That’s 5 matches (more than a year’s worth of Brock Lesnar matches) which are infinitely more interesting than Shane or Orton.
Interesting is, of course, though, a very subjective word. I think a lot of people would find a match between Lesnar and Shane different, out of the ordinary, and therefore interesting. I think a lot of people would find Orton seeking revenge, something his character does very well indeed, interesting as well.
I just don’t. I just don’t really want to see Orton in that position and honestly? I don’t want to see Shane wrestle at all. I can see the slim, very slim case, for building up to a match for Shane against Triple H should the rivalry with Stephanie get out of hand. But…do you know what? I don’t want to see that either.
I want to see Triple H vs. someone young, hungry and eager to make a name for himself. Someone who could fight Triple H in a way he hasn’t been fought since Daniel Bryan. I want Triple H to fight Dean Ambrose again…but for Ambrose to win. I think that would do wonders for Ambrose’s career and really cement him at the top of the card.
And I want the same sort of thing for Brock Lesnar – for every Brock Lesnar match from now on. Having him fight Randy Orton, the last big name he hadn’t had a high-profile match against, made sense – but honestly there’s no point in having Randy Orton be the one to beat him – all he could achieve by facing Lesnar again is to come close to winning while losing and I’m just bored of those types of predictable matches in WWE.
If Brock had to change things up, if he couldn’t hit a German suplex for whatever reason or because a wrestler was literally too quick for him, and he had to work for the victory then I think his presence in the WWE makes sense. If all he is there to do is be a spectacle, then I think those days are past and WWE will regret not using what they have to its best extent while they have it.
What do you guys think? Would you rather see Shane or Orton face Brock next, or neither?