It’s a common trope for actors to get into the role of their characters by believing that everything their characters does is the right thing. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays one of the most ruthless fictional villains of all time in the Walking Dead’s Negan, has mentioned in interviews about how he believes that Negan is in the right with a lot of his decisions whether the audience interprets this or not. That’s how you can separate the elite actors in show-biz to every other actor. That’s how you can tell whether a wrestler can cut a good promo. Paul Heyman is another example of someone who believes everything that he says. That’s what makes him one of the greatest in the land at rocking a microphone. It’s actually a well-known client of Heyman that got me thinking about this theory.
It’s one of the more despised wrestlers in WWE, at least in the eyes of a lot of people. While I personally love Brock Lesnar, Lesnar’s got his fair amount of “haters” and displeased fans to deal with. Just ask some of our SLTD writers, and at least a few of them will let you know that they don’t like Brock Lesnar. For whatever reason, he’ll always have his critics.
I personally have grown up to love the work of Brock Lesnar, having started watching wrestling at a time where Lesnar was king. Even more than a decade later, I’m still always a fan of the work that Lesnar puts in whenever he’s on television. Brock’s pretty much one of my favourite wrestlers of all time, if not the favourite. With that said, it’s easy to let your opinion of a wrestler affect your judgement of their work and the booking of them.
I was OUTRAGED when Brock Lesnar lost to Goldberg in 80 seconds at Survivor Series. For many reasons, I felt that Lesnar losing in that manner was a giant middle finger to the fans considering the amount of time and stock that they put into him. Having even broken the Undertaker’s streak in order to make him a special attraction, him losing to Goldberg made the pay-off seem EXTREMELY disappointing. With plans of rematches between Lesnar and Goldberg, it’s always possible for Lesnar to get his win back. However, this defeat will probably stand out as the most important match of all.
As I was furious with the WWE over what they had done to one of my most beloved wrestlers of all time (even if it was reportedly his idea), I actually started to wonder. I never want to come off as a whiner when I write but sometimes, for whatever reason, it always appears that way once my articles are up. I let my feelings towards Brock affect my opinion on what manner believed was an all-time great angle. If that’s your opinion, I don’t hold that against you.
Then I wondered about his character just a little bit and wondered why I was so incensed over this defeat. Then it dawned on me. This actually was more of an idea that I’ve had in my head since WrestleMania 31 but the reason I mostly was annoyed with this was because he was a favourite of mine but also because in my mind… he’s the babyface in the whole deal.
Now I’m sure everyone reading won’t be believing their eyes right now? A babyface? How can Brock Lesnar, who doesn’t care about anyone but himself according to the storyline, be considered a babyface? Does this mean I think Goldberg is the heel? The answer is no. I don’t consider Goldberg a heel or anything. At the same time, since WrestleMania 31, I’ve never seen Brock as the heel in the majority of his storylines.
Now to be fair, there have been times where Brock HAS been blatantly booked as a babyface. Even before WrestleMania 31, he targeted the Authority and Seth Rollins as part of a RAW angle where he beat up Kane and Big Show. He doesn’t do things like this because he’s a bad guy. He does them just because he felt like it. What makes Brock Lesnar any different from Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was portrayed as the good guy despite attacking nearly everyone in sight? When Brock went after the Authority and Seth Rollins, he was clearly portrayed as the good guy in the situation.
He arguably had Roman Reigns beat at WrestleMania 31 when Seth got involved and stole the WWE World title, without even pinning the champion Brock to do it. Brock was out for revenge, and had to overcome his fair-share of beatings from the Authority group. At Battleground 2015, Brock had Seth beat for the WWE World title when he was confronted by the Undertaker. Undertaker helped THE HEEL retain his title against Brock.
People will argue with me about this but I was convinced that Undertaker was a heel during the later parts of his feud with Brock Lesnar. Brock had been screwed for the WWE World title by a man that he beat fair and square at WrestleMania 30. How is Brock not the victim of this whole thing? Not to mention, Undertaker needed underhanded attacks to get the job done several times. At this stage, Brock was 100% the good guy in this story.
At Hell in a Cell 2015, Brock gave Taker a bit of his own medicine in order to win their final battle at Hell in a Cell. Take this as a heel moment if you want but for me, it’s just a little bit of revenge. Brock returning the favour didn’t come off as a heel move to me as Taker had did it to him over and over again. Going into the 2016 Royal Rumble, Brock beat up all of the heels before the event including the Wyatt Family in the Rumble itself. Brock’s just being as dominant as ever, even if he ruffled up some good guys along the way. It’s every man for himself so as far as I’m considered, no foul play by Brock.
Then Dean Ambrose fought Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32, changing things up a bit. At this point, Dean was portrayed as the babyface but Lesnar didn’t come off as the bad guy at all. They had a No Holds Barred match so yes, Dean had every right to use weapons. However, Brock barely needed to use the weapons at all while Dean used everything he could get his hands on. Brock was trying to fight fairly more than Ambrose was! Again, not questioning Dean’s character as it was No Holds Barred. However, Brock didn’t seem like a bad guy to me.
In the build up to SummerSlam 2016, there’s not a lot to suggest Brock as a good guy or a bad guy. Paul Heyman made fun of Randy Orton but both men used sneak attacks to try and gain the upperhand before SummerSlam. They have the fight and Brock decimates Orton and wins via technical knockout. Alright, Brock continuing to assault Orton after the match did make it feel as if Brock was in the wrong a little. I will admit that Brock was more out for blood than just the win via technical knockout. He also attacked Shane McMahon, who tried to calm the man down and was attacked because of it.
I will say that Paul Heyman is superb at his job in the sense that he knows how to seriously get under the skin of the babyface, as Brock does gain more heat by association because of this. This doesn’t exactly make Brock a heel on its own, but not doing anything about and grinning as usual makes him look pretty bad because of it. Even if does come off bad Brock, only Brock’s refusal to fight his rivals in segments would really give him “heat” as a heel in my eyes. After all, you watched the show to watch him fight so when he doesn’t, it’s a let down and he comes off as a coward.
Other than those little details, there’s no real reason to consider Brock a bad guy in my opinion. Even if he’s not there all the time, that doesn’t make him any different from the likes of fan favourites like Undertaker and The Rock. They’re not there every week but are still beloved after all of these years.
Now I’m sure people probably want to yell “tweener” at me right now but honestly, that’d be a pretty lame conclusion to come too. Although it’s accurate in the sense that Brock only cares about himself and only wants to fight, I don’t really consider Brock a heel in the sense that he’s not exactly done a lot to make me think that I want his head or anything. He’s just been winning matches, much like recent rival Goldberg. What makes him any different than Goldberg? It’s funny how that all came back around!
It’s all open for interpretation but I hope this has shown people an alternate take on this monster’s character. Maybe we should look at every babyface or heel and see if there actually as noble or as dastardly as we think they are. All I can say is that the direction of Brock for the future will be very interesting to see.
Recent Comments