TSC Evaluation #105: Brock Lesnar

[NYChase718]

He came out of nowhere and bodied hogan and rock in 2002 after wmx8
Both were not on tv for months after



Legend


bytch ass HHH even had lesnar on another brand and suddenly triple h has his own world title on raw
No more undisputed
Avoided lesnar for the whole 2002-2004

 

[Playaz Eyez]

You can be great without being on a Mt Rushmore

 

[R=G]

Lesnar is nowhere near the Mount Rushmore of pro wrestling. The ratings in this thread look wrestlingforum.com level. Utterly silly. Guy got like two years of real work and squash matches for most of his 2014-today run. Beyond silly.

 

[_genocidecutter_]

Best big man ever

 

[Hey_zeus]

First run Brock had GOAT potential. A legit athlete with size and speed. That could sell, work with anyone and was a good heel and face. 9.

Second run Brock was more spectacle than anything that has deteriorated into a spot monkey for one move. Matches that should have been good were boring and uneventful because of how he was booked to keep his heat regardless of how it effected this rest of the roster. The fleecing of Vince is the one admirable thing about this second run. 7.

8.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

I hope most of the people lowballing Lesnar did the same to Mark Henry (who I gave an 8). Mark Henry had a shorter hot streak than Lesnar, wrestled 6 years longer, had lots of injuries and involved in one of the worst storylines ever.

And I had them both higher than Orton

 

[Cartier Murphy]

I was a Brock Lesnar Stan back in his OG run when I was a kid. This dude was a force of nature that literally came out of nowhere and took the WWE by storm, at a time when star power was at an all time high. Having taken out Hoegan, Rock, Taker, Flair, Angle, etc. in your rookie year with the performances to back it up is no small feat. Between the athleticism, power, and speed he was so fun to watch and play as in the WWE games at the time. He only got better each year too, Lesnar by 2003/4 was an amazing performer. That heel run from summer 03 on is straight piff. Him murdering Zack Gowen was one of those moments, an insanely violent yet entertaining spectacle. There was a noticeable hole in the roster after he left, especially with a replacement like JBL. It’s a shame we’d never see how good he could’ve gotten if he stayed.

From 2012 on is basically the tale of two wrestlers. He looked like a beast in his return match, but to me they immediately ruined him with the loss. The HHH feud felt forced but, I liked 2/3 of their matches if I’m being honest they were all slow but only the Mania match was boring as sin, the two surrounding it were well worked IMO. The Punk match is a classic, and his 14-15 run is an all time great run. Where the wheels fell off was after Mania 31. I’ve seen @Miami316 touch on it before, but WWE getting gun shy with Reigns had a trickle down effect on everyone else. Rollins had to go over at Mania so the show wouldn’t end with fans booing it to the very end, Reigns had to drop down to the midcard to cool some of that heat off, and Brock had to have a forced feud with Taker to stay busy because they hadn’t yet anointed their guy, so they didn’t build anyone else up to be on the level of facing Brock. The matches were entertaining spectacles but narratively made no sense. Taker had since returned and made no reference or anything to the Streak loss, including squashing Bray at Mania to get his mojo back. But he suddenly targets Brock in the summer because?

From then on dude was phone it in master and while I don’t 100% fault him, the money was easy and the creative sucked, it was disappointing to see. His match with Ambrose was one of the few matches I looked forward to at that Mania and it was mostly a tame squash match. As was mostly anything else he was involved in. I actually totally enjoyed the Goldberg feud from start to finish his best work post Punk feud. He had a lot of good, motivated bumping and selling during that Universal title run and everybody he faced looked super impressive against him, it was just again unfortunate he didn’t deviate from the Suplex City routine by then.

Call it an 8. His last few years are a big blemish on an otherwise excellent career.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

@Cardinal Murphy I’m glad you mentioned my touching on that. The last 3 years have been spent intentionally sabotaging the entire roster/show to prop up Roman and feed people to him. Brock was the hottest name on the roster in March of 2015. Well, him or Bryan. He was crazy over as a face in mid 2015. Then they stopped booking him as a central part of a story or focusing on him in particular and used him as a plot device. It’s crystal clear that he started getting lazy around then.

 

[2CT]

IMO anything 5 or below is trash

6-7 is average

8 is above average and 9-10 is legendary

so with that being said i gotta go with an 8 for Brock, dude is definitely an above average talent but i have an extremely hard time calling him great or legendary especially with his recent Universal title run which was mailing it in to the fullest

Ambrose even spoke on how Brock wasn’t willing to do shyt for their WM match and i can’t respect that, great and legendary wrestlers don’t do shyt like that

his first run was incredible though and as an early teenager i was a huge stan me and my homie used to have heated debates about who was better between him and Goldberg

so when WM 20 came around my homie tried to rub it in but i had to remind that nikka that it was fake and Brock only lost cause he was leaving the company

but yeah i’m going with an 8 for The Beast Incarnate

 

[mrken12]

Pretty sure people felt like Orton was boring as shyt long before that happened.

Ed G was the biggest Orton fan on the planet but he did a complete 180 and started shytting on him like everyone else. Ed is always so extreme with his love and hatred. It's almost to a Cornette level.

 

[Chris Cool]

Can't go higher than 8. His first run was when nikkas was too cool to be watching that garbage. Latest run beenfor years.

 

[Yayo Toure]

Dont see how everyone is giving a dude who can't promo, never improved in his promos, and has phoned it in the past 4 years a 10.

He's an 8 for me.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

IMO anything 5 or below is trash

6-7 is average

8 is above average and 9-10 is legendary

so with that being said i gotta go with an 8 for Brock, dude is definitely an above average talent but i have an extremely hard time calling him great or legendary especially with his recent Universal title run which was mailing it in to the fullest

Ambrose even spoke on how Brock wasn’t willing to do shyt for their WM match and i can’t respect that, great and legendary wrestlers don’t do shyt like that

his first run was incredible though and as an early teenager i was a huge stan me and my homie used to have heated debates about who was better between him and Goldberg

so when WM 20 came around my homie tried to rub it in but i had to remind that nikka that it was fake and Brock only lost cause he was leaving the company

but yeah i’m going with an 8 for The Beast Incarnate

Austin, HBK, and Undertaker all in some way did this, and I’m sure everyone on here would have them as a 9+

 

[2CT]

Austin, HBK, and Undertaker all in some way did this, and I’m sure everyone on here would have them as a 9+

Austin, HBK and Taker never had a weak match at WM due to them being unwilling to properly participate in the match bruh

i’ll admit it’s hearsay cause Ambrose coulda been exaggerating or flat out lying but it is what it is i gave dude an 8 cause though he’s good he ain’t on Austin, HBK or Taker’s level

 

[BrehWyatt]

Mic Skills - 8. By himself, he's mediocre outside of a few one-liners ("Suplex City, bytch ") but you have to take into account Paul Heyman's mic skills (10) since he did the talking for him.

Personality/gimmick - 10. One of the most believable destroyers ever. Not to mention, he could sell when required (see: his first WWE run). Just so happens his last run was full of typical squash-matches.

Ring work - 8.5, 9. Everything he did, I believed it hurt and it fit his gimmick. Not to mention the first time I saw the F-5 I audibly marked out on some shyt. Was a natural at the shyt. Not quite Kurt Angle level in terms of how quickly he picked it up, but still. He plays his role as well as anybody.

Overall: 8, 8.5. Longevity hurts him here, but anybody who gave him a 9-10 gets no argument from me.