Brock Lesnar and the WWE Championship

For the first time in a long time, the future of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is in a state of the unknown. It’s often not too difficult to discern who is next in line to hold the coveted championship, but after the events of SummerSlam this past Sunday, its future is very ambiguous.

At SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar – a former NCAA, UFC, IWGP and WWE champion – defeated John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. Though, saying that he “defeated” Cena would hardly be doing Brock justice. Lesnar mauled Cena. Lesnar annihilated Cena. Lesnar conquered Cena. For the first time in a long time, John Cena, a 15-time WWE Champion, looked weak and vulnerable – words with which John Cena has almost never been described in his WWE career. Over-rated, maybe. Over-exposed, sure. But “weak” and “vulnerable?” No, I can’t ever really recall a time that the WWE has booked John Cena – their resident Superman – to look so utterly ineffectual and downright powerless.

Brock Lesnar has a unique mystique in the landscape of the today’s WWE. Lesnar was last WWE Champion over a decade ago, in 2003. Since then he’s won the New Japan Pro Wrestling IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in 2005 and the UFC Heavyweight championship in 2008. Not only has he been able to earn gold in a completely different professional wrestling atmosphere but he has proven that he can be successful in the legitimate combat sport of mixed-martial arts as well which lends Lesnar an incredibly daunting aura that almost no other athlete in the WWE or in the world can match up against. 

Brock Lesnar was presented with the brand new WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt last Monday on Raw

If Brock Lesnar and John Cena had a back-and-forth battle at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship, it would be easy to assume that Cena could realistically win the title back at Night of Champions (the next Pay-Per-View) or at any time, really. But Brock utterly decimated Cena at SummerSlam. Their match at SummerSlam, which was about 15 minutes long, consisted of Brock hitting his finishing move, the F5, mere minutes into the match, followed by not one, not two but FIFTEEN German Suplexes on Cena, tossing the champion around like a ragdoll.

This victory follows Brock’s domination of The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 30, snapping Taker’s undefeated streak, which his advocate, Paul Heyman, eloquently reminds fans that he is “The one behind the one in ‘one and twenty-one.’” Beating John Cena as viciously as he did at SummerSlam is not quite as huge in the grand scheme of events as snapping the Undertaker’s undefeated streak at Wrestlemania – but if beating Taker at Wrestlemania is #1 on Lesnar’s list of amazing feats, dominating John Cena in a championship match is easily #2.

Brock doing his best Undertaker
impersonation at SummerSlam

Which leads me to why for the first time, in a long time, the future of the WWE Championship is so uncertain. It’s been a long time since there’s been such an utterly dominant champion as Brock Lesnar is in his current run. He’s dominated every foe he’s faced – which in the past year and a half includes Triple H, CM Punk, The Big Show, The Undertaker and John Cena – in such a convincing fashion that WWE will need to play the next few months of storyline very carefully in order to build a believable contender to Brock Lesnar. He broke the streak and utterly destroyed Cena, pinning him cleanly in a championship match. It will be hard for ANY wrestler in WWE to look like a believable threat to the beast that is Brock Lesnar.

The internet dirtsheets are reporting that Vince McMahon wants The Rock to face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31 and that Triple H wants Roman Reigns to be Brock’s opponent. None of the reports have indicated that those matches would be for the title but with all the evidence stated above, you’d be hard-pressed to find or build a worthy contender to Brock’s championship between now and Wrestlemania.

And while none of the dirtsheets have mentioned this specifically, I would hope that WWE is also considering Daniel Bryan as the man to take down the beast. Since having vacated the title after Extreme Rules, Bryan has been suffering myriad health problems requiring multiple surgeries and extensive rehab. The hope is that he will be able to return by the Royal Rumble, which is slated to take place in January 2015. Using a storyline that closely resembled his run to the championship while opposing the Authority, someone like Daniel Bryan, who has had overwhelming fan support, would be the perfect foil for Brock Lesnar. The “David vs Goliath” story of Bryan vs Lesnar would be almost as good, if not better than his conflict with the Authority which led to his title win at Wrestlemania 30.

It was announced on Main Event on Tuesday night that John Cena will have his rematch for the WWE Championship against Brock at the Night of Champions PPV in Nashville on September 21 and it will be interesting to see if he fares any differently against Lesnar than he did at SummerSlam. But as it stands right now, Brock Lesnar is the king of the mountain in the WWE and it will take some clever booking and a little bit of luck to create a challenger who can take the title from the Beast.

Exclusive interview with ECW co-founder and current WWE manager Paul Heyman on the upcoming SummerSlam PPV, his latest DVD and more

The Ring Rust Radio team is back with another huge, exclusive interview. Donald Wood, Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin were able to speak with Paul Heyman, ECW co-founder and current WWE manager of such stars as CM Punk and Brock Lesnar. Ring Rust Radio gets to talk to Paul Heyman about SummerSlam, the future of WWE, if he would ever consider running a company, like ECW, again as well as the newly released DVD detailing the highlights of his career in professional wrestling entitled, “Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman” and more.


Donald Wood: SummerSlam is Sunday, August 17, on the WWE Network. Your client, Brock Lesnar, will be fighting John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. After being behind one of the most shocking moments in wrestling history, what does the duo of Lesnar and Heyman have in store for SummerSlam?

Paul Heyman: The same thing that was in store for The Undertaker at WrestleMania; a beating beyond compare. I don’t need to hype SummerSlam to those who understand the dominance that prevails in the universe that has been conquered by Brock Lesnar. I think the people who need to be sold on this Pay-Per-View are John Cena fans, to which I offer this very quick sales pitch. If you are a fan of John Cena, and if you are there is no accounting for taste, this is your last opportunity to see him. And if you think it’s all hype and hyperbole, here’s something to consider; if you look back on 21 appearances at WrestleMania by The Undertaker, you can rarely find a video clip of someone even getting a two-count on The Undertaker. Brock Lesnar just didn’t beat The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar hospitalized The Undertaker. Brock Lesnar gave The Undertaker such an ass-kicking that The Undertaker has not been seen, nor heard from since. There was no controversy. There was no outside interference. There was no manager distraction. Brock Lesnar stepped into the ring and beat The Undertaker within an inch of his life, and the same fate awaits for John Cena at the Staples Center, on August 17 in Los Angeles at SummerSlam.

Mike Chiari: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena is the biggest money match WWE has to offer right now, but after SummerSlam what Superstar or Superstars would you like to see Brock face moving forward? Who do you think is ready to and worthy of going up against Brock?

Paul Heyman: I see Brock Lesnar defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against all comers. That could mean Randy Orton, that could mean Seth Rollins, that could mean Roman Reigns, that could mean Dean Ambrose, that could mean Big Show, that could mean Daniel Bryan. If there is anyone that wants to step up and try to take the title away, because that’s the key. You’re not going to just luck a victory over Brock Lesnar. You’re going to have to beat Brock Lesnar in order to take the championship from him. The same way Brock Lesnar is going to hoist John Cena up on his massive shoulders on August 17 at SummerSlam, drive John Cena down to the mat with such ferocity that John Cena will not know what hit him with the F-5 and pin John Cena’s shoulders to the mat 1-2-3 to take from John Cena the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. To strip John Cena of the dignity of being champion.

Brandon Galvin: The running joke among us is that every new promo you cut is a top 10 promo of the year because your delivery and intensity is impeccable and you always incite an emotional reaction from the audience. Is there anybody you've studied during your career, whether they be in wrestling or outside wrestling, to help you evolve into the best promo man in the business?

Paul Heyman: Everyone. I watch everyone. I look to see what everyone does. I watched my father present his case to juries, my father was a personal injury attorney in the Bronx, I watched my father present cases to juries when I was a kid. I look now at the WWE Universe as if they are my jury and I am the advocate for my client. In terms of people that I watch, I watch everybody. There is something to learn from every single person who goes out there and performs because you’re going to be judged up against them. The way they hold their hands, the way they hold the microphone, the way they tilt their head, the way they engage the audience, the way someone cuts their eyes to the right and to the left, the way someone avoids the camera, the way someone looks into the camera, how do they hold their legs, what is their body language, what does anything they do tell you in their desire to convey their message to you. And I study everybody because I’m competing with them in terms of being the best person on the microphone.

Donald Wood: Tuesday marked the release of the new “Ladies and Gentlemen, My Name is Paul Heyman” DVD. As someone who has been around the business for a long time, how does it feel to have a DVD made about you and what’s it like knowing the WWE is behind the production?

Paul Heyman: If you asked me two years ago if the WWE would’ve made a DVD of me, I wouldn’t say yes. I wouldn’t have envisioned this coming and I wasn’t particularly happy when I heard they were going to do it because I didn’t know what stories they were going to tell. I also knew that meant sitting down and reflecting upon my career and my life and I hate looking back. I’m obsessed with looking forward. I’m flattered by all of the positive reviews the DVD has gotten and I’m glad people like the take that was offered. Really, I have nothing to bitch about regarding it.

Brandon Galvin: Was there anything cut from the DVD that you wish made it?

Paul Heyman: I have no idea what was shot for the DVD. My participation in this DVD, besides giving them pictures of my children and a few pictures of my parents to the WWE, was I sat down for an interview, we did it all in one shot, it took about 16 hours. The only request that I had was that we kinda do it like a Charlie Rose interview. I’m sitting at a table because it’s a more relaxed atmosphere. I didn’t want to shoot it in my house. I didn’t want to shoot it in my office. I sat down for 16 hours and we banged it out. I went in with the full intention of just whatever the question was, I’m going to give it a 100 percent honest answer. I don’t know what else was shot. I wasn’t privy to who was being interviewed for it, although I had heard. I don’t know what footage that was shot ever made it, I don’t know which stories were told never made it, which probably means if this documentary goes well there will be a Part II. After doing an interview for 16 hours, I don’t really know what they asked me that didn’t make the cut simply because it was a 16-hour interview and I was glad to be done with it.

Mike Chiari: You were there front and center when Brock Lesnar picked up the biggest win in WrestleMania history against The Undertaker. Knowing what type of condition he was in after that match and knowing everything he’s accomplished over the course of his career, in your opinion do you believe we’ll ever see The Undertaker wrestle another match?

Paul Heyman: I don’t know. I truly don’t know. I don’t know as a human being and I don’t know as a character. I don’t know what he’s thinking and I don’t know what his reaction to this is. I didn’t see The Undertaker after the match. The Undertaker legitimately collapsed five seconds after he walked through that curtain. He never even made it to the Gorilla position. He was in between the set and the curtain that leads to the control room, known as the Gorilla position. He collapsed there. They loaded him into the ambulance down a side ramp from right behind the curtain and was taken straight to the hospital. That’s not a storyline, that’s the way it happened. I don’t know how he feels about it. I don’t know if he feels that once his streak was over, that’s what he had left to give. And I don’t know if he feels that he doesn’t want to go out like that. It’s not something I’m privy to the answer of and nor should I be for that matter. It’s clearly his decision.

Donald Wood: I’d be remiss as a kid from Philadelphia who witnessed the ECW revolution if we didn’t touch on that. You helped build one of the most successful wrestling federations in the history of the sport. With TNA struggling and a wide-open market desperate for a viable alternative, do you ever think about getting back in the saddle as a primary shot caller for a company again?

Paul Heyman: No. No. No. In 2010, after Brock Lesnar choked out Shane Carwin, there was a discussion that I had with TNA that involved Spike TV. Ultimately, because TNA had been trying to get me on the phone from the day I left WWE in 2006 and I never took the phone call. We finally got into a conversation because Spike TV had reached out to make that happen. Ultimately, the story of this is, if I was going to do it, I wanted the Dana White deal. I wanted complete control, I wanted a piece of the company and I wanted the ability to, when the time was right, to take it public. I wanted to do the programming completely different than the way they had been doing it and Spike TV signed off on it. The concept was a very youth-oriented, youth-based, youth-marketed promotion. A complete contrast to the way WWE does things. A complete and utter alternative to WWE at the time. While the ruling family in TNA had no problem with my salary request, my ownership demands, my concepts, etc. etc., they didn’t want to implement as much of a youth-oriented product as I was looking for and I balked at it. I have no regrets about that. At the end of the day, they were happier being a WWE-lite promotion than they were branding themselves something different as TNA. So that was the last flirtation I had with doing my own thing. I do my own thing with my marketing brand and talent agency in New York City called Looking 4 Larry Agency. I’m very proud of the body of work. We have a long list of clients including 2KSports and in the past THQ and EA Sports and a number of different clients. And I get to do my own thing in the mainstream world with a marketing firm right in the heart of New York City. In regard to doing my own thing in sports entertainment, I kinda do my own thing now with Brock Lesnar and I’m very happy doing it. Running a whole show is a 24/7 and 365 commitment, and you would need an enormous amount of financing and very strong distribution set up front to get me to the table to even consider such a task. Otherwise, it’s doomed to fail.

Mike Chiari: During your time at the helm in ECW you became known for your ability and willingness to scour the globe and bring in unique talent. With WWE currently doing the same in the form of Kenta and Prince Devitt specifically how impressed are you with WWE’s efforts to broaden its horizons in a sense?

Paul Heyman: Very. I commend them on this reach out for the best talent on the face of the planet. That obviously includes the two men you just mentioned. We’re getting the cream of the crop and that notes a style change in the WWE. A higher work rate. Higher customer satisfaction in terms of the actual in-ring product. It’s a very exciting future to think about the kind of people who have yet to debut on WWE television.