Does Brock Lesnar's Lack of Appearances Really Make the Championship Seem More Important?

   There was frankly no way to shorten the title of this blog without presenting a clear understanding of what this is about.  Earlier today, I was leisurely perusing some wrestling websites, as I'm sure many other wrestling fans do.  I came across an article about Brock Lesnar, discussing the possibility of stripping him of the Universal Championship that he's had since April 2, 2017.  The author proposed doing this so other wrestlers could be the Champion.  I then started reading the comments that followed.  Some people wanted Braun Strowman to cash in his "Money In the Bank" either before or after a probable Title defense against Roman Reigns.  Some dismissed Reigns completely as a follow-up Champion.  

   As I read further in the comments, I started seeing opinions on the prestige of the Championship increasing due to Lesnar's few and far between appearances.   One particular person compared it to over thirty years ago during Hulk Hogan's time as the WWF Champion.  That's what lost me and I'll tell you why!  First of all, it's an unfair comparison due to completely different time periods.  Second, it's completely untrue!  I knew from my 35 years of watching wrestling that it was untrue but I dug a little further and did some research.    

   Before I get into that, I want to get into a similar comment I saw weeks ago, comparing Brock's reign to Bruno Sammartino's in the 60's.  Similar to what I'm about to say regarding Hogan's big reign in the mid-80's, I found that Bruno actually appeared and defended his Championship more than Brock had in a year's time.  Bruno won the Title in May of 1963.  In the time from when he won it until the end of the year, Bruno wrestled, and even defended the Championship twice as many times Lesnar has his Championship in a full year.  I didn't even count an entire year for Bruno's matches and Title defenses.  Now, back to Hulk Hogan!

   I used the year 1987 specifically for a comparison.  In January of 1987, Hogan had now been the WWF Champion for exactly three years.  He started the year off strong, finishing his feud with "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff in a Steel Cage Championship match on Saturday Night's Main Event.  In the entire year of 1987, Hogan made 145 appearances.  Of course, there was less content on television and Pay-Per-View at this time so that's one way the comparison itself is unfair.  21 of those appearances were televised in some form.  14 of those appearances were matches.  11 of those matches were Title defenses.  Even if we take take that number, which is the smallest of the numbers I will be discussing, that is the same amount of times that Brock Lesnar has wrestled in a full year, and probably not much lower than Lesnar's all-time appearances in a full year.  

   Of those 145 appearances Hulk Hogan made in 1987, he had 135 matches.  Of those 135 matches, 117 of them were Title defenses.  Yes, this does include House Shows.  However, just because matches weren't televised, doesn't mean they didn't happen.  In fact, there was a even a time before television was invented that wrestling matches still took place.  Does it decrease the importance of these matches in any way?  I didn't think so!  So, there it is!  I couldn't get the exact count of all of Lesnar's appearances but you get the idea.  I do know that in general, Lesnar doesn't work House Shows.  From the time he defeated Goldberg for the Universal Title until his defense against Roman Reigns at this past WrestleMania, Lesnar wrestled at a total of four house shows.  Meanwhile, in 1987, Hogan made 124 House Show appearances and wrestled 120 of those, many of which were Title defenses.  Not only that, there was no weekly Raw or Smackdown in Hogan's days, nor were there as many Pay-Per-Views or televised shows compared to today.  

   Therefore, to compare Lesnar's lack of appearances to Hogan's or Bruno's is ridiculous!  Even if we discount the House Shows during Hogan's 1987, he still had 11 Title defenses, which is the exact amount of matches Lesnar had in a year's time.  He defeated Goldberg for the Championship, wrestled one non-Title match with AJ Styles, and defended it 9 times.  That includes 4 house shows, which makes his televised matches a total of 7.  But for argument's sake, does this make it more special when the Champion shows up or defends the Title?  Many would argue that it does!  I can understand that but these days, there is a lot more content than there used to be.  Raw operates every single week, as does Smackdown.  The House Show circuit continues to this day.  There is at least one Pay-Per-View a month, if not more.  There is more of a demand for wrestlers to appear in my opinion.

   Even if Lesnar doesn't work House Shows at all, he shows up to wrestle very little, and shows up in total probably not that much more.  Let me be clear, though!  This is not a knock on Lesnar at all!  This is all on WWE as he is only willing to appear or wrestle if they pay him.  I understand it costs a lot of money for a Lesnar appearance.  I also understand that someone like Lesnar is a special attraction!  However, I think that a special attraction should not be holding what is to be believed as the top Championship of the Raw brand.  Honestly, it's all irrelevant anyway, as I don't consider the Universal Title as a World Title, or even care about it all.  Even so, people would be just as upset if AJ Styles didn't show up with the WWE Championship most of the year.  In this day and age, I think the Champion should appear a lot more.  I'm not saying they should have Lesnar show up at every Raw and Pay-Per-View, or even House Shows at all, but I do feel the Champion should be around more often than the current situation.  

 Speaking of special attractions, I also came across a comment in that same article regarding Ronda Rousey as a special attraction.  Is Ronda Rousey a special attraction?  Yes, she most certainly is!  Here is the difference, though!  Since before WrestleMania this year, Ronda has worked a few House Shows, and she probably will do so more this year.  She's already made more total appearances this year than Lesnar has.  While yes, she's only had two televised matches, she's not the Champion!  For instance, during her current "suspension," I'm sure she is using this time to train, both in the ring and on the microphone.  Since her surprise appearance at the end of the Royal Rumble in January, she has improved by leaps and bounds.  I'm sure once she catches on completely, she'll be competing and appearing a lot more.  

   She is slated to return on the Raw after Extreme Rules this month.  I have a scenario in mind.  I believe she will either challenge Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women's Title, which may or may not contain Nia Jax, or she will team with her pal Natalya against Alexa and Mickie James.  Whatever match happens will probably go down at SummerSlam.  Should it be the tag team match I think it might be, I could see it going down as the following.  Natalya turns on Ronda during the match and Ronda is then "injured" for a short period of time.  She then returns either during September's Clash of Champions show or the night after on Raw and they start setting up her impending match with Natalya at Hell In a Cell.  They could use that time, this early in her WWE career, for her to train more, which I believe is the idea.  She could wrestle as part of a team at the Survivor Series and then not necessarily wrestle until the 2019 Royal Rumble.  If Ronda stays on after the following WrestleMania, especially if she has a run as Women's Champion, by then she will be showing up a lot more.

   Back to the topic at hand!  For the record, I am totally okay with Lesnar showing up sparingly.  However, I am not okay with him doing so as Champion.  That just doesn't work in 2018!  Again, I'm not saying the Champion has to appear on every single Raw or even every single Pay-Per-View.  However, the Champion should show up more than Lesnar has and currently does.  At the very, very least, have Paul Heyman make more appearances on behalf of his client!  I know it's WWE and you can throw logic out the window, meaning they don't always enforce the 30-day rule for Champions.  I do, however, have a problem when they choose to enforce this for other wrestlers.  I don't agree with picking and choosing the enforcement of this rule so either follow it completely, or don't at all!  There should be no middle ground!  I think that these days, a Champion hardly ever showing up is a problem and actually lessens the importance of the Title.  Altogether though, the biggest problem of all I've had with Lesnar holding the Title is the one day he didn't even bring the Championship with him.  That really lessens the credibility of a Championship and the Champion himself!  I'm hoping there will be opinions on this.  

 If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments.  Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans.  Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport.  For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
https://tagmeadate.com/