Last night was the 25th anniversary of WWE Summer Slam, known to seasoned wrestling fans as one of the “Big 4″ (The Big 4 is referred to as the original 4 ppvs of the WWE. Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summer Slam and Survivor Series). Going into this ppv would be a variety of different pathways, avenues and roads of different story lines, involving many of the WWE top talent. A great number of the eyes focusing on these pathways would set their their focus mainly on the featured/headlining match, the match that appropriately closed the show, being Brock Lesnar vs Triple H.
It was 10 years ago, at Summer Slam 2002 when Brock shook the entire planet by legitimizing himself by becoming the youngest WWE Undisputed World Champion in history, by defeating The Rock. A decade later, Brock returns to SummerSlam and reinvents himself once again by raising the bar of dominance by defeating “The Game” Triple H.
I wrote in a previous article that a victory for Lesnar is what is needed, not only for Brock, but for the WWE overall. Lets just honest, WWE has failed when it comes to building up new stars over the last 8 years. Due to this negligence, we have been enduring a continual recycle of the same wrestlers at the top of the mountain. Their remedy to fix the problem is to hot shot it and just turn someone either heel or face (depending what they are currently) or switch brands. To prove this theory correct, we have seen some semblance of John Cena vs The Big Show in a variety of factors, you would think this is a a career feud, and its not. Brock brings a level of needed freshness to the WWE roster in terms of villainy.
Punk is the WWE champion and Cena does not need to be in the title picture for a while. Cena has had a stellar 2012 already and can afford to not be in the hunt for sometime. By removing Cena and adding Brock eventually, We now have a good 4 months of new match material to work with. Brock at the top, along with Punk is a reflection on media dominance today. Brock has the name, the size and the reputation that makes him a house hold name and Punk has that modern rebellion aura about him that the public can relate to. In their own respects, both men look like the toughest men in the company, and a new program, consisting of them two, is highly needed. Not the same porridge that we have been spoon fed for quite sometime now.
My overall assessment for Summer Slam 2012 is not all that high. I have stated before and I still feel that the WWE now caters to a different audience, and that audience they target are not wrestling fans. We saw many elements of it last night at the PPV. The WWE can cater to their media outlet audience all they want, that’s fine, it pays the bills. But just with a dash of creativity and trying something different, but at the same time, being mindful of his part time schedule, Brock Lesnar and CM Punk can easily take the WWE out of its safe/comfortable zone and be that dominating media darling that it wants to be so bad.
Maurice D. Proffit is a writer for Rant Sports
