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Hitting the Ground Running: Brock, Cena and Slow Build
By: TH | Posted: 04/11/12



When John Laurinaitis announced that John Cena would be wrestling Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules, one of the cries that predictably came up from the Twitters was that they were running into that match too quickly. As if last year's yearlong build towards Rock/Cena didn't warn fans as to the company's ability to build a longterm angle, those cries were very much quelled in the wake of what followed that announcement, which turned into one of the best RAW opens in a good long while. Still, there are doubts out there as to whether they're moving too fast with this story. To that question, I say that not every story has to be a long one, not even in a "dream match" scenario.

With Rock and Cena, the necessity was longterm because Rocky wasn't going to be around a whole lot. Therefore, he had to keep gravitating around Cena. While Lesnar is not full-time, he is showing multiple times a month. Diving right into a story with Cena, especially if the endgame is the rumored feud with The Rock going into WrestleMania, is actually a good thing. You don't want Cena and Lesnar tied up with each other all year. You get a year of Lesnar, so why not have him interact with other people on the roster like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan or Dolph Ziggler in the interim?

Taking it slow with Cena would also pretty much negate the impactful entrance he had the week before, which everyone seems to agree was a good thing. As a few people like Dave McKinney of South Atlanta Wrestling noted, you don't "take it slow" with a guy by having him come in and hit his finisher in the closing segment of your flagship show. That's stupid. This feud was meant to hit the ground running, and I feel like that's the tone it should have taken.

Think about it, would Brock Lesnar come back to WWE just to get the Brodus Clay/Lord Tensai treatment? No. He's a big deal right now. He left WWE on top, he fought to the top of the food chain in another area and left that medium to come back to wrestling while his star was still pretty bright (I wouldn't call it him being on top coming off two losses). Of course he's going to come back and challenge the top dog in the yard. He was never presented as a humble character in real life or as a wrestling persona. Why would he start now? Why would he have to prove himself again? Plus, if the storyline reason for his return is that Laurinaitis wanted to bring "legitimacy" back to WWE, was he going to have him come back and ease into a match with the top dog in the yard months down the line? No, the match makes sense to be built right away.

Not everything has to be an epic story. Sometimes, the best ones are quick jaunts that lead into other things. While I agree that the lack of longterm storytelling going into WrestleMania was annoying, well, this isn't WrestleMania season anymore. It's a new day, a fresh start. Why not strike when the iron's hot and head into the new WWE year punching? That's what they're doing, and I for one like it. It's certainly brought an energy to RAW, and I'm sorry if I enjoy having my shows have interesting things going down on them at the expense of slowly building towards a Summer Slam buyrate.


Check out new blogs on WWE, TNA, Chikara and more every day over at the home of TH, The Wrestling Blog @ http://wallsofjerichoholic.blogspot.com/


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- TH
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