Blog #2: Brock Lesnar: Sports Most Entertaining Heel

Jeff Schwartz

Blog #2: Brock Lesnar: Sports Most Entertaining Heel

July 2, 2010

I don’t hide it. I grew up a fan of professional wrestling. I’m still somewhat involved with the business to this day. I’ve got several close friends who don spandex tights and bounce around a ring in front of hundreds of fans several nights during the week. In 2002, a man named Brock Lesnar graced my television screen for the first time tossing around my childhood favorite Nature Boy Ric Flair. Lesnar beat Flair down rather stiffly for what may have been one of the top ten debuts in the history of the business. Through the course of the next few years, Brock Lesnar was a top star for the then, WWF. Lesnar was a top heel, or bad guy for Vince McMahon’s sports entertainment company, but I couldn’t help but enjoy every second he was on my television.

Upon leaving The WWF (E), Lesnar tried to be a football player; he failed at an athletic endeavor for the first time in his life. With his first failure in his back pocket as motivation, Lesnar turned to Dana White and UFC. Lesnar signed to fight at UFC 81: Breaking Point against veteran Frank Mir. I was intrigued enough to watch my first MMA fight ever. Lesnar has a certain charisma that people hate just by looking at him. As is the case with most of my favorite athletes, I love the guys who people hate. While ESPN has such negative comments for guys like Manny Ramirez and Darius Miles, I embraced those guys as favorites of mine for their absurdity. Lesnar lost that night to Mir via tap out but a top heel in MMA was born.

Later on after defeating Heath Herring, Lesnar crushed MMA legend Randy Couture. At UFC 100: Lesnar rolled into Las Vegas in a mind set of not seen since he had won the NCAA Heavyweight Championship in 2000. Frank Mir was destroyed quickly. Post fight saw Lesnar cut a scathing promo that he couldn’t even do as a champion professional wrestler. The former Minnesota Golden Gopher flipped off the crowd, announced he was going to drink a Coors Light because Bud Light wouldn't pay him. Lesnar also stated he might even "get on top of his wife." This was an element to MMA that had never been seen before, but it was AWESOME. Brock Lesnar is legitimately the baddest man on the planet, he’s hated by so many people that it’s allowed him to become the top draw in all of UFC.

Tomorrow, Brock Lesnar steps into the UFC Octagon for the sixth time with a record of 4-1 against Shane Carwin. Carwin is the next victim for Brock. It’s really that simple. There is no real draw for me to MMA, and UFC but Lesnar is the exception. While I am certainly not an expert on MMA, quite frankly I’ve watched about a handful of shows, Brock Lesnar gets my money every time he walks that aisle. When Brock gets in the cage, my money goes directly to Dana White. Tomorrow, for Shane Carwin, Here Comes The Pain.