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Brock Lesnar & New Japan: Potential, Pride, Purgatory
By ditch | May 2, 2006
By David Ditch
It’s difficult to keep abreast of events that span industries (wrestling/MMA), continents (Asia/North America) and years all at the same time. Different narratives weave around each other. The events of the past week involving New Japan and Brock Lesnar highlight these difficulties. It takes someone with a borderline-obsessive thirst for wrestling news to recognize the connections between past and present, location and location. Thankfully, I’m beyond borderline.
Past: In 2004, Brock Lesnar is a company ace with a guaranteed high salary for life, heavy promotion, and an upcoming match against a ‘monster’ wrestler who he’s a near mortal lock to beat. However his aversion to touring causes him to steer towards legitimate athletics, throwing the booking of the match and the promotion as a whole into doubt.
Present: In 2006, Brock Lesnar is a company ace with a guaranteed high salary for life, heavy promotion, and an upcoming match against a ‘monster’ wrestler who he’s a near mortal lock to beat. However his aversion to touring causes him to steer towards legitimate athletics, throwing the booking of the match and the promotion as a whole into doubt.
News: IWGP champion Brock Lesnar announces a tie-up with HERO’S/K-1, with the goal of becoming an ace for shows done in the US. This takes place within a week of his settlement with WWE over contract issues, allowing him to work MMA fights in the US. New Japan had been hoping such a result would cause him to sign a beefier contract with them, including full tours.
You get from the past to the present by replacing the NFL with HERO’S, WWE with New Japan, and Goldberg with Giant Bernard/Albert. There is a difference in contracts, since WWE’s was longer-term and much more binding, and in the case of WWE Lesnar had lost his title, but the basics are eerily similar. Or try this one.
Past: New Japan’s champion, who works rarely for the company instead of doing full tours, has an MMA-related event ruin the potential value of his eventual title loss and overshadow company booking as it relates to challengers.
Present: New Japan’s champion, who works rarely for the company instead of doing full tours, has an MMA-related event ruin the potential value of his eventual title loss and overshadow company booking as it relates to challengers.
News: Brock Lesnar, IWGP champ since October with a long undefeated streak, is scheduled to defend the title on 5/3. He faces the winner of a singles tournament featuring top New Japan stars, in this case Giant Bernard. Japanese challengers such as Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yuji Nagata were in line for a title shot as well.
The past can include most notably Kaz Fujita and Bob Sapp, who over the course of four combined title reigns never had the sort of definitive title loss they were supposed to. Be it MMA fights, training or politics, the “New Japan wrestler makes good by beating the shootfighter†title change never happened as planned, unless you count quasi-shooter Tadao Yasuda’s title win and loss following a questionable win over Jerome LeBanner. In each case there were multiple native fighters lined up to get the dramatic win; so too here. Lesnar’s match with Bernard was thought to be a probable Lesnar win to be followed by a loss to a native within the next two defenses. Now, with Lesnar having perhaps as few as two New Japan matches left on his contract and obviously no desire to move to Japan, it seems clear that the Lesnar/New Japan relationship is nearing an end. That makes Lesnar’s eventual title loss anticlimactic.
On the one hand, they can have Lesnar win one more match and then put over a native. In that case it happens on his very last match, and in an era where kayfabe is dead there’s no way to make that seem important. On the other hand they can put the belt on a replacement gaijin monster in Giant Bernard, but in that case it means they’re putting the belt on Giant Bernard. For those of you who don’t understand the significance of this just google the terms ‘Prince Albert’ and ‘WWF’ together.
Now let’s try a geographical comparison.
North America: Once and certainly future champion trained in OVW drives a wedge between himself and his promotion, with his ego playing a major role and jeopardizing some huge future paydays.
Japan: Once and certainly future champion trained in OVW drives a wedge between himself and his promotion, with his ego playing a major role and jeopardizing some huge future paydays.
News: Randy Orton’s inability to socialize with females who don’t idolize him forces WWE to suspend him indefinitely.
In Orton’s case, his pride effected how he dealt with the fairer sex. With Lesnar, pride effected his ability to remain in a sport where outcomes are determined in advance. Both are young, both have unlimited potential, and the future of both in pro wrestling has been clearly damaged by their actions. Orton could have stopped being a misogynist; Lesnar could have booked his MMA debut through New Japan rather than going over their head and in the process muddying their plans for him.
What can’t be denied is that in each of these cases there were ways for the promotions to handle things better. WWE could have done more to listen to Lesnar’s complaints and tried to cut him some slack before things got out of hand, leading to a disaster match at their biggest show of the year. They also could have been firmer with Orton instead of letting him off with wrist-slaps. New Japan could have learned from past mistakes involving non-touring champions and not bet the house on Lesnar, certainly not with such a loose contract. Given the trials and tribulations New Japan has had over the last several years they can’t afford further public demonstrations of disarray. For instance it has come out that their new owners, Yukes, has needed to subsidize them to the tune of 100 million yen per month, even after major budget cuts.
Brock Lesnar went from a major coup on the part of New Japan to a very large black eye. He bombed as a draw, he’s failed to put over New Japan in English-speaking interviews, he’s now in bed with K-1, he never even came close to his in-ring best (as shown in WWE during 2003) and he’s forced New Japan into a corner for booking their title. Getting Lesnar was a spectacular idea in theory, but in execution it bombed. Now New Japan has to choose between a variety of bad options and hope that they can stop the bleeding before Yukes decides to stop donating blood.
UPDATE: Lesnar retains. Bad showing given the effort they put into the tournament and Bernard. Lesnar and Simon Inoki had a press conference to ‘clarify’ his status, which is:
-Nothing signed with K-1
-Brock wants to do MMA, but has lots of training to do before he debuts
-Brock only has one match left on his contract but seems certain to stay with New Japan
It seems clear that Brock’s priority is MMA, and that doing full tours for New Japan is out of the question. The fact that Brock showed up at the K-1 show and sounded like he signed with FEG is a black eye, but to need to have Simon Inoki talk to the press about the contract status makes it that much worse. New Japan doesn’t have control over their champion yet again, and it involves MMA. Lesnar’s viability as a long-term cornerstone for the promotion is dwindling rapidly.
Topics: All Topics, Dave Ditch, Japan, K-1, MMA, Pro-Wrestling | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
What was the problem between Lesnar and Orton in WWE originally?
The problem wasn’t between the two of them that I’m aware of. Maybe you mis-read a sentence?
I enjoyed the read very much, but is it feasible that Brock would enter a contract situation where he’d work NJ shows and work MMA, with NJ receiving a cut of his MMA earnings (ala Josh Barnett)?
Great article (as always). But I wonder is there any chance that Brock will eventually sort himself out and either wrestle in WWE again or in TNA? The kid had great potential.
Mike: It looks like Brock’s “base” will be NJ. Barnett might not be the best comparison though, because Josh had a standard ‘you work as often as we tell you’ contract as opposed to a ‘you work X number of dates’. The former is much more constrictive and would tend to cover things like MMA booking fees and such.
duff: WWE is out. That bridge is beyond charred. TNA is out until 2010 as part of the lawsuit settlement.
Orton will be okay once Vince says “You’ll never be champion again unless you change your attitude.” Being champion again means that much to Orton. With Lesnar, it’s a crap shoot. Lesnar controls his fate. With everything between him and WWE, Vince wouldn’t hesitate to bring him back if Brock truly wanted to commit himself to WWE. Lesnar can still be one of the greatest champions ever or continue to become the greatest waste of talent ever.