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WHATEVER you think about the length of the main event at WWE Great Balls of Fire on Sunday night, they have struck gold with Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar.
Their six-minute spectacular was a sight to behold – a polarising and challenging thing, but captivating viewing nonetheless.
I should point out that from Lennon holiday towers in the gorgeous Scottish Highlands, the match took me half an hour to watch because of a rather shaky internet connection. Best of both worlds!
When Braun Strowman, the man originally slated to face Lesnar at Summerslam, was forced to have minor elbow surgery a few weeks ago, WWE had to shuffle the deck.
When Samoa Joe, a long-time favourite and friend of this column, found himself in the crosshairs, WWE had a professional at the peak of his powers. He has taken the bait with jaws of steel. It is interesting that Lesnar’s recent feud with Goldberg has created a format for his matches that will have some pundits purring and some exasperated. Short, sharp spot-fests with big power moves, settled swiftly, are certainly not in the same league as the pure artistry we have seen recently from Okada and Omega in New Japan for example. But Matt Riddle’s words from last week on the page ring true – that the authenticity fans crave is the future of the industry. We saw it on Sunday. Both Lesnar and Joe possess it in spades as genuinely tough men. It’s an asset which has got them off with a light night’s work but having done their job brilliantly. Now on the one hand, some fans parting with their hard-earned cash for seats live, or even the £9.99 a month it costs for the Network subs, might feel short -changed at only seeing their heroes in the marquee match for so little time.
We know Joe and Lesnar could deliver a 20-minute classic if they wished. They are easily that good.
Lesnar’s wings have been clipped in one sense, in that his barrage of suplexes and F5s are so simple. He’s a better wrestler than that by far.
But he looks monstrous as a result – I would rather see what we saw on Sunday than Lesnar taking a dozen chair shots to get him off his feet as he was at points last year.
Crave
Over on Smackdown, we are going to see Jinder Mahal, another champ and a huge physical specimen, protected in similar fashion for very different reasons.
Huge men, shorter matches, more visual impact… heard that somewhere before? Vince McMahon still has his say, don’t you worry!
A part-time schedule, pots of money, six-minute matches… one might imagine some of his peers would get a little jealous of Brock. It’s hard to argue against that. But the truth is that Lesnar is the biggest card in the WWE pack at press time, and WWE are keeping their hands close to their chest when it comes to ring time with the former UFC champion.
They are right to do so.