Brock Lesnar should retain his title at WrestleMania 31

Until just a few days ago, the expectation was that Roman Reigns, Vince McMahon’s handpicked successor to franchise wrestler John Cena, would win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31. What has suddenly shaken this long-held belief is the re-signing of Reigns’ opponent on Sunday, Brock Lesnar, to a three-year contract, which also signaled the end of his mixed martial arts career.

If Lesnar was leaving the company, it would make some measure of sense to have Reigns benefit from defeating WWE’s final boss in the process. Now that Lesnar is sticking around, though, and not just for a short time, the smart move -- what WWE would tell us is “best for business” -- is to have Lesnar eschew tradition and retain his title.

“Tradition” at WrestleMania often means the faces -- the good guys -- defeating their nemeses, the heels: Mania is meant to be the end of many major story lines that have occurred over the year (or years), and in the end the good guys tend to win. Reigns, a handsome, talented wrestler with a bad ass look and family history in the business, has been positioned to become the next ultimate baby face in the WWE universe, and winning the title from Lesnar would be a significant part of that push.

As far as long-term plans go, sending Reigns to the top is still a money play. The rush to do so has been lessened by Lesnar’s new contract, though, and WWE should take advantage in order to surprise us in a main event that could use one.

Here’s the thing: WWE doesn’t need new toys just yet. The most successful wrestling promotion in the world needs to play with the toys it already has. That doesn’t just go for the wrestlers themselves, but also the titles they are fighting for. Over the years, the prestige attached to the United States and Intercontinental Championships has been lessened thanks to horrendous planning by WWE.

They are secondary titles to the main championship, the one that Lesnar holds now, but they are treated far worse than even by WWE, who seemingly forgets that the belts even exist. When they do remember, they do so in only a cursory fashion.

Brock Lesnar is a special attraction champion. As Bill Hanstock recently discussed, events with Lesnar at them just feel like a bigger deal, like a more significant and important show. How could they not? Lesnar is the man who sent The Rock to Hollywood over a decade ago, the man who ended the Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania. He is the beast who suplexed John Cena on repeat until even never-give-up Cena had to just accept he was going to be pinned, because that’s what Brock wanted.

If Lesnar is a part-time, special attraction champion, it means WWE’s main title is not on television anywhere near as often. If it’s off TV, that leaves more time for the United States and Intercontinental belts to get legitimate story lines, makes the main title scene far less crowded, and allows opportunities for wrestlers to want to win the secondary titles. They become stepping stones to greatness once again, as they were a decade ago, rather than just something to hold while John Cena --or whoever succeeds him -- endlessly fights for the primary championship for an hour every Monday.

WWE seems to have recognized the benefit of Lesnar being champion already, as the aforementioned Cena has moved on from his feud with Lesnar to bring prominence back to the United States title. Almost every wrestler on the roster -- who fans would like to see win Lesnar’s title someday -- are set to fight for the Intercontinental belt in a ladder match at WrestleMania, including last year’s Mania headliner and arena-favorite Daniel Bryan.

Whether WWE maintains these bursts of momentum for these long-forgotten championships remains to be seen, but they’ve taken the appropriate first steps towards making them relevant once more. Keeping the belt on a special attraction like Lesnar gives them more time to do so, and also helps the company try to find out who should finally take that title back from Brock.

It’s not just the secondary titles that benefit, either. “Give divas a chance” is a hashtag that took over social media during a recent flagrant display of WWE’s misuse of women wrestlers. However, the company embraced the message and has started to feature longer matches with more weight attached to them for the ladies in the company. They are far from the main attraction they should be, but this first step of extra time and more matches can lead to a second, just like the improved writing and opportunities for those competing for the company’s secondary championships.

Keeping the title on Lesnar also shouldn’t damage Reigns, at least not anymore than WWE has already managed to on their own. He would be more sympathetic if he took a significant loss, a challenge that he couldn’t simply punch away, It’s also difficult for many fans to embrace the next John Cena at a time when many of them are already tired of having one Superman around.

Reigns is already better than he gets credit for, and he has a tremendous ceiling as a main event attraction, but there is something to be said about trying to organically build to that moment. More fans will embrace him, it will give his character more nuance, and hey, maybe he could become a heel once more to see if he can win over fans that away once again.

His career and future won’t be over if he loses to Brock Lesnar for the same reason WWE planned to have Reigns defeat him: Brock is an unstoppable force of nature who has managed impossible feats in the ring. Letting Lesnar continue to tear through the roster while forcing Reigns to pick himself back up off the floor could end up working out for everyone involved.

There are already ready-made spots for Reigns to pick himself back up in, too. Reigns vs. Seth Rollins is a feud with some legs to it, and as Rollins is despised by the crowd for his excellent portrayal of a bad guy who betrayed Reigns last summer, it would give fans a reason to cheer Reigns. It’s also a feud that doesn’t need a title attached to it, and maybe that’s what Reigns needs at this point in his career.

If you want to push further down the line, we’re still waiting for the inevitable three-way match between former Shield members Reigns, Rollins, and Dean Ambrose -- none of these wrestlers actually needs the WWE World Heavyweight Championship right now in order to tell an intriguing story. What Reigns does need, though, is for the crowd to get behind him once more, and an important, non-title story line might be the way to do that.

Whether WWE has Reigns realize too late -- like Cena -- that he wasn’t prepared for Lesnar (or having Reigns come the closest to defeating Lesnar) barely matters. What’s key is that WWE uses the opportunity they’ve been given -- that they have paid for! -- to keep Brock Lesnar as the special attraction of the company.

It gives Reigns time to grow, it gives everyone and every other title in the company more time to shine, and it will make for a stronger WWE overall. We certainly won’t pretend it’s the only plan that could work, but it’s the one that could do the most good.

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