10 Stars WWE Are Booking Perfectly
6. Brock Lesnar
Paul Heyman knows what he's doing. That's hardly an insight, but it doesn't make it any less true, nor less worthy of overstating.
When he announces his client with the exact same verbiage ahead of every single appearance, the effect is of inevitability. In an ever-shifting WWE landscape, on which Jason Jordan can't get booked on SmackDown but is suddenly thrust into prominence, there remains one constant: Brrrrock Leesssnnaar.
He is the conqueror. He is the reigning, defending, undisputed Universal Champion. This is something Heyman (as well as creative) constantly reinforces. It's basic conditioning, but no less effective for it. Lesnar doesn't float between the midcard and the main event; he is the Big Thing, a symbol of authenticity in a fabricated world, a borderline unbeatable force of nature. Like the verbiage, nothing changes. He is the ultimate scalp. Even the sick "defending" joke doesn't feel like a punchline in Heyman's masterful hands.
And, just when the act loses something, WWE tweaks it, with the shocking loss to Goldberg at Survivor Series '16 or the recent threatened post-SummerSlam departure. If Lesnar does walk, and isn't leveraging McMahon for more money, WWE is going to feel altogether less special. That is something we can infer without Paul Heyman battering us over the head with it.