Why return of Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam officially completes ‘TKO-ification’ of WWE
Following the conclusion of Summerslam on Sunday evening, WWE has never felt more like a property made up of TKO. The sustainable image of the first two -night edition of the annual summer event could well be Brock Lesnar making a shocking return after the main night event 2, attacking John Cena a few moments after Cena lost the undisputed WWE championship in Cody Rhodes.
Lesnar’s return was shocking not only because the world champion 10 times was far from WWE – almost two years by day – but specifically due to Why He was gone.
Although he is not a listed defendant, Lesnar was appointed in the trial filed by Janel Grant against WWE and former Chairman and CEO Vince McMahonalleging sexual abuse and trafficking while Grant was McMahon’s girlfriend and a WWE employee. McMahon would have told Grant that Lesnar would be their next “playmate”, according to the trial, which claims that Grant was used as a tool in contract negotiations with the wrestler. Lesnar would have demanded degrading videos of Grant’s sexual nature, although he failed to attend what seemed to be organized sexual meetings.
When the news broke out that Lesnar was appointed to the trial, WWE immediately moved from the former UFC heavyweight champion. On July 15, the former former UFC heavyweight champion and UFC commentator Daniel Cormier said Lesnar being appointed in the trial had allowed him to be put on TKO’s “prohibited list”.
Divorced from the above context, Lesnar’s return on Sunday evening could be rejected as WWE, but pursuing another “moment”, that his creative team seems to prioritize major events.
The turn of Cena’s heel in the elimination chamber in February was a “moment”, the one who succeeded wildly on social networks. However, the subsequent reservation around a villain Cena fell flat after the inspiring silhouette in turn, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, disappeared from WWE programming. This left Cena wading until a strange and unwetalful turn occurred on “Smackdown”, 48 hours before his match with Rhodes.
The context is important, however, and WWE has added a lot in terms of perception of being a TKO product in exclusive property – even beyond the reappearance of Lesnar during the Live Premium event on Sunday.
“WWE: Unreal”, a look behind the scenes on the promotion, made its debut last Tuesday on Netflix. The Adjacent Reality program, presented as the WWE version of the “Hard Knocks” of the NFL or “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” Framed Paul “Triple H” Levesque under the same light as the CEO of the UFC, Dana White – a managing genius which controls the ins and outs of a massive and complicated organization.
WWE and UFC belong to TKO.
A few days after the beginnings of “Unreal”, Levesque appeared in the White House where he stood alongside President Donald Trump, who signed an executive decree restoring the presidential physical conditioning test. Levesque appeared in the video published on the social media accounts of the White House and gave interviews renting the president while affirming that his own world “is not political”.
It was a page directly from the White game book. White spoke during several national republican conventions, and the UFC deploys the red carpet for Trump during events with a more elaborate entry than those granted to promotion fighters. Despite these clear ties, White maintains that he is apolitical, saying that he simply appreciates that Trump was there for him years ago when the UFC rushes to find places that would host his events. Likewise, Levesque stressed that Trump is a temple of WWE renown, saying that: “My hat has gone to him”.
While the UFC has long biased in a more conservative direction, the landscape of professional struggle has moved to a much more progressive inclination in the last decade. WWE, which presents itself as a family product with a PG note, has largely followed by supporting fans’ demand for an improved female division and by adopting periods such as the month of pride and the month of black history while leaning in the diversity of its list. For the first time of recent memory, WWE did nothing to recognize the month of black history in February.
WWE may want to say that its world is not political, but many of its most dedicated fans no longer think it is the case.
Hulk Hogan, who appeared in the most recent RNC as a vocal supporter of which The inheritance was mired by racismwas almost hué of the building during its last appearance of WWE during the beginnings “Monday Night Raw” on Netflix on January 6. Hogan was supposed to make many later appearances with the company but never returned to television. WWE organized a roasted event not telened during the Wrestlemania 41 weekend with Tony Hinchcliffe, which appeared in a controversial rally of Trump. An attempt to hold a similar event weekend was canceled, apparently due to low sales of tickets.
Fans inside the Metlife Stadium hué this weekend when the promotional video of the Levesque White House trip was shown on the screens during night 1 and night 2 of Summerslam. Michael Cole, the WWE play-by-play player, spoke alongside the video saying that WWE was determined to help “Make America again”.
Of course, WWE has always been political, because all art is to some extent. However, McMahon moved the whole tone of the promotion about the same point as his wife, Linda, ran for a seat of the American Senate. The McMahons were important donors of the three presidential campaigns of Trump, and Linda McMahon now serves the administration as an education secretary. His daughter Stephanie, alongside Levesque, was present for Linda’s greatest moments in Washington, DC
During the recent Levesque media tour promoting Summerslam, he approached the trial against McMahon in which Lesnar is appointed.
While the retirement and eviction of the McMahon scandal of its positions in WWE and TKO – leading more to a federal investigation which was abandoned in February, shortly after Trump resumed the office – Levesque addressed the trial in a way which, retrospective, pre -saved Lesnar’s return.
“All we can do is go ahead and allegations are allegations, right?” Said Levesque. “It is a complicated relationship for anyone in life. No one is perfect.”
Levesque’s statements have echoed the way White has treated accusations of abuse that have been taken from her fighters over the years.
WWE did not respond to a CBS sports request for comments on the appearance of Levesque at the White House or on the return of Lesnar to the company.
WWE has avoided going to Lesnar’s return by canceling its standard post-spectacle press conferences after Summerslam, rather passing through a format that has seen superstars and levesque interviewed by screen talents rather than third-party media. Although the correlation cannot match causality in this case – media members who attended previous press conferences were not consistent to ask difficult questions – the time of decision was certainly practical.
On the post-spectacle of Summerslam, Levesque laid the return of Lesnar to the feet of Cena’s retirement race.
“For me, it’s a kind of desire list of John Cena,” said Levesque. “It is he who writes the last chapter of his book, and I think that people saw a conversation with us where he said that we had to spoil him badly enough to ruin his career. But it is not for me. It is John to be able to go out as he wants what everyone feels.
“One of the very first things I told him was:” Who do you want, and how? “And we work through it.”
When the Sunday’s show ended, Lesnar’s return crowned a two -night event that saw almost all the available thumbs of real estate covered in sponsors’ logos – a TKO decision that made WWE emissions reflect the appearance of UFC events. Suddenly, WWE’s “tko-che-chemis” has been completed.
