Balimaar said:
Given the ability and power and skill of many of Undertaker's opponents in the previous years... I just didn't see this part timer doing it.
I mean... HBK couldn't do it. Triple H couldnt do it (once with HBK as the special referee). You look at Taker's WM opponents over the years then you look at this guy... *insert derisive snort here*
I really thought the title of "Dead Man Killer" would have gone to someone better...
A few comments in general. I'm not a big pro-wrestling fan, but I don't think it's really fair to call Lesner a "part timer". I did some reading on him and his overall disputes with the WWE and everything else over the years, and the impression I've gotten is that they have basically bent over backwards to keep him in their stable despite the fact that he's wanted to work for some other people and might have gotten shorted on a number of contracts. He worked in wrestling more or less consistently since he first appeared, though did some of his time down in Japan. He was apparently into it so bad the WWE organization at one point that they were literally harassing him by going after him legally for doing his trademark "F5" claiming they owned the rights to the move. I seem to remember he won a suit over that and could do the move under another name and started calling it "The Judgement" or something which was a knock on the WWE since he could still wind up doing the move.
Due to the trouble he had in the wrestling circuit, he decided to take his legitimate combat skills to the UFC (he is an absolutely monsterous wrestler in terms of actual wrestling), and apparently worked things out with Dana White ahead of time as far as how he was going to act, since being something of a "heel" is kind of his thing, and the bottom line was in feuding with Dana (over promotional rights over beer and stuff, if not in the pro-wrestling style) he was putting butts in seats. According to some rumors the reason why Lesner lost his last match is because the WWE found a method by which they could seize a large portion of his winnings due to being able to establish the UFC as also counting as "sports entertainment" even if it's a serious fighting competition, where they couldn't do that to begin with. Lesner threw his last big fight because he was more or less going to be damned if the WWE was going to just come in and seize his purse (and keep doing it as long as he fought UFC). This is apparently why Dana is so vehement in dismissing rumors that Lesner will ever come back to the UFC, one thing Dana apparently does not stand is people throwing fights (worse than being a boring fighter), and Brock did not seem like himself in the last one, and also there is the standing legal problems with the way Lesner's old WWE contracts are written that really prevent him from doing anything physical in public to make money. This is of course all speculation, but when I was reading the theories online it was sold pretty well, and nobody will ever know for sure.
The bottom line is that the WWE apparently wants Lesner bad, probably because just his physical presence is amazing, and he's also very athletic. On top of this he helps legitimize their organization because Lesner has a legitimate wrestling background. Given everything behind him, how much time he's been in wrestling organizations, and how much effort management put into getting Lesner back in the WWE, you can't say "part time scrub".
I'll also say that on a lot of levels Lesner was probably the most honorable send off they could have given The Undertaker. Not only does it help boost the business since the WWE obviously still has plans for this product, but Lesner's legitimate wrestling background makes him an "honorable executioner" so to speak. Some fans might remember that there was a big deal many, many, many, years ago with how Bob Backlund refused to drop the title to someone without a legitimate wrestling background in his last match. As a result, despite the guys working together for years, Bob Backlund refused to drop the belt directly to Hulk Hogan. Instead they contrived a storyline to have The Iron Shiek (who DID have a legitimate wrestling background) take the belt, so the Shiek could drop the belt to Hulk Hogan. Apparently there is something of a tradition to this, especially among a lot of wrestlers who were fans of the old days. The Undertaker does NOT have a legitimate wrestling background, but was a legitimate athlete (college basketball) before becoming a wrestler. He's also a big MMA fan, and apparently he confronted Lesner after he lost his last match, and it's speculated that The Undertaker (well as himself, not his wrestling persona) was also griping at him for having thrown the match, being something of a fan of Brock's.
The overall point here is that even if the match wasn't the best, there is more to this kind of thing than just the personas involved. If this was The Undertaker's last match, chances are he went out being beaten by exactly the person he wanted to do it. Sort of like how the fans of the time probably would much rather have seen Hulk Hogan take the belt off of Bob Backlund after an epic fight, but that wasn't how Bob wanted to go out, and the story had nothing to do with it. They had to contrive the whole "OMG, Hulk Hogan has beaten The Camel Clutch!" thing instead, which was epic itself for the pure cheese involved.
