WWE: Former WWE Champion Returning To The Company?
Posted on July 1st, 2011 by Cassidy
The Wrestling Observer is reporting that former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and former ECW owner, manager, and commentator Paul Heyman are in negotiations for a WWE return. However, the proposed return is only for consumer products (according to AOL’s MMA reporter Ariel Helwani) and there is no interest from WWE, Lesnar, or Heyman regarding an on-air return for either of them, but at the same time, anything can and usually does happen in the WWE. Currently, Lesnar and Heyman are very close to making the business deal official with the WWE.
Brock Lesnar was in the WWE from 2002-2004 and, in that time, Lesnar took the WWE by storm, becoming the King of the Ring in June 2002, just four months after his WWE debut. Two months later, Lesnar won the WWE Championship for the first time at SummerSlam. Lesnar continued in the main event scene, getting two more reigns as WWE Champion, as well as winning the 2003 Royal Rumble. Prior to WrestleMania XX in 2004, Lesnar made the decision that he would be leaving the WWE to pursue an NFL career. This led to Lesnar facing the also departing Goldberg at WrestleMania, with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the Special Referee, in his final WWE match. After a failed stint in the NFL, Lesnar decided to get into the world of mixed martial arts, ultimately landing in the UFC, securing a reign as the UFC Heavyweight Champion, but lost the title to Cain Velasquez.
After the original ECW closed its doors for good in 2001, Paul Heyman joined the WWE as a color commentator before becoming a key player in the WWE Vs. WCW/ECW Invasion angle. After the WCW/ECW faction lost, Heyman was “fired” by Vince McMahon and Heyman went on hiatus until March of 2002 when he returned to become the manager of Brock Lesnar, later turning on Lesnar to join Big Show. Heyman also became the SmackDown General Manager for a time before returning to being a manager for The Dudley Boyz and Heidenreich. When the WWE decided to present a special one night only return of the original ECW called “ECW One Night Stand”, Heyman was given heavy booking and promotional involvement in the revival. This led to WWE doing a second ECW One Night Stand event in 2006, this time featuring an “invasion” of WWE Superstars. Following the 2006 One Night Stand event, ECW became a third brand (in addition to RAW and SmackDown) under the WWE umbrella. In December of 2006, WWE decided to host an ECW-exclusive event titled “December To Dismember”, which did horrible in the buyrates. The failure of an ECW-exclusive pay-per-view fell hard on Heyman’s shoulders as Heyman and Vince McMahon had a very heated argument in front of the WWE writing team, leading to Heyman parting ways with the WWE.
Do you think that Brock Lesnar and/or Paul Heyman will make an on-screen return to the WWE? Post your comments in the box below.
