Eric Bischoff isn’t sold on WWE’s direction with Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi, and he made it clear that his issue goes way beyond who won the match.
During 83 Weeks, Conrad Thompson brought up Brock Lesnar beating Oba Femi after seven F5s, which tied their series at one win each. Conrad noted that the finish appears to set up a rubber match between Brock and Oba, possibly sooner rather than later.
Bischoff didn’t sound excited about that idea at all. His problem was that WWE never gave him a real reason for Brock to come back after Lesnar previously gave off every sign that he was done.
“A rubber match that I don’t care about because none of it makes sense. The first one didn’t make sense. The second one didn’t make sense. Well, the first one made sense, but the second one didn’t make sense. There was no story. There was no setup. There was no why.”
Bischoff said wrestling stories need to either explain why someone is doing something or make fans want to figure it out. In his view, WWE skipped that part with Brock.
“You know, people talk about how great storylines are, and you know, it’s subjective. Everybody’s got different opinions. But for me, if a story at any given time doesn’t either answer the question why or provoke you to try to figure out why a character is embarking on a certain journey or destination or goal, then you’re not really interested.”
Bischoff then pointed to Brock’s earlier exit tease, saying Lesnar made it look like a real goodbye. That made the comeback feel empty to him because there was no explanation behind it.
“And Brock got beat. He had tears in his eyes. I believed him. He took off his stuff. He left it in the ring. All of the things that are a signature goodbye and he came back. Why? I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. Oh, doesn’t it? Well, then neither does the match that follows the lack of why.”
Bischoff said that same missing reason could hurt the next match too, because the rubber match will not mean much unless WWE fills in the blanks.
“And therefore, neither will the rubber match if indeed there is one. Unless somewhere along the line somebody tells me why he took his stuff off and left it in the ring and then jumped back into the ring without an explanation. There’s got to be a reason why. It doesn’t even have to be that good. Just give me something. Something to believe in this much and then maybe, but without it, it’s just eh. It’s like just moving pieces around on the chessboard or on the checkerboard that doesn’t really set anything up, that doesn’t really matter, but you are moving checkers around, so there’s that.”
Conrad then brought up the discussion around Oba’s momentum and the comparisons to Goldberg. Bischoff said the issue wasn’t just whether Oba lost. It was what WWE spent that loss on. Bischoff explained that a long unbeaten run carries real value, and if WWE decides to cash that in, it needs to be for something that matters.
“And to me it wasn’t whether he got beat or not. Yes, it’s important because if a guy has an unbeaten streak, even if it’s not from day one like Goldberg’s was, but if you’re into a pretty substantial unbeaten streak, that’s capital. That’s currency. That has value.”
Bischoff said that kind of momentum should only be used if the return is equal or greater. He didn’t feel that happened here.
“So if you’re going to cash it in, cash it in in something of equal to or greater value. And as much as it pains me to agree even remotely with Dave Meltzer, beating Oba Femi, and I didn’t see it, so maybe it was more dramatic than my imagination will allow me to think about right now, but it just seems like a waste. It’s like you had this huge stockpile of currency, money, capital, value, and you cashed it in on something that you pretended didn’t even happen.”
Bischoff again came back to Brock’s teased retirement, saying that is the missing piece in the entire story.
“Brock’s retirement. Yeah, that’s confusing. And maybe there’s an answer. Maybe something’s going to reveal itself. I always hold out hope because I do think the core talent in the WWE writing room is outstanding and they have all the capabilities in the world, but something has to happen to get them kind of back on track because some of these questions, my reaction, and I’m having fun with it, probably a little overanimated than I truly feel, but there’s a hole. It just makes no sense.”
For now, Bischoff said anything involving Brock and Oba is going to feel like less than it should until WWE gives fans a stronger reason to care.
“So, anything else we talk about about Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar will fall into the much less than category for me until something happens to make it different than.”
Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi may still be headed for another major match, but Bischoff clearly wants more than just another big fight. He wants WWE to explain why Brock returned, why Oba’s momentum was spent this way, and why fans should invest in the next chapter.
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What do you think? Did WWE hurt Oba Femi by having Brock Lesnar beat him, or can the rubber match still fix the story? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
