Eric Bischoff has shared a skeptical read on the Brock Lesnar vs Oba Femi storyline ahead of Clash in Italy, telling 83 Weeks listeners that the booking is “clunky as hell” and that he would have let Lesnar retire after WrestleMania 42.
Femi defeated Lesnar at WrestleMania 42, with the rematch giving Lesnar the opportunity to even the score. Both Cody Rhodes and Jim Ross have separately picked Femi to win the rematch.
Lesnar returned to WWE TV on the May 18th Raw with a surprise attack on Femi, setting up a rematch at Clash in Italy on May 31 in Turin. Lesnar’s WrestleMania 42 moment, in which he removed his gear, had been widely interpreted as a retirement gesture before his surprise return.
“I don’t have a feel for this at all. It’s clunky as hell. I would have let him retire. I think we talked about this last time. It seems like Brock in a kind of state of mind made one decision and found out legally afterwards that he didn’t have that option. That’s kind of what it feels like to me.”
Bischoff gave his central booking concern.
“It felt like the story ended for me, watching. The story ended between Oba and Brock. Brock ended, Brock’s story’s over. And then all of a sudden it’s not. You got to help me out with that one. You’ve got to convince me the reason there’s a reason why I’m watching this. What happened? What external force woke Brock up in the middle of the night and said go kick his ass. I got him out, otherwise I can’t buy into it.”
He discussed the broader storytelling principle.
“I can’t even think about a way to make it make sense, because it doesn’t make sense to start with. If you want a story to make sense at the end, or even in the middle, it’s got to kind of make sense in the beginning. If you can’t get me in the beginning, there’s no way I’m going to get to the end.”
Bischoff also responded to the theory that WWE coordinated the Lesnar return to give ESPN a momen.
“I guess if this was to satisfy a television partner, you kind of created this anticlimactic ending. Act one of the next story between Oba, or continuing that story, I don’t know, because it felt like the story ended for me.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
