Oba Vs. Brock: A Bright Spot in a "Transitional" WrestleMania, Or Something.
Fans May Be Tired of TKO's Antics, But 'Special Attraction' Match Delivers
Man, man, man.
By the time this sandwich goes live, we will have been a couple of days removed from the 41st edition of WWE’s WrestleMania, a division of TKO Group Holdings. While I assure you there were millions that enjoyed the spectacle (as they should), I had never quite come across a WrestleMania that was so universally panned for various reasons. Whether you felt the tickets were too high for entry, or thought the storylines were non-existent for the most storyline-based event of the year, or maybe thought the event itself didn’t deliver, this week has been rife with “thinkpieces” about what went wrong. If you want my opinions on them, I’ll try to be brief:
Tickets are way too expensive yes, but the people complaining the most would be the people who would complain if the tickets were free. The roster is the most athletic, but the stories were thin. And truly, because WWE has elevated all of their “Premium Live Events,” WrestleMania is struggling to stand out as ‘The Grandest Stage of them All.’ Why would fans go to Vegas if, for a couple of dollars more (or less), I can see an event in Europe, or a once-a-year specialty match?
Ooh, how Parisian!
The fact of the matter is, professional wrestling is changing. And I just don’t mean WWE, but they are the group that’s changing the most. Gone are the days of wrasslin’ being a family-friendly traveling human circus for middle and working class families. The kind of entertainment you’d sheepishly say you brought the kids to because they got good grades. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and professional wrestling was allowed to continue because it was (checks notes) considered an essential business… (Yeah, that actually happened), everyone in entertainment saw dollar signs. Wrestling was cheap entertainment to fill a TV schedule before then, but now? Wrestling was big business.
You want a sports-like product that draws the best kind of fans? And by best, I mean people willing to buy loads of tickets and merch because they feel that they are part of the counterculture? You want a brand that doesn’t take weeks off, has no off-season, and travels the world? You want an environment you can script so in theory you won’t have the sports equivalent of “boring games” or “blowouts?” Do you really want to put more logos on ring mats? Well, you’re in luck!
WWE got bought over, and while production elements have been improved, it’s been one perceived “cash grab” after another. Though I don’t get the hate around a cash grab, because that’s a business’s sole purpose for existing. And so, you saw more expensive merch, you saw logos everywhere, you see shows with 4-10 minute long ad breaks. WWE is going to Italy this year, and for $13,000, they are doing a pasta making class with the talent!
So, between the lack of shareable stories, the price of tickets, the attempts to “elevate the experience” with something I buy for $1.19 a box is all the rage, it’s enough for you to be over it.
Enter Brock Lesnar Vs. Oba Femi
Brock Lesnar was literally known as “The Next Big Thing” when he debuted in WWE. One of the youngest to win the WWE championship, his sabbaticals in both the NFL and MMA gave his wrestling work an air of credibility we really hadn’t seen since Ken Shamrock. He also had this unfortunate trend of dominating black wrestlers in the ring, which kind of added to his lore. There was Kofi Kingston, Big E, Bobby Lashley, Omos… the list went on. Among the Internet Wrestling Community, it had become a bit of a joke.
Oba Femi, like Lesnar, was a character who had skyrocketed in fan support seemingly overnight. The first NIL signing from WWE, Oba Femi, instantly became one of the megastars of the NXT developmental brand. Unapologetically Nigerian in presentation, his “death march” to the ring has fans doing it all over the world:
The match those two had at WrestleMania snapped me back into what WrestleMania used to be. In fact, I’m glad this match was on the card because I thought I was just getting old and not being with the times, but Brock vs. Oba was a reminder that were ways to give us the old school WrestleMania vibes without being dated. This was an ATTRACTION MATCH. Just two mountains of men, just deciding to fight. Not much story on the surface but the implied story was there. Brock, a dominant figure in his late 40s, was essentially on his home court. Aging, but always finding a way to dispatch is opponent. Oba, an outsider with a vaguely royal presentation who feels like he’s related to Black Panther’s M’Baku, is the outsider with the support of the people behind him, even though he doesn’t necessarily embrace it. This was American Kabuki theater. This was our theater in the round. This was…as Big E would say…”big meaty men slapping meat.”
And I realized, THAT’s what WrestleMania was all about. Sure, there’s matches and celebrities somehow getting booked to be in matches, but what I missed was the spectacle. We’re missing the kind of thing that makes you go, “Did you see that well-designed stage?” Or, “Omg, that debut/return was something unexpected.” In WWE’s defense, they did try for the latter. But a match that has an immediate story for newer fans, but a bigger, IMPLIED story for long term watchers? That’s the sweet spot, and when it happens. It’s magic. Oh, and for the match itself?
Oba crushed Brock, and Brock went up and retired.
Let’s go! One for the brothers!