Brock Lesnar and Rob Van Dam to return for Royal Rumble??

It's starting to look likely for both of them.

Brock Lesnar recently got his ass absolutely handed to him in the first round to Overeem. His MMA career is absolutely done. Brock then immediately announces that he is retiring from UFC fighting.

Later on, paparazzi catches an obviously drunken Dana White, who seems to almost be taking the loss of Lesnar very hard (or at least hard enough to be caught publicly intoxicated) and when asked about Brock Lesnar in WWE, Dana responds "Yes, Lesnar can go to W.E. The WWE? Is that what it's called? Two E's? Yeah."

If Brock wants any decent paychecks for the foreseeable future, it's almost a given that he's going to go back to Vince McMahon as soon as possible, seeing as his days as a MMA fighter are demolished.

Given Dana White's "I don't care, Brock can go fuck himself" blow off, to the man who he was just recently touting as his #1 guy, there's also no way in hell that Vince McMahon isn't going to capitalize on White's misery, either. Especially after the buzz that Lesnar's appearence in WWE '12 gained.

I'd say if it doesn't happen, as early as the Rumble, if not earlier, I will be extremely surprised. Almost every card is falling perfectly into place for this, and you know that the WWE will feed off it voraciously.

Yes, I may have stated before that I've never been a fan of Brock, and i'm still not, at least even in the short term, if nothing else, I would say it would be "interesting" at the least to have him back.


Lastly, there's this little tidbit:

"Regarding the online rumor of Rob Van Dam returning to WWE, Power Slam confirms in their latest issue that RVD is seriously considering returning to the organization once his contract with TNA Wrestling expires. The magazine adds that the feeling is mutual as people in WWE want the master of the Five-Star Frog Splash back."


So, it's looking like a near 90% chance to see Both RVD and Lesnar appear in the Royal Rumble as the newest contract signings.

Van Dam isn't in the flush of youth but he's still popular and, like Jericho, will have a few years left him. Lesnar would be a real catch. He's still young enough to be a top-line player for a few years yet.

It would be tempting to play him as a heel, as there was bad blood with the fans before he left and they can also have other wrestlers taunting him about being an MMA 'failure'.

I can see Van Dam coming back for one more run with the company. He still gets a decent pop, and while he may not be quite all he was before, he's good enough that they could get something going with him. With Orton out for a few months, a recognisable name would always be handy.

As for Lesnar, I'm fairly certain we will see his make some appearances for the WWE, though I'm not sure he will sign a full-time contract. I'm also not sure to what extent he may have a non-compete clause in his contract which might prevent an appearance at the Rumble.

I think it more likely that Brock will be at Mania in some capacity.

Here's the funny thing about Brock Lesnar and me that Myron brings up...

If they were to do that, actually show Brock in a somewhat sympathetic light, or actually not have him be the "steamroll over everyone" guy, and have him face some real adversity, such as feuds over his MMA failure, or play off of his less than dignified exit from the company...

...even if he's a heel about it, I would like that and get behind Lesnar for once.

The thing is, if in any way, they showcase Brock Lesnar as a human being rather than a boring steamroller, it would erase a lot of my problems with his previous persona.

That could be the thing that would personally cause me to start accepting Brock.

............although... Knowing WWE, they might just do the worst possible thing and just have him run out at the end of Cena vs Rock at WM and just F-5 them both.

A great, unexpected spectacle, and a Wrestlemania-type moment, sure.

But it would be a horrible move that would undermine everything and do nothing good for anyone in the long term.

P.S: You'll notice that I don't expect X-Pac or Lita to show up at the Rumble or WM, despite being at the Slammies.

If you didn't know, almost directly after that night, both of them found themselves in trouble with the law and now have been thrown out of WWE's good graces.

Road Dogg though, is still possible.

Hahahaha, what's the story behind X-Pac & Lita?

I know it's a moot opinion since I don't follow WWE anymore but about Lesnar, I was really looking forward to an epic Goldberg vs. Lesnar at WM20 and it was probably the worst match I've ever seen. Even worse than Sting vs. Jeff Hardy at Victory Road! At least that match only lasted about 3 minutes.

Showing such a blatant disregard for the audience is pretty damn unprofessional considering it's his job. If I still watched WWE then I wouldn't be pleased to see Brock Lesnar return. The man seems like a complete tosser to me

Road Dogg in the Rumble is very likely I would have thought.

As for Lesnar, if he does come back I doubt the WWE will play him as anything other than a monster.

To be fair to him, he has spoken publicly about the end of his run and admitted he was arrogant and not in a good place. He's said he made mistakes while he was with WWE, Mania 20 being one of them. I think he's grown up a lot since then and had some reality knocked into him. While he still does things for show and acts like he's full of himself to play up to the character, I gather he's quite a different person away from the spotlight, and easier to deal with these days. So I wouldn't be too hard on him for Mania. After all, he wasn't on his own out there. Goldberg was just as bad, and in face it was Goldberg who caused the first problems when he made it clear he objected to being seen to be weaker than Brock in any way.

A surprise Brock appearance to F5 Cena as Mania goes off the air would be huge, and guarantee a MAAHHHOOOOSIVE audience for RAW the following night.

Hahaha yeah I figured Goldberg was just as responsible for that abomination as Lesnar, although my butt-hurtedness runs a bit deeper than just unprofessionalism. It's the fact that, on paper (no backstage politics included) it could have been a great match. Should have been a great match. As I recall it was mid-way up the card too. And it's WrestleMania. I remember the build-up to Mania 20, almost ALL the matches I was sooooo looking forward to, specially Brock & Bill. It was 2 unstoppable monsters, Stone Cold as the referee, at WrestleMania, and look at the match they produced. If it was Raw or SD! or any other PPV in fact, yeah, okay, I can accept that. But WM is THE wrestling event of the year. They shouldn't have been allowed to mess it up like they did. I felt sorry for people who bought tickets to WM expecting to see a cracking match and instead got the one that happened. The crowd's boos and "You suck/Goldberg sucks/Lesnar sucks" chants were fully deserved. The only saving grace of the match was Austin Stunning both guys at the end.

From a business perspective I'd say yeah, if they had Brock run out and beat up the main event winner that would be massive, so you can't really fault them if they do that. Like I said before, it's kinda moot since I don't follow it anymore, but my initial opinion of a Lesnar return wouldn't be very high. However, he's done nothing irredeemable, if he put the work in, wasn't an asshole and entertained me then I'd be happy to see him back.

Oh I agree it was very disappointing on the night, and that on paper it should have been one of the highlights of the entire show. As you know, I was one of those people who had shelled out for tickets, and I was as frustrated as anyone to watch them mince around without doing very much. I agree that at a show like Wrestlemania, everyone on the card ought to be determined to go out and half kill themselves to give the crowd the best show possible, or else they should be on the card. So it was sad that two guys who could have produced something special decided on that night that they simply couldn't be bothered.

TBH, the chants as you heard them on TV were NOTHING compared to the volume inside the arena. The duelling *uck you Goldberg, *uck you Lesnar chants were insanely loud, and edited on the DVD release.

However, TBH, with everything else that was so great on that night, it doesn't really spoil my memories of the show.

If the WWE make a sufficiently big deal out of Lesnar's return, then the audience will forgive him for Mania 20.

Yeah they probably will. If he has a good, respectable, professional stint then yeah, fantastic, but being a monster, a playable wrestler in their game and having a hyped return alone isn't going to convince me. Of course, credit where credit's due, Brock was one hell of a wrestler. That's another reason I was so disappointed in the match. Just one month before at No Way Out he had a banging match with Guerrero for the title, the Mania before (or maybe the one before that) with Angle, I can't really recall any trainwreck Brock matches besides this one at the Showcase of the Immortals. Maybe the match where Hardcore Holly made Brock drop him on his head but from what I understand it wasn't Brock's fault.

Lol yeah I remember you saying about the volume of the chants. I really envy you for going to WM-XX. I had goosepimples during the Undertaker's entrance and I was just sat at home watching!

I'm going to have to do WM one year I reckon. How much was it when you went Dave? You did the whole shabang didn't you, with the meet & greets and stuff?

Yup, I booked the whole package through the WWE. They have a sliding scale of packages from steel, through bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. I looked at the seating arrangements and figured that as gold was on the bottom of the flat, and silver was on the first raised bit, I'd get a better view in silver. So that was what I went for.

The package included Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night at the Westin hotel in New York. A fantastic 4 star hotel right on Times Square with brilliant rooms and every mod-con you could want. On the Friday night we got the tickets together with a goody bag which had a WM-XX fleece, a t-shirt, and programme, and some other bits of memorabilia.

On the Saturday we had a meet and greet session at another hotel with various wrestlers mingling about in the lobby, Jim Ross and Tazz working the queue, and a line-up of about 6 or 7 wrestlers signing autographs. You then went over and got an official framed souvenir photo taken by a WWE photographer with John Cena and Scotty Too Hotty.

You could go to the Hall of Fame if you wanted, but it cost $200 extra.

Sunday morning was the "Bacon bagels and biceps brunch". Back in the hotel where we did the meet and greet. More wrestlers milling about, and then a full silver service multi-course breakfast. After which, a further panel of wrestlers spoke about Wrestlemania, took questions and answers from the audience, and then milled about doing autographs.

Then Sunday afternoon was Mania itself.

I THINK, though I'm not 100% on this, that the package cost me $1500. Add to that the cost of the flights out there, and the cost of an additional night I booked at the Hilton the night before so I'd have an extra day in New York. All in all its an outlay of at least a couple of grand.

Its absolutely worth doing, but I'd only do it in a city I wanted to visit anyway, so that I was killing two birds with one stone.

Ah man, that sounds like an awesome weekend. I wish I could afford to do that. You're so lucky David.

Yeah that does sound absolutely fantastic. I bet it was a brilliant atmosphere, I'd love to go one year. When me and Rob went to SD! and Raw even that was immense and they were just your normal shows. We didn't even meet any wrestlers (except the Demi Legend Chio Reto) and it was still a blast.

If I won the lottery I'd be there in a flash. Not too sure I'd want to go alone though but not many people have a few grand to blow on a trip to America!

Julius Seizure wrote:

Yeah that does sound absolutely fantastic. I bet it was a brilliant atmosphere, I'd love to go one year. When me and Rob went to SD! and Raw even that was immense and they were just your normal shows. We didn't even meet any wrestlers (except the Demi Legend Chio Reto) and it was still a blast.

If I won the lottery I'd be there in a flash. Not too sure I'd want to go alone though but not many people have a few grand to blow on a trip to America!

If you won the lottery, you could pay for us all to go with you...

If most of us won the lottery, doesn't the government take almost all of it back for taxes?

No, lottery winnings (at least here in the UK) are tax free.

It was a great experience, and the good thing about it being in New York is that it's actually quite a contained city, and the events and hotel were all within a small walkable area. That actually meant that there was a high concentration of WWE fans around all the time. You'd bump into other fans in restaurants and bars, or browsing DVDs in the Virgin Megastore. You were also bumping into WWE guys on the street. First night out there I bumped into Al Snow and Coachman walking down Broadway.

So the whole town seemed really up for it, which added greatly to the atmosphere.

As for being lucky, yes I guessso. But it was a combination of things. I was due to be in New York in September 2001. When 9/11 went off, I had to cancel, and lost a couple of hundred quid of the money I'd paid out. The rest I put aside, intending to go back to New York at some point. Then Mania came up.

Like anything else, it's a question of where you choose to spend your money, and what commitments you have. I don't have kids, I have a pretty good job, so I can sometimes do things which seem extravagant.

That sounds amazing. Walking down the street not watching where you're walking and suddenly you headbutt the Big Show's knee

Yeah, it's good to do fun things I'm lucky in that I still live at home and get paid well for what I do and can afford to do a lot of stuff. I'm going on holiday 3 times this year. Hopefully if I can get my rota day changed I can book up Istanbul for the end of March, Zimbabwe in September and Brazil, Argentina & Bolivia in December. 2012 is going to be a busy one for me, I'll be visiting 4 continents (I read that Istabul is on the line between Europe and Asia so technically 4 )

It was a bit like that. You'd walk down the Avenue of the Americas, someone would be walking toward you, and you'd suddenly realise it was Hurricane Helms. You'd walk into a Starbucks and Billy Gunn was in the queue. Into a hotel lobby and Tito Santana was checking in. I went into a clothes shop there and John "Big" Gaburick (the WWE producer who did the first few seasons of Tough Enough) was in there buying shirts so you spend ten minutes chatting to him.

Hey, you spend a long time dead, and there are plenthy of rich people in the graveyard. So you may as well use your money and enjoy it while you are here. While I have the money I'll enjoy it.

Your trips sound great. As for Instanbul, isn't one half of the city supposedly in Europe and the other, across the river, in Asia?

Not going abroad this year, but I have a 18 day tour of Scotland planned for May. Taking the new car and driving up this time to give it a workout. But I've got some very nice hotels booked along the way (mainly close to whisky distilleries!)

Hahaha, it sounds so surreal. People you're used to seeing on TV just walking around Starbucks and clothes shops.

Yeah from what I understand, there's the European side and the Asian side as Istanbul was along the old Silk Road so there's a lot of cultural influences and diversity there.

Yeah over the Christmas break I went out my friend, his sister and her husband to discuss it. They're doing what she did a few years ago which is basically, flying into Harare and staying a few days with Gerry's (the husband) parents in their mansion complete with electrified fences and house servants, then borrowing some of their cars and driving to Victoria Falls, staying at a safari resort, renting some open top jeeps and blazing through the bush, then staying on their houseboat on the Zambezi river for a few days fishing and getting drunk in the sun, at som point we're going to a town that's well tribal and they get you paint you up and give you one of those weird jungle thongs to wear and you all dance around the cauldron or whatever it is they do. Then drive back to Harare and go home.

I was thinking of going to either Scotland, Ireland or the Lake District, as I've never been to any of those places but I'll probably save it for next year when hopefully I will have moved out and probably won't be able to afford a faraway holiday straight off the bat.

Scotland. Has to be Scotland.

If I was still living at home and still doing my bakery job, I could easily save the money for a Wrestlemania weekend. Shame I'm not making that much anymore, but I can't complain about my life (much). I've got a lovely little boy, an OK girlfriend, and I've got enough money to get by (barely). Just wish I was earning a little more, so I could afford to go places once in a while instead of being stuck here in Colwyn Bay.

"An OK girlfriend" - Jeez, you better hope she never reads that!

But yes, you have different priorities, Riley being the main one. And he's worth more than a trip to Wrestlemania in the great scheme of things. ;0)

YES! You've got the solution! I'll sell Riley, then I'll be able to buy a ticket to Wrestlemania and still have money to spare.

Its a plan, it's a plan...

*hello, is that Welsh social services?*

I wouldn't mind doing a bit of travelling through Scotland. Probably have the same problem of understanding what's being said as I did in any other country but at least the writing will all be English regardless of how they're butchering it! I'll have to get some recommendations off you closer to the time on where to go.

As long as you stay outside Glasgow, the accent isn't a problem. But I'd certainly recommend going. It's a fabulous place.

Hahaha I was going to say, "and no way am I going to Glasgow". I heard it's pretty dangerous there you know!

TBH, its cleaned itself up quite a bit these days, and the main centre is actually quite nice these days. But there are still some rough-ass bits of the city, just as there are rough-ass bits of all major cities.

I'd suggest starting in Edinburgh - because you have to go there really, don't you? then skirting across to the Western Isles, then up to Loch Ness and Iverness, across to Aviemore and the outdoorsy sport type stuff, then if you can get up to places like Wick and the Shetlands. Finish in Aberdeen.