I agree that the cool part of the Lesnar program was passing the torch to Brock as the new final boss but they didn't really play that up much.
As for Bray well....he had to feud with nothing for the Mania match which firmly established the "boring wandering confusing 20 minute Bray promo about nothing" because how do you build a feud against a fucking Titantron.? I dunno man, Bray is probably the most out there and unique character on the roster in this era of incredibly limited creative ambition - he needs big wins over big guys to feel like a real threat or a real star.
How many runs with the belt did Taker get? Taker got to destroy Dusty on his way in immediately then got the better of fucking Warrior and ended up beating HOGAN for the damn belt. They are terrified to commit to new people in any sort of big way in handing out those Ws so your replacement, full time on screen (Brock is part time and can't contribute to the show week to week) Undertaker is a fucking 500 club geek with a fancy gimmick.
To me, who started watching last year, Taker is a musty old man who murdered the credibility of his nearest modern counterpart twice (including a hilarious 2 v 4 burial of the Family on TV) took a dream match (Rollins vs Brock) away from me, got his win back from a shitty Mania match and then did the honors for a man who is untouchable in a feud that was hotshotted to Hell in a Cell. Fuck Taker.
Haha, I can see we're going to disagree, but that's fine. He's only a 4 time champ. I don't count the WHC. If I do, I need to concede that the likes of Ziggler and Swagger are former champs. I'm not ready for that.
I completely missed the Dusty program. I started watching right before WM7 and my first Undertaker memory is him putting Snuka in a bodybag. The Warrior program never had a definitive resolution as far as I can remember. As for Hogan, I just rewatched Survivor Series 91 and This Tuesday in Texas. Hogan completely no sells the tombstone in the first match. lol. The second match was actually hilarious as to how strong they kept Taker. First, he comes back from a chair shot to the face by Flair. Then, he takes an urn to the skull from Bearer and is subsequently blinded when Hogan opens it up and throws the ashes in his eyes. Hogan wins with a quick roll up as Taker kicks out just a hair too late. He then continues to sell his blindness by wildly punching at the air.
Anyway, that's enough nostalgia. I don't see Bray as his modern counterpart. Bray is more like Jake Roberts, as many have cited in the past. Jake, especially when he turned heal, wasn't booked super strong. He was getting his ass kicked around the arena by Mach. He didn't need wins, because his despicable actions got him over. He was so evil that he turned Undertaker face! Bray isn't evil. He's just a loony toon at the moment. Actually, the stuff Jake was doing back in 91/92 wouldn't even fly today. He was sick fuck in real life, and it showed through in his character.
It does suck that Lesnar is part time, but that's who they're working with. There is really nobody else ready to carry that mantle at the present time. Hopefully, if that person does arise, Lesnar will do what needs to be done.
