Why Brock Lesnar is ‘untouchable’ in both UFC and WWE

It seems that there are certain people in life who really can do whatever they want. And if you’re still in denial about this, I’d recommend steering clear of any news relating to one Brock Lesnar.

College standout Lesnar hit the big time after being scouted and then recruited by WWE to become a professional wrestler. Natural athlete Lesnar adapted quickly to the world of producing his skills for a weekly television show, but within two years was sick of the manic travel schedule.

After messing around with NFL tryouts and Japanese wrestling for a bit, he finally found a proper return to legitimate sport via the UFC, becoming the heavyweight champion and drawing big money.

And while a tumultuous battle with diverticulitis threatened to end his active days prematurely, it instead preceded what would become a very comfortable existence.

Returning to WWE in 2012, Lesnar received huge money for a part-time commitment, often swanning in and out of television whilst writers found increasingly-lazy ways to explain his glorified cameos. He was even able to spend months away from work whilst being recognised as their champion!

Being granted another championship spell, only working with the very top stars in the company, openly bragging about showing up, collecting big money and heading home on subscription service WWE Network, and having the infamous honour of becoming the first man allowed to defeat the legendary Undertaker at a Wrestlemania was only the tip of the iceberg, however.

Earlier this year, Lesnar was announced as making his return to the UFC. This time, he would actually juggle real fights and preparations for said fights with his cherry-picked pro wrestling performances. UFC head honcho Dana White even (temporarily) suspended respected MMA journalist Ariel Helwani for having the audacity to find out about the story and break the news (also known as doing his job).

Lesnar went on to defeat Mark Hunt at UFC 200. He then failed a drug test, causing (understandable) uproar among everyone from the fans to the media to Hunt himself. This came after Lesnar was already granted an exemption from the four-month written notice rule for un-retiring athletes under the USADA/UFC drug testing policy, to much backlash.

Considering the fact that doping in fight sports is particularly more dangerous than using such illegal means to, say, win an athletics race, it’s arguable that there was nowhere near enough uproar.

Brock, meanwhile, will once again shrug off all the controversy and stroll into the main event of WWE’s Summerslam event this coming Sunday. The wrestling juggernaut’s second biggest show of the year will be headlined by the part-timer who failed a drug test against Randy Orton, another heavily-favoured (albeit full-time) main WWE attraction who himself has been accused of benefitting from preferential treatment more than once.

Can we really blame guys like Brock, or Orton or anyone else for that matter, for using their skillset to make their way into the proverbial penthouse before making millions for doing very little, with no fear of consequences? Of course not. I doubt many of us would embark on a moral crusade if such winds blew in our favour.

However, the entire Lesnar situation over the last five years has really underscored just how similar WWE and UFC are, even if one produces scripted fights and the other puts on legitimate contests.

There is an invisible line in every fight sport, regardless of the nature of the bouts. A select few are on the desired side of that line. The rest will continue their daily grind against unfavourable management and unfair working conditions, hoping for the lucky break that will transport them into that penthouse and allow them to walk away from the professions which serve more like cruel mistresses, only to return whenever they like - on their own terms - to a hero’s reception from the very bosses who treated them like mules until they threw on a goose outfit and painted themselves gold.

To that end, my recommendation - if you have the slightest interest or curiosity in checking out a packed Summerslam weekend - is to pay close attention to the undercard. Pay close attention to the event 24 hours before Summerslam by WWE’s ‘developmental’ sub-brand NXT (which often outperforms ‘the big show’).

Watch the work ethic, the passion and the commitment the undercard and ‘developmental’ performers put into their craft. And know it is all in the hopes of one day being in a position to be able to skip work and fail drug tests whenever they want, all for 10x what they currently earn - such is the broken business model of fight sports, whether real or ‘fake’.