It’s a rare feat to achieve a perfect pro wrestling segment on a live television show like WWE Raw on Netflix. Does perfect even exist?
If it does, Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi reached that height on Monday night.
Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will need to repair it’s foundation after Lesnar and Femi collide this year at WrestleMania 42. As of Monday night, their match at the event is official.
Lesnar and Femi are ideal opponents at any point in time, but with Femi’s strong introduction onto the WWE main roster, the stars aligned to do the match at this exact moment. In wrestling, when and where a moment happens dictates whether or not it stays in WWE highlight packages and sizzle reels for decades to come. Femi has dominated the main roster in epic fashion thus far and the only match that makes sense for him in an effort to maintain the rocket ride is a fight with Lesnar.
From The Takedown on SI
On Raw this week, Femi and Lesnar had their first real encounter with one another. Yeah, they tangled at the Royal Rumble, but that was an unofficial meeting without the stakes that their confrontation had this week.
Lesnar and Paul Heyman issued a WrestleMania open challenge for this year’s show of shows in Sin City. The duo was on hand this week to see if anyone accepted and Lesnar was downright stunned when Femi did.
Lesnar sells
The stunned look of disbelief on Lesnar’s face as Femi walked down to the ring put this segment on the path to perfection. It would have been easy for Lesnar to laugh off Femi or roll his eyes because a rookie was out there suggesting he could slay The Beast at WrestleMania.
Lesnar knows better than that and can sell better than anyone when he wants. Lesnar made a business decision and the motivation behind it was Femi.
By conveying a sense of worry, dread, doubt, and fear with his body language and facial expressions, Lesnar leaned into and emphasized the dominant vibes that Femi has been building up with his appearances on television. When he got dropped with a massive Fall From Grace, Lesnar barely moved on the mat and then had the presence of mind to tell Femi to put a foot on top of him before the inevitable “point to the sign” WrestleMania pose.
Did you hear the crowd when Femi did it? They gasped, cheered, and buzzed. That type of thing doesn’t happen to Lesnar very often, but there Femi was. People paid attention and that’s why effective selling is so important. It points a spotlight at the story and creates investment.
Now, if Lesnar selling put the segment on the path to perfection, Femi kept it there. When you’re on deck to receive something like Lesnar was offering up, there has to be an ability to deliver on the hype. This means the pressure was on Femi to look the part of a guy as dominant as Lesnar was selling. He did.
Femi rules
Femi’s special march down to the ring could be construed as silly in the wrong hands, but his cadence, pace, and size make it feel menacing and intimidating. That radiated off Lesnar selling in the ring.
Same thing with the physicality. For Lesnar to get the most out of selling the Fall From Grace as deeply as he did, it had to be delivered with a fury. Femi brought that. He picked Lesnar up like a child before viciously slamming him to the mat.
Then came the step. Femi needed to have the right tone and tenor behind his step onto Lesnar for it to resonate. With this, Femi hit a home run and did so with something that isn’t in every talent that walks out of the WWE Performance Center.
Aura.
Femi looked confident as he stood on Lesnar and yelled at him before pointing at the WrestleMania sign. Aura can’t be taught. Femi has it and others don’t. When that merges with strong work, you get a fully invested audience ready to see a war.
We’ll see what kind of match Lesnar and Femi have at WrestleMania. That’s always a question with Lesnar, but if this first outing is a sign of things to come, he’ll be ready to do business for Femi again.
Femi vs. Lesnar may not be a five-star classic or the match of the weekend when WrestleMania 42 is over, but people will be talking about it. All thanks to two pros doing great work.
What match are you looking forward to most at WrestleMania 42? Let us know in the comments!
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