The pain came last night. So what now?
The details surrounding Brock Lesnar's new WWE contract are beginning to emerge and it looks like the former Undisputed Champion has gotten himself a plum of a deal.
According to sPyWareInsider, Lesnar's brand new deal -- reportedly agreed upon and signed during WrestleMania 28 weekend and rumored to be in the $5 million range -- will last through next year's WrestleMania at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. There, he will assumedly take part in a huge match-up with tons of mainstream press behind it. The Rock? The Undertaker? His victim last night, John Cena? All potential bouts would rake in tons of cash and score hundreds of thousands of pay-per-view (PPV) buys.
But how often will we see "The Next Big Thing" inside a WWE ring? Sunday's (April 1) main event was announced a year ago but up until the past month, The Rock was largely a no-show in terms of live appearances, opting for pre-recorded TitanTron videos instead. Will Lesnar get the same leeway?
Not quite.
A big reason Lesnar left WWE in the first place was the traveling scheduling, grueling for all and apparently deemed downright unreasonable by the Minnesota native. While the former UFC Heavyweight Champion won't be making a full-time return, showing up week in and week out, he will be around more often than his SummerSlam 2002 opponent. The current plan is for Lesnar to make appearances about twice a month with an even greater frequency in the months leading up to WrestleMania 29. The report also goes to state additional appearances could be negotiated on a case by case basis.
Perhaps WWE learned their lesson with their build-up of The Rock's match with John Cena. It's hard for one man to carry a feud if his opponent is almost always nowhere to be seen. The problem is amplified even more when the rivalry is stretched out over a year. Slow burns were common a couple of decades ago but they were between full-time performers, working together each and every week.
While Lesnar won't show up on your TV that often, he won't be outside the ring for months at a time like The Rock was.
In a nutshell, even more pain is coming.