Playing the Heel

But, sometimes, he's a dick.

Maybe he just got too good at being a profressional wrestler. Maybe he likes being the guy everybody likes to see lose (there certainly something to be said for showing ‘em who’s the man). Whatever the cause, Brock has made himself the new heel for the UFC’s heavyweight division.

As the best heavyweight in the best organization, Brock Lesnar (4-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC, #2 IWMMAR ) certainly overstepped a handful of unspoken (though very clear) boundaries that even a professional wrestler knows to stay far, far away from. Talking about banging your lady is one thing (distasteful, perhaps, and a substantial bit of douchebaggery, but not an industry issue), dissing a sponsor after a victory is another, and the sponsor that Lesnar picked out was a particularly poor choice.

Bud Light is not just the UFC’s biggest sponsor. They’re the biggest sponsor in professional sports, and while Lesnar is certainly indispensible, at the moment, for the UFC, it’s not as though Zuffa needs to kowtow to his irritating and financially damaging bullshit (and that’s exactly what it was).

If Lesnar wants to play the heel, that’s fine. The UFC will enjoy putting him on ESPN, and will happily tolerate the smack talk and the negative image, which will rest on Lesnar’s wide shoulders far more than those of the organization (after all, the rest of the organizations champions, while not all universally loved, Martin Luther King Jr.-esque figures, are respectable people with a certain degree athletic prowess and professional conduct). At this point, the UFC brand is well established enough that Lesnar, while perhaps not someone the UFC will offer a community service award to, isn’t going to do any serious damage to the brand, and having a heel gets people excited, especially if there’s a strong chance he’s going to get the snot beaten out of him (and there are a handful of matchups that offer that potential).

Whether the UFC brings in Fedor Emelianenko (30-1-0-1 MMA, #1 IWMMAR ) as the primal, likeable Russian enforcer expected to bash Lesnar’s face through the canvas is not particularly relevant. After all, seeing that Lesnar is a heel (and not knowing anything about Fedor) the casual fans will expect and hope for a guy like Shane Carwin (11-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC, #8 IWMMAR ) to put Lesnar through the canvas with exactly the same level of satisfaction and eagernous.

With that said, I am not as bothered as the rest of the world by Brock’s giving the fans the finger. He was already unpopular in the arena and, playing the role of the heel, he got out of line. Would I have perfered him to be a sportsman, to be humble and likable and an embodiment of all that is good in the world? Damn skippy. Did I expect him to be any of those things? Not a chance.

So, I’m not as pissed as the rest of the world that Brock decided to get out of line (and, despite what press releases might indicate, neither is the UFC).

But I cannot understate how stupid it was to attack a sponsor.

It’s fine not to use a product, especially when they’re not endorsing you, but Lesnar is paid by the UFC, and the UFC is, in a substantial part, paid by its sponsors (the largest of which, I should repeat, is Bud Light). If Brock Lesnar thinks that Bud Light doesn’t have anything to do with his paycheck, then its just more clear that Brock, giant that he is, needs to work his brain half as hard as his deltoids.

If he thinks the UFC isn’t going to hold this over his head when he’s renegotiating his contract, then he’s delusional. If he thinks that the UFC management isn’t trying to ensure that it keeps its most valuable sponsorship and, as a result, a sizable paycheck, as a result of his statements, then he needs to think his actions through.

Whatever Lesnar thinks now, he should have put together a coherent victory speech beforehand, because this is going to hurt him in the future, whatever he has been told about the impact of controversy. All publicity, it’s true, is good publicity, but it’s not always good in the boardroom, and that’s where this is going to hurt him. The fans not liking Brock helps him, because people want to see him lose (and as long as he’s got the belt, that attitude of disdain will sell pay-per-views). The perpetual concern of the sponsors hurts him, because it concerns the UFC, who has to be able to ensure that this sort of raucous behavior doesn’t cost them money, and if Lesnar makes that hard to ensure, they’re going to pass a portion of that cost on to Lesnar (and well they should), especially given how expensive he is to keep on the roster.