Oba Femi’s masterclass in losing
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a massive, terrifying human being loses a high-profile match and somehow looks better for it. It feels like we are living through a weird timeline where Bully Ray and I are finally seeing eye-to-eye on main roster booking. Oba Femi just took an absolute beating from Brock Lesnar over in Italy, but instead of the usual burial, the guy came out of it looking like a legitimate monster in the making.
We have all seen the scripts. A rookie comes up, fights a veteran, gets pulverized in under 5 minutes, and ends up on the B-show eating pins from comedy acts. Femi didn’t do that. He stood toe-to-toe with the Beast, ate a couple of German suplexes that would put a normal man in the concussion protocol, and still managed to keep his cool. It was a masterclass in how to elevate a guy while he is staring at the lights.
The evolution of a beast
Bully Ray noted that he liked the evolution of Femi following that loss. He is right. Most performers at that level try to overcompensate by flopping around like a fish to make the veteran look good. Femi didn’t. He stayed stiff. He looked like he was genuinely trying to break Lesnar’s ribs even when he was clearly on his way to a loss.
The move set was crisp too. That massive powerbomb variation he keeps in his back pocket? It looked believable. If booking guys like this is the new norm for Triple H, we might actually be out of the dark ages. It isn’t about winning every belt; it’s about making the audience believe you belong in the same ring as the main eventers.
The ugly side of the booking
Of course, this isn’t a perfect world. The blatant lack of selling on some of those transitions from Lesnar was frustrating to watch in real-time. There were moments during that tilt in Italy where Femi looked a bit lost on the timing of the next sequence. Experience is the only cure for that, but Monday nights aren't exactly a laboratory for guys to figure out their footwork. You either sync up with the veterans or you become furniture.
The push is clearly there, though. You don’t put a guy across from Lesnar unless you are testing his ability to hold a segment. Femi held his own. Whether he can sustain this momentum after the World Cup frenzy takes over the sports news cycle remains the real question. For now, he is the most interesting thing happening in the heavyweight rotation.
Is the NXT pipeline finally working?
We spent years watching NXT talent get chewed up and spit out by the main roster. It became a graveyard for creative liberty. Seeing Femi get this kind of treatment is a massive pivot from the way they pushed guys like Karrion Kross or even the early days of Ricochet. It feels calculated. Maybe for once, the office actually has a plan for the next three years of TV.
Femi is currently riding a wave that most of his colleagues are still waiting to catch. If he can tighten up those transitions, he is going to be holding the big gold by this time next year. Just don’t expect him to stay the humble rookie for much longer. Once he turns that switch, he is going to be the guy they are building the entire show around. Until then, keep watching the tape of that Italy loss. It is the best 15 minutes of character development we have seen all quarter.
