Opinion: Lars Sullivan is the modern era's Brock Lesnar for WWE

The Shakeup's aftermath

In a matter of a week, WWE's landscape has completely changed. This involves drafting Roman Reigns and Finn Balor to SmackDown Live and AJ Styles and The Miz to the red brand. Roman's exit from Raw, where he had spent his entire time, certainly has a lot to offer to the blue brand. There are a bunch of opportunities for newly drafted superstars on both shows, but one man might benefit the most, and that man is the NXT call-up, Lars Sullivan.

The next, "next big thing"?

Lars, who is right now on the blue brand, brings the same kind of character that Strowman and Lesnar brought to the ring in their rookie years in WWE. "The Freak" Sullivan was first booked for a huge push on the road to WrestleMania 35, with a rumoured match against John Cena in a winning effort. Sullivan is currently busy dismantling a multitude of established superstars on the blue brand, which indicates that Vince McMahon is looking to book Sullivan as the next big thing in WWE.

The mammoth Superstar checks in at 6-foot-3-inches tall, gauges well more than 300 pounds, and has an amazing physique that most competitors could only dream of. Up to this point, Sullivan has authoritatively sent Kurt Angle into retirement, dealt with the Hardy Boyz, laid a world class beatdown on Rey Mysterio, and disassembled R-Truth, which may simply be a hint of something larger for the former NXT star.

Genuine inquiries question whether WWE will really push heels like Cesaro and the recently repackaged Robert Roode to that next dimension, while Baron Corbin simply hasn't been acknowledged as a headliner by the majority. A series of terrible booking decisions has demolished Bobby Lashley's odds of getting to be The One. SmackDown, in the meantime, faces a comparative lack of top heels, with Daniel Bryan out of the ring and the majority of the show's other top miscreants being moderately problematic as headliner heels.

WWE gravely needs Sullivan to succeed in light of the fact that, in any event, he checks all the boxes that Vince McMahon looks for in a headliner heel. In the event that WWE can do what it frequently neglects to do and make energizing and connecting storylines for Sullivan, "The Freak" may turn into WWE's next huge example of overcoming adversity, a Strowman-like draw, and a star that the organization can assemble its future around. That, obviously, is no certification. However, rest assured that WWE will try to make sure that Sullivan doesn't come up short.