LAS VEGAS -- As Brock Lesnar took the podium for his one-man press conference in a sweltering, makeshift tent outside T-Mobile Arena (they couldn't find money in the new joint's $375 million construction budget for a proper press conference room?), he looked like a man who had exercised his demons.
The way Lesnar left the sport of mixed martial arts five years ago wasn't exactly the sort of legacy any fighter wanted to leave. Lesnar, who had mastered the ability of channeling his ridiculous size and strength for MMA wrestling purposes, never quite mastered the standup game.
And by returning to the WWE's scripted fantasyland after losing back-to-back, one-sided losses to nasty strikers Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem, the perception lingered that Lesnar not only didn't like being hit, but that he left when things got too hot in the kitchen.