When Brock Lesnar burst onto the WWE scene he was dubbed "The Next Big Thing". He was compared to WCW’s phenom, Goldberg. He was going to be a huge star. He was better than Goldberg – Lesnar could actually work. Lesnar could do all those things Goldberg couldn’t – he could climb into the ring without tripping, he could slam people without hurting them, he could get out of his locker room without hurting himself, he could do a shooting star press, he could wrestle. He didn’t have Kurt Angle’s charisma (few do) but he had seventy pounds more muscle and was set to be as big if not bigger than our Olympic Hero.

He was the youngest world champion in WWF/E history (a fact now superseded by Randy Orton’s rushed 2004 reign, the cynic in me thinks that was done purely to spite Brock and strip him of the last title he held in wrestling) and looked set to be on top of Smackdown for as long as the brand extension was in place. It is a testament to Lesnar’s talents that someone so naïve, so immature and (let’s face it) so dumb could survive as a main event player in the political minefield of the WWE locker room. Raw is run by HHH and Shawn Michaels, Smackdown is run by Kurt Angle and Undertaker. They are all shrewd manipulators who can make or break a career. Unless you are a pet project of Vince himself (stand up JBL) you won’t get very far without the support of the respective clique.

Lesnar was a relatively happy camper in 2003. He was the world champion, he was having great matches, he was making a tonne of money and he even found time to hook up with Sable. The schedule was gruelling, the travel was a pain (especially to someone of his size and body type) and he was frustrated at not getting respect from the real media for his athletic exploits. Once he was asked to drop the WWE title to Eddie Guerrero – a man nearly 100 pounds lighter and a foot shorter – his minor gripes became major issues. WWE went out of their way to try and accommodate him. They even hired a private plan to fly him from city to city. True, economically it wasn’t any more expensive than buying him first class tickets but it sent a signal that WWE wanted to keep Lesnar sweet.

Then he decided he had a dream. Brock Lesnar, fake professional wrestler, wanted to be Brock Lesnar the NFL superstar. He wanted athletic plaudits not media scorn. He wanted to be the real thing. The only problem was that Brock had just signed a ten year WWE contract. They owned him for the rest of his athletic prime. But for all his spitefulness, dubious business ethics, macho bravado and John Wayne negotiating, Vince McMahon has a surprisingly generous side. He would let Lesnar out of his contract, without suing him for a breach, in exchange for a few guarantees. Lesnar readily agreed to the terms of his release. After all, the release papers simply said he wouldn’t work for any other wrestling company. No problem. For six years. Still no problem. Lesnar wasn’t going back to wrestling – and said so in media interviews. He’d had enough of the fake sport with its moron fans. Lesnar, ever the immature jock, was happy to burn his bridges.

Then his NFL career never happened. He was too old and, although an athletic marvel, wasn’t coordinated enough to play in the NFL. Had he been ten years younger they could’ve made him a player but there simply wasn’t time to mould him. There was an outside chance he could go to NFL Europe or up to the CFL and prove himself but Lesnar didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to be an American footballer – he wanted to be an NFL star. Unlike when WWE turned him from a collegiate wrestler into a WWE performer, this time there was no one who wanted him to succeed and who would give him every chance to make it.

Suddenly the reality of the "no compete" clause sunk in – Lesnar couldn’t go back to wrestling except with WWE and WWE didn’t want him. Or at least they wanted to play hardball with him. No cushy frills, no private plane, no reduced schedule, no big money contract. Things had changed in WWE since Lesnar was the golden boy that they wanted to keep sweet at all costs. Lesnar needed them more than they needed him and they knew it. But Brock could earn a good living in Japan, or so he thought. Whether it was as a special attraction with New Japan or Hustle, or fighting for real in Pride or K1. He could even become the American equivalent of Naoya Ogawa who fights for any company that will pay his and his manager Antonio Inoki’s asking price. It doesn’t matter that Ogawa isn’t a great fighter – Lesnar probably wouldn’t be a great mix martial arts fighter – it’s all about image and hype.

Lesnar’s lawsuit against WWE is to get the no compete clause struck down as unlawful or just unfair. Many online commentaries have explained that his chances of success are slim to zero. Rather than rehash their arguments I thought I would give three reasons why Lesnar might succeed.

Firstly, I understand that WWE were rather careless in their terminology. They used "sports entertainment" where most of us would use "wrestling" and they said "ultimate fighting" when the more common term is "mixed martial arts". Sports entertainment was a concept created and named by Vince McMahon. Ultimate Fighting was likewise created by Semaphore Entertainment for their new cage fighting company, the UFC. These flabby and imprecise terms could, given a sympathetic judge, be rendered meaningless and the no-compete would be rendered worthless.

Secondly, if a judge were to look into WWE’s contracts I suspect he or she would be appalled. The wrestlers you see on TV are not WWE employees. Employees have health care plans, expense accounts, retirement schemes and basic employment rights. WWE superstars are "independent contractors" with none of those benefits. The contracts are unbelievably one sided in WWE’s favour and these no-compete clauses could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Thirdly, WWE claims the no-compete is to protect its own interests. It is to stop Lesnar from going to a rival US promotion and competing with them. It can be argued that working in Japan is not competing with WWE as they run infrequently in that country and their business would not be substantially affected by Lesnar’s appearances for K1, Pride or Hustle. Equally, it could be decided that WWE’s business is professional wrestling and that the cross over audience in the USA between WWE and MMA is small enough that he wouldn’t be in competition with WWE’s shows.

Is Lesnar a bit dumb for signing such a deal on the assumption that he would be able to walk into the NFL? Of course he is. But are WWE behaving childishly in preventing him from working for six more years? Maybe. If WCW were still around then I could understand their concerns but WWE has no competition so to enforce such a no-compete looks like spite. Let Brock go over to Japan, get his ass kicked a few times by Fedor, Mirko or even Bob Sapp and it might knock some sense into him. Then we can get back to normal with Brock on Smackdown and reminding us why he briefly went from being "The Next Big Thing" to being the main event.