the situation couldn't be any better from a drama standpoint.

on one hand, you have the first legitimately scary squash machine since, shit, goldberg in his wcw prime, maybe? Maybe it's better than that? he's already bucked expectations and absolutely destroyed two guys (taker and cena) in ways we all thought were impossible. no matter what lesner's contract status, you can't assume he's not going over in any situation.

on the other, you have the classic underdog who has a history of the company holding him back, even if that's clearly no longer true. why not work an angle on that? why not put vince, hunter, everyone on Team Brock, cut a lot of promos that talk about how he doesn't have the physique or mainstream appeal, etc?

bryan's legitimately terrifying injury could be worked into the angle beautifully. vince and them could express obviously phony concern for bryan's health, then put him in 2 on 1, 3 on 1, ladder and tables matches (if he can even do those post injury) in an attempt to knock him out? then, right before mania, put him in some type of match with brock on raw (if he deigns to show up) where brock goes to town on him, tries to injure him, etc. given everything, it would add pure terror to the match for every mark and a dose of terror to anyone who has any pure mark left in them, which is everyone.

that total package would have the most hype going into a Mania in recent memory. and again, i haven't watched more than 5 minutes of a raw or ppv in 5, 10 years. if i get this, why don't they?