Brock Lesnar Biography: Brock Lesnar Professional wrestling career photos

Brock Lesnar Professional wrestling career photos

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

Training and debut (2000–2002)

In 2000, after graduating college, Lesnar signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He was sent to its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling. There, Lesnar first met future friend and manager Paul Heyman.^[21] He formed a tag team known as "The Minnesota Stretching Crew" with his former college roommate,Shelton Benjamin. Lesnar and Benjamin won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on three separate occasions.^[22] Lesnar wrestled several dark matches in 2001 and 2002 before being called up to the main roster.^[1]

Lesnar debuted on WWF television on the March 18, 2002, episode of Raw, coming through the crowd and attacking Al Snow, Maven, and Spike Dudley during their match. He was accompanied by Paul Heyman, who was seen giving instructions to Lesnar.^[23] When the brand extension was introduced in the WWF, Lesnar was draftedto the Raw brand.^[24] Later, Heyman was confirmed to be Lesnar's agent and gave Lesnar the nickname "The Next Big Thing".^[25] Lesnar's first feud was with the Hardy Boyz. Lesnar and Jeff Hardy squared off at Backlash in Lesnar's first official televised match.^[1] He won the match by knockout after Hardy was unable to respond to referee Theodore Long.^[26][27] The next night on Raw Lesnar faced off against Jeff Hardy's brother Matt Hardyand defeated him in the same fashion.^[28]

WWE Champion (2002–2004)

Lesnar at a WWE show in 2003

In June 2002, Lesnar won the King of the Ring tournament, defeating Rob Van Dam in the final round,^[7] earning him a shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam. On July 22, Lesnar joined the SmackDownbrand.^[29] After a quick feud with Hollywood Hulk Hogan in August 2002, Lesnar began feuding with the Undisputed WWE Champion, The Rock.^[30] At SummerSlam, Lesnar defeated The Rock to become the Undisputed WWE Champion and youngest WWE Champion at age 25 (a record previously held by The Rock). At the time, the Undisputed WWE Championship was being defended on both brands, so Raw General Manager Eric Bischoffexpected Lesnar to be able to return to Raw the following night. However,SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon announced that Lesnar's contract only required him to defend the title on SmackDown, forcing Bischoff to institute a new championship for Raw (the World Heavyweight Championship). Afterwards, the Undisputed WWE Championship became known as simply the WWE Championship.^[31]

Lesnar's rapid rise to the top of WWE in 2002 led to a feud with The Undertaker, which involved a match at Unforgiven.^[32] The match ended in a double disqualification resulting in Lesnar retaining the title. Lesnar faced The Undertaker again, at No Mercy, this time in a Hell in a Cell match. Leading up to the match, (kayfabe) Lesnar broke the Undertaker's hand with a propane tank.^[33] Despite Heyman begging McMahon not to let The Undertaker use his cast as a weapon, the request was denied and the match went on as planned.^[34] In a match that saw both wrestlers and even Heyman covered in blood, it ended when Lesnar reversed an attempted Tombstone piledriver into his finishing F-5maneuver for the win.^[32] Six days after his Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker, Lesnar successfully retained his WWE title in a Handicap match with Heyman at the Rebellion pay-per-view against Edge.^[35]

Lesnar's next opponent was Big Show. Heyman was convinced more than anyone that Lesnar could not win, trying to talk him out of defending the title.^[36] Lesnar refused and faced Big Show in Madison Square Garden at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. Towards the end of the match, Lesnar delivered an F-5 to the Big Show but when he went for the pin, he was betrayed by Heyman who pulled the referee out of the ring. This allowed the Big Show to capitalize and proceeded to chokeslam Lesnar on a steel chair. Show went on to pin Lesnar and win the title. This loss was Lesnar's first pinfall loss in WWE and led to Lesnar's first (and only) face turn.^[37] Following Survivor Series, Heyman made it clear that Lesnar would not get a rematch, and had snuck a special clause saying so into his contract.^[38] In order to gain his revenge on Big Show and Heyman, Lesnar interfered in his first title defense, which came against Kurt Angle the next month at Armageddon. Lesnar hit the F-5 on the champion, which enabled Angle to pin him and win the title. On the next edition of SmackDown, however, Angle introduced Heyman as his manager and, despite promising Lesnar a title shot earlier in the evening, declared that Lesnar still would not get it. Lesnar was beaten down by Big Show and Angle after the main event, but would get his revenge after the show went off the air. He eventually knocked the Big Show out with a steel chair, leaving Angle alone with Lesnar. Lesnar then chased the champion out of the ring and resumed his assault that culminated when Lesnar used the F-5 to propel Angle's right knee into the steel ringpost. As paramedics tended to a screaming Angle, Lesnar finished off the assault with a kneebreaker on the ringside barricade, breaking the champion's leg in storyline.

With Angle temporarily put out of action, Lesnar's rivalry with Heyman and the Big Show resumed, which culminated in a match at the Royal Rumble in January 2003. A spot in the Royal Rumble match was on the line, and winning the match was Lesnar's only hope for a title shot. Lesnar defeated Big Show to gain entry into the match and entered at #29, the second to last competitor to enter the match. He eliminated Matt Hardy and The World's Greatest Tag Team, which was composed of Charlie Haas and his former OVW teammate, Shelton Benjamin, who were mentored by the WWE champion. Lesnar would eliminate the Undertaker last and win the Royal Rumble, which guaranteed him a title match at WrestleMania XIX.^[37]

Lesnar suffered a concussion after botching a shooting star press atWrestleMania XIX

After the Royal Rumble, Lesnar's feud with Angle, Heyman, and their allies continued as Angle retained the title at the Rumble by defeatingChris Benoit. Lesnar and Benoit faced off against Angle, Haas, and Benjamin at No Way Out the following month and Lesnar's team won the match. This helped to forward the feud leading into the main event at WrestleMania.^[37] During the match, Lesnar botched a shooting star press, a move he's done numerous times in developmental matches, and jammed his head and neck by hitting Angle's side and ribcage. Lesnar overestimated the distance he could jump to execute the move and did not get enough rotation on his leap. This stunned Lesnar and forced Angle and Lesnar to improvise the finish of the match. Lesnar would finish the match and pin Angle, after delivering an F-5, to win his second WWE Championship. Lesnar was later diagnosed with a concussion from the botched move.^[37]

After WrestleMania, Lesnar turned his attention to John Cena, who had returned from injury in February 2003 and who had been F-5'd into a ringpost in the same manner Angle had been. Cena claimed Lesnar nearly ended his career and even named his new finishing move the "F.U." as a jab at the new champion.^[39] The feud ended relatively quickly in a match at Backlash when Lesnar defeated Cena. On the following SmackDown, Lesnar returned to his rivalry with Big Show after he injured Rey Mysterio badly during their match at Backlash. Show's attack resulted in Mysterio being carried out on a stretcher and back board and Big Show took Mysterio off the stretcher and swung the back board into the ringpost, compounding the injury.^[37] Lesnar called out the Big Show, who demanded that Lesnar put his title on the line against him. This led to a Stretcher match at Judgment Day for the title. Lesnar successfully retained his title with help from Rey Mysterio and a forklift.^[40] During the scripted rivalry, on SmackDown, Lesnar lifted Big Show off the top-rope in a Superplex which caused the ring to collapse on impact.^[41]

As Lesnar and Big Show continued their rivalry, Kurt Angle returned from his neck surgery and he and Lesnar began to form a more friendly rivalry, as the two were allies yet contenders for the title. At the first everSmackDown brand-exclusive pay-per-view in July, Vengeance, Lesnar took on Angle and Big Show in a No Disqualification Triple Threat match for his title, which ended after Angle hit his Angle Slam on both Big Show and Lesnar, pinning the champion to become WWE Champion for a fourth time.^[37]

Lesnar and Kurt Angle after their WWE Championship match at WrestleMania XIX

Lesnar continued to chase Angle's title despite their friendship. Vince McMahon found his way into the angle, at first berating Lesnar, who had involved himself in McMahon's rivalry with Zach Gowen, for losing to Angle. This all turned out to be a huge swerve that came into focus on the August 7, 2003 SmackDown in Kelowna, British Columbia. That night, Lesnar and McMahon were to face each other in a steel cage match with Angle as the special guest referee as per McMahon's orders on the previous week's program. During the match, Lesnar had passed out due to a staged backstage incident and McMahon was set to pin him but Angle refused to allow McMahon to win that way. As the two men began to argue, Lesnar rose to his feet, revealing the ruse to the crowd, and F-5'd Angle. He then brutally beat Angle while McMahon watched, and celebrated with him afterwards, turning heel in the process.^[42] AtSummerSlam,^[43] Lesnar lost to Angle when Angle made Lesnar tap outto the ankle lock.^[44] After that, Lesnar would cement his heel turn by brutalizing smaller wrestlers and attacking his rivals on a more consistent basis. He returned to using the F-5 to propel his opponents' legs into the ringpost, as he did to Spanky and Gowen, and interfered in Angle's matches on two separate occasion. On September 18, 2003, Lesnar received his third shot at Angle in as many months when he faced the champion in a sixty-minute Iron Man match for the title.^[45] Lesnar won the match and his third WWE Championship by a final count of five to four.^[46]

Lesnar returned to feuding with The Undertaker. Lesnar had previously cost Undertaker the title in a match against then-champion Kurt Angle, which granted him a shot at Lesnar's title.^[47] At No Mercy, Lesnar defeated Undertaker in a Biker Chain match.^[48] The rivalry then came to an end after the Undertaker chose to focus on Vince McMahon.

After Paul Heyman returned to WWE as general manager of SmackDown, Lesnar aligned himself with his former manager. With Survivor Series coming up, Lesnar decided to challenge Angle to a traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team match. Lesnar chose Big Show as his first teammate, with Heyman adding a returningNathan Jones and a debuting Matt Morgan to bring the team number to four. Angle chose Chris Benoit and The APA to join his team. However, Faarooq was injured during a match with Lesnar and Big Show and Angle's team was forced to not only find a replacement for him, but to fill the fifth spot. Lesnar's team picked A-Train to fill that spot for them after he attacked John Cena, who refused to accept an invitation to join Lesnar's team. Cena instead joined Angle's team, and Angle added Hardcore Holly as the fifth member; Lesnar had injured Holly the year before and he hadn't wrestled since.^[49] In the climax of the match, Chris Benoit became only the second wrestler to make Lesnar tap out.^[48]

Lesnar faced Benoit in a singles bout two weeks later for the WWE Championship on SmackDown, where Lesnar won after Benoit passed out to Lesnar's debuting Brock Lock submission hold.^[50] He then began a brief feud with Hardcore Holly, defeating him at the Royal Rumble in January 2004 to retain his title.

Departure (2004)

Lesnar demonstrating his strength during a SmackDown taping in February 2004

The Survivor Series event marked the first time Lesnar met Goldbergfrom the Raw brand, a man to whom Lesnar had been compared due to their similar physiques and undefeated streaks in wrestling. Lesnar claimed in a backstage interview that he could beat anybody in the world, leading to Goldberg interrupting the interview and introducing himself to Lesnar, shaking hands with him before leaving with a staredown.^[48]Lesnar followed this rivalry with a feud involving Hardcore Holly.^[51] In the storyline, Holly wanted revenge on Lesnar for legitimately injuring his neck during a previous match between the two in 2002 which left Holly in need of neck surgery and out of action for a year. At the Royal Rumble in 2004, Lesnar defeated Holly to retain the WWE Championship.^[52] Later in the Royal Rumble match, Lesnar attacked Goldberg and delivered anF-5, enabling Kurt Angle to eliminate him.^[48]

In February, Lesnar faced Eddie Guerrero for the title at No Way Out. Goldberg interfered in the match and was able to help Guerrero turn the tide in the match. Lesnar still had his chance to win by nailing an F-5 onto his title belt that he brought into the ring, but Guerrero countered with a DDT to drive the champion into the belt. After afrog splash, Guerrero pinned Lesnar to win the WWE Championship. An angry Lesnar then began feuding with Goldberg, blaming him for losing his title, and a match was set up between the two at WrestleMania XX.^[53] During the feud with Goldberg, Lesnar was at odds with Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was shown suggesting to Goldberg that he attack Lesnar at No Way Out.^[54] When Lesnar attacked Austin on Raw and stole his four-wheeler, Austin was inserted as the special guest referee for the Wrestlemania match.^[55] Behind the scenes, it was widely known that the match was Goldberg's last in WWE. Only a week before Wrestlemania, rumors surfaced that Lesnar, too, was leaving to pursue a career in the National Football League.^[56] As a result, Lesnar's match with Goldberg became a fiasco as the fans at Madison Square Garden jeered and heckled both wrestlers vociferously.^[57] Goldberg gained victory after delivering a Jackhammer to Lesnar and both men subsequently received Stone Cold Stunners from Austin.^[57]