Brock Lesnar was born to be a pro wrestler. He’s massive, looks like he’s been hewn from granite and oozes X-factor (and meat sweats) from every pore. Despite his incredible gifts, Brock’s ascent to the top of WWE wasn’t the straight shot you might expect, and once he got there, his, shall we say, combative personality continued to make for an unpredictable career.
As we approach Lesnar’s big match against Dean Ambrose and WrestleMania 32 on Sunday, here are a few things you might not know about the Suplex City-founding badass’ often-turbulent career.
Note: Brock’s life could fill multiple articles, so we’re mostly sticking to his younger years and WWE career here. UFC, Japan and the rest will have to wait for another time.
Brock began wrestling at the age of five
Brock Lesnar, a beast since birth.
Brock Lesnar was born in the rural town of Webster, South Dakota in July, 1977. Brock’s family owned a dairy farm, and he and his two older brothers and younger sister spent their time doing what country kids do, which is to say, getting into trouble. In order to give their little Beast some structure, Brock’s parents got him involved in youth wrestling as young as five years old. And wrestling wasn’t just for fun. Oh no. According to Brock, his mom was molding him into a future world champion at an age when most of us couldn’t put on our own pants…
“My mom didn’t accept any excuses. If I lost, it was my fault. It was just me and the other kid on the mat. One winner. One Loser. When I lost a match, as I did from time to time, it was, ‘Admit it, accept it. If you don’t like the way you feel when you lose, then get in there and win.'”
A lot of guys owe Brock’s mom for the ass-kickings they would eventually receive.
He would have pursued a military career if it weren’t for his color blindness
The military, wrestling — if there was a chance he could hurt somebody, Brock was down.
When you grow up poor in rural South Dakota, a world of opportunity isn’t exactly knocking down your door. At age 17, Brock figured the military was his best bet in life, so he signed up for the National Guard. Brock wanted to work with artillery, but during his physical, it was discovered he was red-green colorblind. Handling explosives requires you to keep track of red and green-coded explosives, so to keep Brock from blowing anybody up, the higher-ups assigned him to clerical duty. Yup, living action figure Brock Lesnar got stuck behind a desk. Needless to say, office work didn’t exactly suit Brock, and he promptly F5’d his military ambitions.
Lesnar almost got into MMA while still in college
After ditching the military, Brock decided to pursue higher education. With no scholarships forthcoming, he went to Bismarck State, a local junior college, before being recruited by the University of Minnesota for his third year. Just one problem – a bunch of Brock’s junior college credits wouldn’t transfer, so he was ineligible to join the wrestling team. The coaches scrambled and found a college in California that would take Lesnar on short notice, so he was shipped off to get his transcript in order.
While in California, Lesnar worked out at a gym where a lot of guys were training in this newfangled thing called mixed martial arts. Beating guys up with little-to-no concern for rules sounded pretty swell to Lesnar, so when a few of the guys said they were going to Vegas to make some money fighting, he was eager to tag along. At the last second, Brock called up his U of M coach to run this whole MMA thing by him, and of course he was appalled. It was the mid-’90s after all, an era when MMA was considered barely a half-step up from chicken fighting. Brock was talked down and didn’t get in the car to Vegas, but man, the history of MMA might have been very different if he had.
He turned down offers from the NFL to work for the WWF
Lesnar’s college wrestling career had its ups and downs, but in his last year of college, he finally won the NCAA Division I Heavyweight Championship, which suddenly put him on a lot of radars. Lesnar may have struggled to get into the NFL later in his career, but in 2000, both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Redskins were all too eager to sign him up. Ultimately, though, Brock was tired of the uncertainty of legitimate sports, and decided to take a $250,000 per-year “sure thing” offer from the WWF, despite having watched less than five minutes of pro wrestling in his entire life. If Brock had known how unpredictable the scripted world of pro wrestling could be, he might have reconsidered.
Lesnar arranged to have the WWF hire his close friend Shelton Benjamin
Lesnar’s developmental contract was the most lucrative one ever offered by the WWF, but Brock had one more condition for signing on the dotted line – they also had to hire a good friend by the name of Shelton Benjamin. A fellow U of M wrestler, Benjamin had helped train Lesnar, and when the WWF agreed to Lesnar’s terms, they both headed down to Louisville, Kentucky together. While learning their chops in Ohio Valley Wrestling, Lesnar and Benjamin teamed together as the Minnesota Stretching Crew (a tribute to legendary tag team the Minnesota Wrecking Crew) and lived together as roomies. Lesnar is usually depicted as a guy only out for himself, but as Benjamin’s story proves, he’s willing to go out on a limb for people on his very short list of friends.
He was arrested for steroid possession while training with the WWF
In January 2001, while training at OVW, Brock Lesnar was popped for receiving a package containing a “large amount of steroids” and charged with trafficking in controlled substances. Brock was facing up to a year in jail and a felony on his record, but in a lucky stroke, the cops later determined the pills weren’t steroids, but “some kind of growth hormone.” Lesnar’s own lawyer described the pills as a “vitamin type of thing.” I didn’t know Saul Goodman worked Kentucky.
It should be mentioned that Lesnar vehemently denies ever taking steroids, and has never failed a drug test during his amateur, UFC or WWE careers. So, maybe he did just order a big ol’ box of vitamin things. Or maybe he saw what he was getting into with WWE, decided to get some “help,” then swore off again after getting busted. Who knows? Thankfully for Lesnar, what happened in Louisville, stayed in Louisville back in 2001.
He barely remembers his first WWE run due to heavy vodka and pill consumption
Lesnar says he never took steroids, but he’s been very open about his dependency on other substances during his first run in WWE. Lesnar debuted on the main roster in 2002, and almost immediately began accumulating injuries, including broken ribs that were never allowed to heal and torn ligaments in his knee. The infamous botched shooting star press that sent him crashing down on top of his head at WrestleMania XIX hardly helped matters. During his time as “The Next Big Thing,” Brock was downing a bottle of vodka a day, and hundreds of Vicodin per month, to the point he admits most of his brief initial run was a blur.
Steve Austin, The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan refused to job to him in 2002
Probably best for Austin’s neck that he never went to Suplex City.
As mentioned, Brock was The Next Big Thing in 2002, and rampaged through the ranks like the uncaged gorilla he is. The plan was to put him over all the big established stars, but some of those stars weren’t that interested in playing along. The first to balk at putting Brock over was Steve Austin, who was scheduled to lose to Brock on a June, 2002 episode of Raw. He walked out instead. Next up was The Undertaker, who was supposed to lose to Brock at September’s Unforgiven PPV. Taker got the finish changed to a double-DQ. Finally, there was Hulk Hogan, who had lost in graphic fashion to Lesnar on an August, 2002 episode of Smackdown, and was going to return to exact his revenge at Survivor Series. The plan was for Lesnar to beat Hogan again, but Hogan decided he’d rather stay home, brother.
Since 2002, Austin, Taker and Hogan have all said they’d have been happy to job to Brock, it was just the timing of the losses they didn’t care for. The only guy to actually back this up is Taker, who’s a fairly dismal 1-4 against Brock on PPV, a record that includes a somewhat high-profile loss at WrestleMania. Meanwhile, Austin and Hogan are still running scared over a decade later.
A house show run-in with The Rock soured Brock on WWE
Not every big star was afraid to lose to Brock in 2002. At that year’s SummerSlam, Rocky put Brock over strong, essentially making The Beast’s career. Ironically, less than two years later, The Rock would also be involved in an incident that helped drive Lesnar out of WWE.
It was March 2003, and The Rock was back in WWE and gearing up for a final big match with Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIX. That year’s Road to WrestleMania included a house show in Miami, so WWE decided to have Rock beat Brock in his hometown. Just one problem – nobody told Brock. According to Lesnar, he and The Rock were going over their match beforehand, when Rock let it drop casually that he’d be winning. When Brock looked shocked, Rock acted like he was just as surprised that WWE brass hadn’t told Lesnar.
Brock was facing the champion at WrestleMania at the time and, rightfully or not, he assumed he would always be winning unless otherwise told. He saw not being informed he’d be losing as a sign of disrespect, and believed The Rock may have been in on it. And from here, the paranoid snowball started to roll downhill – Brock no longer trusted the WWE office, and by next year’s WrestleMania, he had talked himself into leaving the company.
Lesnar was supposed to squash Goldberg in 30 seconds at WrestleMania 20
The final match of Brock’s first run with WWE was his infamous battle with Goldberg at WrestleMania 20. Brock and Goldberg, who was also leaving, slogged through a 20-minute match in front of a crowd that had absolutely no love for the departing duo, and in the end, Lesnar ended up eating the pin.
Well, the original plan was very different – Brock was supposed to send Goldberg packing, beating him in only 30 seconds. That all changed when Vince found out Brock was leaving, too. Vince never much liked Goldberg, but Brock leaving was a betrayal, so Lesnar not only lost, but was set up to have a sh*tty match beforehand.
He survived a potentially deadly motorcycle accident
After leaving WWE, Brock announced plans to pursue an NFL career, a slightly insane goal considering he hadn’t played football since high school. But hey, somehow, someway, Brock made it on the practice team for the Minnesota Vikings, and could very well have moved up to the main team, if it weren’t for a terribly-timed and potentially fatal accident.
On April 19, 2004, Brock was cut-off by a minivan while riding his motorcycle near his house. He slammed into, then flew up and over the van, suffering a broken jaw, broken hand, pulled groin and, uh, badly bruised Jimmy John’s. No wonder The Undertaker’s always going to the groin kick. Most regular humans probably would have been hurt even worse, but Lesnar not only survived the crash, he was back on the football field within mere weeks.
Brock tried to return to WWE in 2004, but was turned away
Brock’s never the first one to blink.
After failing to make the NFL, Brock Lesnar found himself at a crossroads and was apparently willing to suck it up and bury the hatchet with WWE. Brock put out feelers, but he was quickly informed Vince didn’t want him back. Eventually Vince did agree to a “private” meeting with Brock, but when Lesnar showed up, he found Vince’s office filled with cameras. Vince then lowered the boom – if Brock wanted to come back, he’d have to start at the bottom of the card and the pay scale. Vince actually wanted Brock to sign a rookie deal for less money than he got when he first joined the company three years ago. Brock walked out and didn’t return for another eight years.
Lesnar almost quit WWE again after his first match back in 2012
In 2012, Brock Lesnar made his triumphant return to WWE, and despite being nearly a decade older, he hadn’t mellowed one bit. Brock’s first opponent after returning was John Cena, and their match nearly made him quit all over again. Word is Brock was okay with losing the match, but the plan was for Cena to be carted out on a stretcher afterward. Instead, Cena popped up, sold like he’d just been in there with Dolph Ziggler rather than Brock Lesnar, and cut a strange promo that made it sound like he was retiring. The only reason Brock didn’t quit was because WWE managed to convince him Cena went off-script (whether he did remains a subject of debate). Of course, the next time Brock faced Cena, it would be the most one-sided championship beatdown in history. Maybe you should have kept your mouth shut, John Boy.
(Information for this article came via Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination and Survival, Brock Lesnar: Here Comes the Pain, Slam! Wrestling, Fox Sports, The Smoking Gun, What Culture, Talk is Jericho & Wrestling Inc.)
