7 Greatest Champions of WWE’s Modern Era
By Ian Carey
WWE.com
7. Brock Lesnar
No. of Reigns: 4
Total Days as Champion: 579
Lesnar burst onto the WWE scene in a big way in 2002, becoming a member of the Smackdown brand during the 1st brand-split. He was managed by Paul Heyman who coined him “the Next Big Thing”, which was exactly how he was pushed.
At the 2002 King of the Ring, Lesnar won the tournament, with his reward being a chance to challenge the champion at SummerSlam. Lesnar had only been on the main roster for 5 months when he defeated the Rock for the Undisputed Championship.
He would trade the title a couple of times with the Big Show and Kurt Angle, before dropping the belt to Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out in early 2004. That would be Lesnar’s final championship run in his first WWE stint.
Lesnar would win the belt again at SummerSlam 2014, after defeating John Cena in a near squash match. He would hold the belt all the way to WrestleMania 31, when Seth Rollins cashed in his MITB briefcase, pinned Roman, and took the title.
All of Lesnar’s World Championships have been the WWE World Title (i.e the one with lineage back to Bruno Sammartino).