Today, Brock Lesnar turns 42-years old. In honor of his birthday, now seems like a good time to look at his career in WWE and pick his best career matches so far.
It’s hard to believe that Brock Lesnar is only 42-years old and still sits high atop the WWE mountain. It’s even hard to believe that he has accomplished so much in his life and yet, he is only 42-years old. Granted, the number 42 is not the sign of a spring chicken, but it is relatively young considering everything that he’s accomplished in his career. A lot of 42-year olds have never and probably never will accomplish half of what Lesnar has as an athlete.
Let’s take a moment to look at his resume for a second: two time NCAA All American Division I Champion, six time World Champion in the WWE, former King of the Ring, Royal Rumble winner, former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and current Money in the Bank holder. And that’s just as far as wrestling is concerned! Don’t get us started on his accolades in the MMA world, particularly in UFC.
Love him or hate him, Lesnar is a special specimen of an athlete that only comes around once in a lifetime. He can be as polarizing as they come, but one fact that is undisputed is that The Beast is a tremendous worker in the wrestling ring. He has proven that time and time again during his on-and-off time in the business across a nearly 20 year history in sports.
Especially in WWE, where Lesnar’s best wrestling matches have taken place in. Here are just six of the best matches of Brock Lesnar’s WWE career.
6. vs. CM Punk – SummerSlam 2013
A lot of Brock Lesnar’s best matches took place on the SummerSlam stage and one of his better matches took place against one CM Punk. The untimely end to CM Punk’s career as a result of a very public walkout is bittersweet to think about in retrospect, but thankfully, on his way out the door, he was able to craft one last masterpiece before putting WWE in his rear view mirror some months later.
The story itself was a simple one: Paul Heyman betrays his former client, Punk, and then sicks his current client, Lesnar, on the self-proclaimed Best in the World. Voila! A No DQ match is made and it boasts a snazzy “Best vs Beast” slogan to boot. The match itself as a whole was expertly crafted as a pseudo-hybrid between MMA and wrestling.
When Lesnar wasn’t flailing weapons at the Chicagoan, he was pounding on him like they were in the middle of an octagon. Meanwhile, much of Punk’s offense is centered around the kind of kicks and knees you’ll see in a UFC match. Can’t sing as much high praise for CM Punk’s actual UFC offense, but the less said about that the better.
This match, however, holds up as an instant classic.
5. vs. The Rock – SummerSlam 2002
This is the match that officially started Brock Lesnar’s main event run as The Next Big Thing in professional wrestling. Up to this point, in less than six months of getting called up to the main roster from OVW, Lesnar had been decimating legends left and right. From destroying The Hardy Boyz in his first major feud, to defeating Rob Van Dam to become the King of the Ring, to leaving Hulk Hogan a bloody mess on a random SmackDown.
All that was missing was for the future UFC fighter to legitimize himself by getting some gold around his waist. He could not have asked for a better means to do so than by defeating The Rock for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
The main event in the second biggest PPV of the year was Brock Solid’s first big test as a main eventer Superstar. Needless to say, he passed with flying colors, especially the circumstances of the crowd. Because they knew The Rock was leaving for Hollywood after the night was over, and because audiences naturally warmed up to Brock after watching him whup everyone’s candy ass from pillar to post, the heel-face roles had to be reversed.
The Rock heeled it up a bit as he reacted to the “Rocky sucks!” chants, while Brock did exactly what brought him to the big dance – kick ass – in the midst of “Let’s go Lesnar!” chants. Not only did it amount to an electric match, but it was a successful first step in making Lesnar a mainstay of WWE’s main event scene.
4. vs. Roman Reigns – WrestleMania 31
It would be an understatement to say that the build for Roman Reigns heading into WrestleMania 31 was disastrous. From his Royal Rumble win to pretty much every tv and PPV taping leading to Mania, fans booed Reigns out of the building despite the fact he was being primed as WWE’s new top babyface. The general belief at the time being that Reigns was being shoved down fans’s throats as a modern John Cena, he was rejected in favor of Daniel Bryan, or he simply was unproven as a main eventer.
Taking that last part into consideration, WWE decided to let Reigns earn his stripes with a quality ass whooping on behalf of The One in 21-1. With the WWE Championship on the line, Reigns was taken to Suplex City by Brock Lesnar and despite getting bloodied and beaten from pillar to post, Reigns had a smile on his face the whole time. It’s an “earn you stripes” moment that I liken to Tommy Dreamer’s ECW cane lashings back when he was still a pretty boy babyface in his own right.
Seeing Reigns take a beating like that was the first step for some fans to warm up to and respect Reigns as a competitor. Watching him gradually build to a comeback and make The Beast bleed his own blood was thrilling to watch. Even more thrilling was watching Seth Rollins shockingly cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the title for himself.
Two new stars in Rollins and Reigns were made that night, but prior to the exciting conclusion was a true gem of a match. It’s just a shame that the crowd in attendance didn’t appreciate it for what it was at the time.
3. vs. Kurt Angle – Iron Man Match – SmackDown, Sept. 18 2003
Every wrestler has their ideal “dance partner” – so to speak – who they can always have a pitch perfect, instant classic of a match with and are destined to basically fight forever because of it. The Rock had Stone Cold, Kevin Owens has Sami Zayn and Brock Lesnar had Kurt Angle.
You’d be hard pressed to find a bad match featuring these two. Even their WrestleMania XIX headliner was exquisite, despite the fact the match was overshadowed by Brock’s plummet onto his head from an ill-advised Shooting Star Press attempt. They managed to have an even better match some months down the line at SummerSlam. This time, with heel-face allegiances switched and this time, the Olympic Hero was the one to pick up a win.
With their score tied 1-1 in PPV singles victories, it was time to up the ante with a special match stipulation for the tie-breaker: the Iron Man Match. A match like this is hard to book because it’s hard to get the crowd invested when they know the stakes aren’t crucial until the match’s final minutes, but from the very start – thanks to some hellacious chair shots from Lesnar – this felt like an action thrill ride from beginning to end. Arguably the best Iron Man Match ever.
2. vs Eddie Guerrero – No Way Out 2003
The closing moments of this match alone allows this match to live on in infamy. Eddie Guerrero winning the WWE Championship and the thrilling sequence of events that got us there – Goldberg spearing Brock, Lesnar still kicking out and Eddie Guerrero DDTing him on the WWE Championship belt before using a Frog Splash to win the title for himself – remains one of WWE’s best feel good moments guaranteed to put a smile on any cynic’s face.
With that said, we cannot talk about that moment or even that match without talking about Brock Lesnar’s performance. A big reason why Eddie Guerrero’s title win went over so well – apart from the fact that the crowd were so well behind him, of course – is because of Brock’s performance on this night.
In playing the big bully monster heel archetype that Lesnar has trademarked so well, he highlighted just how outmatched his opponent was as far as size and strength were concerned. This did a lot to highlight Latino Heat as an underdog in a fight with a grizzly bear, which only made his title victory all the more satisfying to see when he won against all odds. Both men shared magical chemistry that paid off with one stunner of a moment.
1. vs. Daniel Bryan
I will argue until the end of time that this was the best booked/produced match of Brock Lesnar’s career. Probably. I mean, I do like to change my mind a lot and, quite frankly, something better could come around as soon as tomorrow, but for now at least, I think that this is the best wrestling match of The Beast’s entire career.
Why is that, you may be wondering? Well, for starters, the drama is thicker in the air than most Lesnar matches. It helps to know about Daniel Bryan’s unfortunate history of injuries beforehand, but there is an uncomfortableness in the air for about a five minute period as Brock is just straight wailing on him and flopping the poor guy around.
Despite the fact that Bryan had just turned heel days before, the whole crowd were on his side, whether they were in distraught awe in watching him pummeled or cheering on the edge of their seats as the then-WWE Champion mounted a comeback.
This match could not have been booked more perfectly and even on repeat viewing, the feverishly intense emotions that dominated the match resurface as if you’re watching it for the first time all over again. Both men give fantastic performances and should be proud to call this some of either man’s best work.