Whilst he may not begin 2023 with championship gold around his waist, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ Brock Lesnar has secured yet another title to add to his impressive collection after his return to Smackdown to attack The Bloodline has been named as the most-watched WWE YouTube video of 2022.
The confrontation on the June 17th edition of Smackdown began the latest instalment of a legendary feud with Roman Reigns. This ultimately culminated in an unsuccessful attempt to prise the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship away from ‘The Head Of The Table’ at Summerslam on July 30th.
Record Crowns Impressive Year For Brock Lesnar
Lesnar’s 2022 started on a high when he was crowned WWE Champion for a sixth time at Day 1 on January 1st. On that occasion he bested Big E, Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins, Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley in a fatal five-way match.
He dropped the title to Lashley at the Royal Rumble, but returned later that night as a surprise #30 entrant in the Rumble match, last eliminating Drew McIntyre to seal his second Royal Rumble win. Victory inside the Elimination Chamber in February saw Lesnar carry the WWE Championship into a Winner Take All main event at Wrestlemania with WWE Universal Champion Reigns, with the leader of The Bloodline taking victory and unifying the titles at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas on April 3rd.
Such is Lesnar’s popularity, he actually appears in three of the top four most viewed videos of the year according to Twitter page @wrestlenomics. Showdowns with Reigns on the January 7th and February 25th editions of Smackdown also feature at the top of the charts, with each video viewed over 3.5 million times on YouTube.
In a year that saw The Undertaker join the Hall Of Fame and Vince McMahon sensationally retire from the WWE, it is testament to the Lesnar/Reigns rivalry that it still captures the imagination of wrestling fans across the globe.