Brock Lesnar threatened to go and “do something else with his life” before he arrived on WWE television.
As one of the most highly-prized young combat athletes in North America, Brock Lesnar was in high demand when he signed with WWE in 2000. The amateur wrestling star quickly impressed his trainers and WWE management and arrived on the main roster the night after WrestleMania X8 in March 2002.
However, things almost played out very differently. Lesnar is known to walk to the beat of his own drum, and conducts his business with a self-assuredness many find intimidating. So despite how highly rated he was backstage, Lesnar threatened to quit while working in developmental.
Speaking in a recent interview with Rick Rubin, Paul Heyman recalled working with The Beast during his early years with the company. The Special Counsel recalled Lesnar becoming frustrated with seemingly spinning his wheels in developmental and threatening to quit wrestling altogether and go and find a new career.
“He’s not getting called up to the main roster, and I couldn’t understand what the delay was. And I’d seen him a couple of times, you know, they had Jesse Ventura come out to the ring with him in Minneapolis. Why are we not going with this? My god, he’s 24 years old, let’s go, 23 at the time. So they bring them to a TV to start him on dark matches, because he had enough and he left Louisville and he went back to Minnesota.
He said whenever you’re ready for me, call me. There’s nothing more for me to learn in Louisville, I’m ready to go. You don’t want to use me, my contracts gonna run up, I’m gonna go find something else to do with my life.”
What Next For Brock Lesnar?
Despite nearly quitting before his career began, in 2023 Brock Lesnar stands as one of the most famous stars in WWE history. This run of dominance has seen the star set his sights on taking out Cody Rhodes for reasons unknown.
To date, the pair have wrestled twice and each holds a win over the other. It’s been confirmed that the equality will be broken at SummerSlam when Rhodes and Lesnar tangle one more time.
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