At Survivor Series 2002 Brock Lesnar was handed his first main roster defeat by the Big Show after being betrayed by Paul Heyman. Not only did Lesnar lose the match, he also lost the WWE Championship.
This set Lesnar on a quest to get revenge on Big Show and Heyman, as well as regaining the WWE Championship. However, those plans took on a twist at Armageddon a month later where Kurt Angle defeated Big Show to win the WWE Title. At the Royal Rumble in January 2003, Lesnar overcame the Big Show to earn a spot in the Royal Rumble Match which he later won. This set up the match between Angle and Lesnar at WrestleMania.
Brock Lesnar Was Scheduled To Lose At WrestleMania 19
Speaking on a new episode of his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, the WWE Hall of Famer took a look back at Armageddon 2002. During the conversation, Angle broke down the original plans for his feud with Brock Lesnar, which he revealed was meant to pan out very differently.
Angle said that he was next in line to win the WWE Title but management didn’t want him to beat Lesnar at Survivor Series. This was because Angle was originally scheduled to defeat Lesnar at WrestleMania, but plans changed after he broke his neck.
“No, what I think they were trying to do was, Brock was undefeated at this point in time, kicking ass, taking names. And they wanted him to win the title, and he won the title. And he only held it for a couple of months, I believe. And what they didn’t want to have happen was for me, I was next in line to have a good title reign. And they didn’t want me to beat Brock at Survivor Series because I was going to wrestle Brock at WrestleMania 19.
Five months later, and during that time, I was supposed to beat Brock, but I broke my neck beforehand. So I had to do the job for Brock and lose to him and give him the title because I had to have surgery.
So they didn’t want me to beat Brock two times in a row. So Big Show beat Brock Lesnar, then I beat Big Show. That way, I didn’t beat Brock twice, even though he ended up beating me at WrestleMania because I broke my neck. But long story short, Big Show, he was never a transition champion by any means. But at this point in time, he basically was, you know, getting the title from one person to the other. At this point in time, Brock and I were both baby faces. So Show’s a heel.”
At WrestleMania 19 Brock Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle to win the WWE Championship, but only after his famously botched Shooting Star Press from the rope.
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