10 Times WWE Went Too Far With Brock Lesnar
For when The Beast was unleashed a little too far...
Brock Lesnar beginning 2020 as WWE Champion marks the fifth (and third consecutive) time he's kicked off a year as the company's top titleholder, which is rather fantastic going for a man that's spent less than two as an actual full-time member of the roster since his explosive 2002 debut.
Logic dictates that he's a popular choice for stewarding things in January because he's a brilliant heel to topple at WrestleMania, but he has a pretty decent record there too considering his position as the company's top monster. These are just further examples of the Brock Lesnar paradox - he's always the man that bucks the trends and disproves the rules despite caring about neither as long as he's getting paid.
He's long stopped being much of a ratings or ticket-selling draw according to all the usual metrics, but carries himself in such a way that Vince McMahon treats him like one. More power to him and Paul Heyman for cultivating that, but things haven't half gone off the rails a bit ever since.
Not that he didn't always have that side in him...
10. Randy Orton's Open Head Surgery
It was all just a bit artless.
From inception through to near-literal execution, the Brock Lesnar/Randy Orton SummerSlam 2016 programme was an unwelcome callback to that early-decade fascination with star-laden WrestleMania matches made more for the poster than the payoff.
Lesnar had f*ck all happening, as did Orton, and they were both big names. That was the sum total justification for what proved to be a predictably drab affair, even if 'The Apex Predator' had yet again managed to get a few pops from RKOs - or at very least the tease of some on the night.
It was all for nought in the end - the match dragged on until Lesnar opened Orton's head up with some vicious elbows and triggered a stoppage. As referees surrounded the fallen (and as it turned out, concussed - so this bullsh*t was dangerous as well as needless) the real attraction arrived.
Shane McMahon was cast as Orton's chief saviour and took an assault from Brock too. This went absolutely nowhere, much like 'The Viper's promo when he returned, uninterested in taking any sort of proper revenge on 'The Beast'.