How Good Was Brock Lesnar Actually?

4. Moments

Brock has some all-time great moments in his cannon, but one stands out above all else: WrestleMania XXX started with Steve Austin, Hogan and The Rock, followed by Daniel Bryan beating Triple H to reach the main event of the evening. The crowd was white hot from this opening combo and didn't remotely cool until they were stunned into a silence that usually only accompanies an accident - Lesnar pinning The Undertaker at 'Mania and snapping his streak, laughing with his tongue out afterwards as the stunned guy in his 'Just Say Yes' shirt looked on with an expression of sheer disbelief in the front row became the stuff of legend.

Lesnar's victory became mainstream global sports and entertainment news for days afterwards. It is in the top 5 biggest moments in WrestleMania history, and it belongs to Brock.

He became the youngest WWE Champion in history by pinning Rock at SummerSlam 2002. Revisit that match and listen to how red hot the crowd is. They explode as Lesnar stops a People’s Elbow attempt with a decapitation-worthy clothesline, and roar as Brock hoists the 'People’s Champ' up onto his shoulders for the winning F5. The night 'The Next Big Thing' became the face of the company was magical.

It was also at SummerSlam in 2014 that he manhandled John Cena in another of WWE’s most shocking nights. The stunned reaction inside LA's Staples Center and amongst a watching global audience was palpable, as Lesnar landed 16 German suplexes to take Cena apart in a one-sided battering. Cena deserves applause for going with a plan that the likes of Hogan and Hunter would never have succumbed to, but it’s just another reason Lesnar is a one-of-one. It was believable because even ‘Super Cena’ couldn’t stop a former UFC champion from having his way with him in whatever fashion he pleased.

WWE had never seen a ring explode and be reduced to rubble until Lesnar and Big Show literally tore the thing apart on SmackDown in 2003, and he even took a ring apart with a forklift truck during his SummerSlam 2022 match with Roman Reigns. His 'No Disqualification' war with CM Punk at SummerSlam 2013 was perfection. Kicking John Cena’s cap after F5'ing him on his WWE return was amazingly “school bully”, and he was even able to get a good WrestleMania match out of an aged and empty Bill Goldberg.

There is also a catalogue of meme-worthy moments in his repertoire, such as his sitting-up stand off with The Undertaker, dancing while using the Money In The Bank briefcase as a boombox while Heyman played air guitar behind him, and also falling on his butt on a 2026 episode of Raw.

It’d be remiss not to mention the flubbed Shooting Star Press at the end of his 'Mania XIX match with Angle, but the bout itself between the duo was still a breathtaking spectacle. There’s also being booed out of the building after one of the worst matches in WrestleMania history vs. Goldberg at WrestleMania XX, with the crowd raining jeers down on both men mercilessly as they were leaving WWE that evening.

Nevertheless, Lesnar has a highlight reel that is the envy of any big man to ever enter WWE, or wrestling as a whole.

9/10