10 Best Brock Lesnar WWE SmackDown Moments

Brock became a babyface at the 2002 Survivor Series when Paul Heyman turned on him, aligned himself with Big Show and cost him the WWE Title. From there, Brock was the suplex-happy, not-quite-smiling but still relatively friendly babyface. It was a role he played well but it was obvious watching him at that time that he would be so much better as a heel.

Which is something WWE obviously realised, too, as they made plans to switch his alignment so that he could feud with heroic all-American good guy Kurt Angle. Lesnar and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon were scheduled to clash inside a steel cage match on the August 7th, 2003 episode of Smackdown with Angle chosen as guest referee.

After a lockup and some pushing and shoving, Lesnar quickly went for an F5 but collapsed, seemingly unconscious. Angle naturally went to check up on him and restrain McMahon but, guess what? That's right, folks, it was a setup all along! Brock immediately got to his feet and rocked Kurt with an F5, before proceeding to smash Angle's face into the steel structure, bloodying him.

In the coming weeks we were informed that this was the 'real' Brock Lesnar, an ass-kicking, take-no-prisoners wrestling machine who did what he wanted, when he wanted and had the backing of the boss to boot. It was a killer angle (no pun intended) and really added some heat the feud between the amateur standouts.