10 Most Intense Performers In Wrestling History

7. Brock Lesnar

Kurt Angle Shawn Michaels Taboo Tuesday 2005
WWE.com

If Goldberg was able to work everybody with his intense demeanour, Brock Lesnar needed no such manipulation. He exuded menace naturally, his much-heralded legitimacy as a combat athlete adding to his act.

Unlike, say, Dan Severn, whose innate credibility was burrowed too far beneath the surface to resonate in the hyper-exaggerated world of professional wrestling, Lesnar used his scary intensity to carve out a larger-than-life persona. Lesnar is such an irrepressible force of nature that the simple act of him driving his thigh into an opponent's gut is as absorbing as any plancha or suicide dive.

Lesnar is one of the few performers in an increasingly content-driven wrestling landscape who can get away with adopting a less is more approach. Nobody else in wrestling - and this perhaps stretches beyond the modern era - is intense or believable enough to use the same move over and over again. Likewise, Lesnar is also the only man capable of squawking and retaining his deadly aura.

That move - the ubiquitous German suplex - has regrettably enabled him to indulge his laziness, but even when he isn't trying - as he barely did opposite Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania last year - the man retains a semblance of his potency.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!