During the first four months of his career, Lesnar had walked all over the SmackDown roster and some of the RAW roster as well. His popularity was skyrocketing, and he was soon running out of victims. So, at the 2002 SummerSlam Pay-Per-View, Brock Lesnar faced off against then-WWE Undisputed Champion the Rock for the title, and won. The match itself was a major point in Lesnars career in more ways than one. Apart from winning the Undisputed Championship, fans also saw that Lesnar had enough stamina to endure longer matches. In other words, he wasnt only limited to simple 3-minute squash matches. Furthermore, this match also changed how fans viewed Lesnar. At one point, the crowd even starts chanting Lets go Lesnar, despite him being the obvious heel alongside Paul Heyman. Fans were simply more interested in seeing him destroy people, as his destructive momentum wasnt getting boring, but more exciting over time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3ZH2VNUnVM This reign made him the youngest WWF/E Champion in the companys history at 25, a record that would later be broken by Randy Orton (albeit for a different Championship belt). It was a big deal for such a young and relatively inexperienced Superstar to defeat the companys top guy at the time. The fact that he also defeated a major Superstar in the Rock added to the magnitude of that victory.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
