10 Wrestlers Whose Rookie Years Exceeded Expectations

Granted, there was probably some degree of hopefulness surrounding Brock Lesnar’s WWE debut, given that he was—at the time—the highest paid developmental signee in WWE history, not to mention a former NCAA Division One Heavyweight Champion. But even so, he still smashed any expectations out of the park with an absolutely incredibly rookie year with the company.

We caught our first glimpse of Lesnar on the 18th March, 2002 showing of Raw. Emerging from the crowd, he single-handedly took out half of the hardcore division, before entering a program with the Hardy Boyz which saw him defeat Jeff by an extremely rare TKO decision at Backlash 2002.

From there, he battered his way through the 2002 King of the Ring tournament, laying waste to Bubba Ray Dudley, Booker T, Test, and Rob Van Dam, which put him in line for a title shot against one of the greatest of all time: the Rock.

As you’re likely well aware, Lesnar’s bid for the belt was successful, and at SummerSlam 2002 he became the youngest champion in company history just 160 days after first appearing on WWE programming.

From there on in, he was a mainstay at the top of the card. Rarely, if ever, have we seen a guy so young, so raw, and so inexperienced come into the mix, win over the crowd with his imperious dominance, and become a main event megastar quite as quickly as Brock Lesnar did.