If there's one way to guarantee heel heat, it's beating up a one-legged cancer survivor. Zach Gowen was a trained professional wrestler and Brock taking him to Suplex City and back in a regular one-sided match would have gotten Brock over as a dastardly monster heel just fine. Regrettably, WWE sometimes forget when to stop and go a little further than they perhaps should. The Next Big Thing's destruction job of Gowen on the August 21st 2003 Smackdown was one such occasion. Not only did Brock brutalise him in a match, but he then destroyed him vicious chair shots, headbutts and two F5s into the ring post right in front of Gowen's mother. Gowen was left bloodied and with a storyline broken leg. We were told this was the 'real' Brock Lesnar. Then, two weeks later, we saw a little more of the 'real' Brock Lesnar as he once again terrorised Gowen, only this time it wasn't in a match but next an arena stairwell. Watching Brock taunt Gowen with cries of 'how's your leg, Zach?', pound on the injured limb and tip him out of his wheelchair only to put him back in and throw him (actually a stuntman) down a flight of stairs, was deeply unsettling. It got Brock over as a monster bully heel, sure, but for some people it was a little too much.
