3. WWE Undisputed Championship (2002): The Rock (c) vs. Brock Lesnar
This match also could be known as How to Make a Star 101. In 2002, Brock Lesnar was still known as the Next Big Thing rather than the Beast Incarnate. He was a rookie who was tearing his way through WWE superstars left and right. What happened at SummerSlam 2002 capped that meteoric rise to the top. Whether a heel or a face, The Rock had been the top guy in WWE for several years. Hed beaten all comers through the years, having toppled the Immortal Hulk Hogan a few months earlier at WrestleMania X-8. But Lesnar represented a new challenge for the Brahma Bull. In a changing of the guard moment, Rock put over Lesnar clean as a sheet to kick off the Next Big Things run on top of WWE. Had Lesnar not left after WrestleMania XX, theres no telling how big a star he would have been through the 2000s. But for a solid two years, Lesnar was an unstoppable force, and this title win kicked that run into overdrive.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
