12. Brock Lesnar vs. The Rock - WWE Undisputed Championship (2002)
2002 brought a major change to the WWE. With two weekly multi-hour television programs and two and a half companies worth of talent, the WWE made a bold move in splitting up the rosters with one traveling group plying their trade on Monday Night Raw and the other doing their thing on Thursday Night Smackdown! It was expected to create new stars a little easier since there would not be as much of a log jam at the top. At the same time, WWE was also going through the emotions of a quite understandable loss of brand identity after Attitude ended. Brock Lesnar was the first new star that they created after the split and he was expected to help usher in a new era. Battling in the final match contested for the Undisputed Championship at Summerslam, the relative rookie with all the untapped potential in the world had to go out and try to follow arguably the greatest match in Summer Classic history. The Rock was known for being able to elevate his game, but Lesnar was an unknown. It was a high pressure situation. Rock could handle it, but what of Lesnar, the Next Big Thing? And then the match started...and 16 excellent minutes later, a highly entertaining story had been told. While not at the level of the Non-Sanctioned Street Fight that went on right before it, The Rock and Brock Lesnar's match far exceeded expectations and delivered a relative classic match of their own.
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
