40 Years Of Fascinating WWE WrestleMania Facts (Part 2)

2. WrestleMania XIX: The Insane Trivia Note About Brock Lesnar's Road To WrestleMania

Brock Lesnar 2003 promo
WWE.com

At WrestleMania XIX, Brock Lesnar could have ended his career and then some when the first main roster airing of his fabled shooting star press went horribly wrong. It became the defining moment of his main event against Kurt Angle, obscuring any and all stories about what else 'The Next Big Thing' was up to.

In this case, he was working past and future WrestleMania headliners in back-to-back collector's items.

Brock worked twice between a bait-and-switch SmackDown match with Kurt Angle in March and the April 'Show Of Shows', sharing the ring with The Rock and John Cena over the 48-hour period. 'The Great One' went over Lesnar clean on March 15th in a Miami house show battle, before 'The Beast' rolled over Cena the next night in Tampa.

The results make relative sense in context - Hollywood Rock was set to beat Steve Austin ahead of losing to an incoming Goldberg, Cena's nascent rap gimmick had gotten him a spot on the WrestleMania pre-show - but the former being trapped in the memories of those that attended makes it one of the great hidden gems.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett