8 Wrestlers Who Got KNOCKED OUT (... & Still Finished Matches)
6. Brock Lesnar
The idea for Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship in the main event of his first WrestleMania with a shooting star press came from John Laurinaitis.
This may sound like another abysmal shout from one of wrestling's all-time omni-wankers, but Laurinaitis (a man once credited with knowing his way around a finish or two while working as an agent/producer in World Championship Wrestling) suggested swinging for the fences inside Safeco Field, because - like many others at the time - he'd seen the grainy footage of Lesnar hitting it with ease during his Ohio Valley Wrestling days and wanted to manifest it going off without a hitch on the 'Grandest Stage'.
From the moment Lesnar's feet left the ropes, it was clear he wasn't going to hit opponent Kurt Angle, and even when the pair improvised a finish in which he half hit/half missed him, the result of a worked match suddenly wasn't the story.
A frightening scene, Lensar absorbing the full weight of his own body on his shoulders created a scenario in which he'd effectively piledriven himself from the top rope. It was left to Angle to orchestrate a scenario in which he talked Brock through hitting him with a match-winning F5, but as the referee raised 'The Next Big Thing's arm in victory, it was anything but a "WrestleMania Moment". WWE's excellent "Mania Of WrestleMania" documentary on the events either side of 2003's 'Show Of Shows' revealed an out-of-it Lesnar losing it completely backstage, unable to physically and mentally cope with the attention around him as he descended further into a concussive state.
He didn't work the first SmackDown following his big title win, but the 2003 road was a punishing one - he was back working matches just eight days later, and knocked another 160+ matches despite the wear and tear before walking away from the company after WrestleMania XX.