9 Things WWE Experimented With On House Shows But Never Went With
2. Jesse Ventura As Brock Lesnar's Manager
Both synonymous with Minnesota, the pairing of Jesse Ventura and Brock Lesnar is one that wrestling fans never got to see on TV. But that’s not to say that the two weren’t put together ever so briefly.
As a non-televised experiment, WWE decided to have Ventura serve as Brock’s second. Before the days of Paul Heyman as The Beast’s advocate, Jesse accompanied the future multiple-time World Champion to the ring during a Minneapolis show.
The match in question was a dark match only seen by the in-attendance audience, and doing some digging seems to suggest that this may have been from the 4 June 2001 taping of WWF Jakked that took place from Minneapolis’ Target Center.
Whether there was ever any long-term plan to pair Lesnar with Ventura, it seems unlikely. Still, WWE at least tested the waters with this duo, even if it was purely for a dark match and to look to give the former NCAA machine a rub from The Body.
Skip ahead to March 2002, and Brock would surface on Monday Night Raw as The Next Big Thing.