9 Things WWE Experimented With On House Shows But Never Went With

2. Jesse Ventura As Brock Lesnar's Manager

Brock Lesnar Jesse Ventura
WWE.com

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.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.