2. Brock Lesnar
For the modern era, Brock Lesnar was the perfect beast for Vince McMahon to ink to a contract. A former NCAA amateur wrestling champion who is a 63, 285 pound, chiseled behemoth with incredible athleticism and an aptitude for the business? Gold. Lesnar fit like a glove in professional wrestling and he managed to quickly ascend the ranks as one of its most marketable performers. His program with The Rock that led into the 2002 SummerSlam is often praised for the basic manner in which it was built. Both The Rock and Lesnar were filmed in training montages that emphasized the purely physical and competitive aspect of each wrestler. While the vignettes were not incredibly long, they honed in on other traits that were key to athletic competition. Training for flexibility, endurance, power, and recovery, were all sent to the forefront of the storyline. Lesnars persona put an enormous wrinkle into the traditional presentation of the heel monster. Where the big-man performers before him were large, heavy hitters, Lesnar was agile and vastly technical. His amateur background provided a base for grappling, suplexes, and even an occasional submission hold. The Next Big Thing personified an evolution in the expectation of style for the larger athlete. Along with his 02 SummerSlam match with The Rock, Lesnar would put on masterful clinics with Eddy Guerrero and Kurt Angle. To cap off his abilities, Lesnar even made a transition to MMA and held a successful run as UFC Heavyweight Champion, holding the title for nearly two years from 2008 2010.