2. Winning His First Championship From The Rock (SummerSlam 2002)
Back in 2002, The Rock was just starting to make waves in the movie industry and had begun turning his eyes away from the ring and toward the brighter lights of Hollywood. The fans were catching on to the fact that he was on his way out the door and began to feel resentment toward the man who they felt they had helped make a superstar abandoning them. Meanwhile the young rookie was fresh off his King of the Ring victory and heading into SummerSlam to challenge The Great One. He was riding a wave of momentum stronger and faster than anyone since Hulk Hogan and the clash was shaping up to be epic. 2002's SummerSlam was one of the better WWE cards in history, and this title match, along with the much-anticipated return of Shawn Michaels had the crowd at a fever pitch. The Rock had been the beneficiary of an insane amount of fan support, but mid-match things began to shift. Whether due to animosity over his newfound movie star status or a hunger for a fresh face at the top, the crowd turned on Rock and sided with Lesnar. It was entirely organic and only added to the electric atmosphere. And to top it off, in addition to the greatest training montage since Rocky IV, the match was fantastic, cementing Brock as a major player who was ready for the spotlight that was being shone on him. The fact that someone merely six months into his tenure in WWE was scoring a pinfall over one of the biggest stars of all-time for the heavyweight title says all you need to know about Brock Lesnar's standing in the company at the time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEq6AanWYGI
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
