Brock Edward Lesnar is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist, amateur wrestler, and professional American football player.
134 Facts About Brock Lesnar
2.
Brock Lesnar is currently signed to WWE where he is designated a "free agent", allowing him to appear on both the Raw and SmackDown brands.
3.
Brock Lesnar competed in collegiate wrestling for the University of Minnesota, winning the NCAA Division I national championship in 2000.
4.
Brock Lesnar soon signed with the World Wrestling Federation, rising to industry prominence in 2002 by winning the WWE Championship at age 25, setting the record for the youngest performer to win the championship.
5.
In 2004, Brock Lesnar departed WWE to join the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League, but was cut from the team during pre-season.
6.
Brock Lesnar returned to pro-wrestling and signed with NJPW in 2005 where he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
7.
Brock Lesnar won the Royal Rumble match twice, the Money in the Bank ladder match, the King of the Ring tournament, and has headlined several pay-per-view events, including WWE's flagship event WrestleMania five times ; in addition, he ended The Undertaker's undefeated WrestleMania streak in 2014.
8.
Brock Lesnar began an MMA career in 2007, and signed with the UFC in 2008.
9.
Brock Lesnar quickly won the UFC Heavyweight Championship, but was sidelined with diverticulitis in 2009.
10.
On his return in 2010, Brock Lesnar defeated Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Shane Carwin to unify the heavyweight championships and become the undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion.
11.
Brock Lesnar returned at UFC 200 in 2016 to defeat Mark Hunt, but his victory was overturned to a no-contest after he tested positive for clomiphene, a banned substance on UFC's anti-doping policy.
12.
Brock Lesnar then retired from MMA for the second time in 2017.
13.
Brock Lesnar co-headlined UFC 200, briefly being the main headliner before that spot was given to Amanda Nunes vs Miesha Tate.
14.
Brock Edward Lesnar was born in Webster, South Dakota, on July 12,1977, the son of Stephanie and Richard Lesnar.
15.
Brock Lesnar is of German descent, and grew up on his parents' dairy farm in Webster.
16.
Brock Lesnar has two older brothers named Troy and Chad, and a younger sister named Brandi.
17.
Brock Lesnar was discharged after failing a computer typing test and later worked for a construction company.
18.
Brock Lesnar attended Webster High School, playing football and competing in wrestling, placing third in the state championships his senior year.
19.
Brock Lesnar then went to Bismarck State College, where he won the National Junior College Athletic Association heavyweight wrestling championship in his sophomore year.
20.
Brock Lesnar attended Bismarck State College for two years before transferring to the University of Minnesota on a wrestling scholarship, where he was roommates with future WWE colleague Shelton Benjamin, who was his assistant coach.
21.
Brock Lesnar won the 2000 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I heavyweight wrestling championship his senior year after being the runner-up to Stephen Neal the year prior.
22.
In 2000, Brock Lesnar signed with the World Wrestling Federation and was sent to its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he first met future friend and manager Paul Heyman.
23.
Brock Lesnar wrestled several dark matches in 2001 and 2002 before being called up to the WWF's main roster.
24.
Brock Lesnar debuted on WWF television on the March 18,2002, episode of Raw as a heel, attacking Al Snow, Maven and Spike Dudley during their WWF Hardcore Championship match, while being accompanied by Paul Heyman, who was seen giving instructions to Brock Lesnar.
25.
The next night on Raw, Brock Lesnar faced off against Jeff's brother, Matt Hardy, and defeated him in the same fashion.
26.
In June 2002, Brock Lesnar won the 2002 King of the Ring tournament, defeating Bubba Ray Dudley in the first round, Booker T in the quarter-finals, Test in the semi-finals and Rob Van Dam in the finals, earning him a shot at the WWE Undisputed Championship at SummerSlam.
27.
Brock Lesnar became the second fastest professional wrestler to win the WWE Championship since his debut behind only Ric Flair.
28.
Brock Lesnar's rapid rise to the top of WWE in 2002 led to a feud with The Undertaker, which involved a match at Unforgiven on September 22.
29.
The match ended in a double disqualification, with Brock Lesnar retained the title.
30.
Brock Lesnar faced The Undertaker again at No Mercy, this time in a Hell in a Cell match.
31.
At Survivor Series, Heyman turned on Brock Lesnar, allowing Big Show to chokeslam him onto a steel chair and pin him to win the WWE Championship, resulting in Brock Lesnar's first pinfall loss in WWE.
32.
Brock Lesnar eliminated Matt Hardy and Team Angle, who at the time, were mentored by Angle as a three-man stable.
33.
Brock Lesnar called out Big Show, who demanded that Brock Lesnar put his title on the line against him.
34.
Brock Lesnar continued to aggressively pursue the WWE Championship despite his friendship with Angle.
35.
Mr McMahon became involved in the angle, at first berating Brock Lesnar, who had involved himself in McMahon's rivalry with Zach Gowen, for losing to Angle.
36.
Brock Lesnar chose Big Show as his first teammate, with Heyman adding a returning Nathan Jones and a debuting Matt Morgan to bring the team number to four.
37.
Brock Lesnar's team picked A-Train to fill the fifth and final spot for them after he attacked John Cena, who refused to accept an invitation to join Brock Lesnar's team.
38.
Survivor Series in November 2003 marked the first time Brock Lesnar met Goldberg from the Raw brand.
39.
Brock Lesnar followed this rivalry with a feud involving Hardcore Holly.
40.
At the Royal Rumble on January 25,2004, Brock Lesnar defeated Holly to retain the WWE Championship.
41.
Later in the Royal Rumble match, Brock Lesnar attacked Goldberg with an F-5, enabling Kurt Angle to eliminate him by throwing him off the top rope.
42.
Brock Lesnar then attempted an F-5 on Guerrero but Guerrero reversed it into a DDT on the title belt and executed a frog splash to win the WWE Championship.
43.
Only a week before WrestleMania, rumors surfaced that Brock Lesnar too was leaving WWE to pursue a career in the National Football League.
44.
On October 8,2005, Brock Lesnar won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on his debut match in a three-way match with Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono at a New Japan Pro-Wrestling show in the Tokyo Dome.
45.
Brock Lesnar is one of the few American wrestlers to have held this title.
46.
Brock Lesnar won the match by pinning Chono after an F-5, which he had renamed the Verdict since WWE owns the trademark on the F-5 name.
47.
Brock Lesnar successfully defended the championship on January 4,2006, against former champion Shinsuke Nakamura.
48.
Brock Lesnar continued to possess the physical IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt until late June 2007.
49.
Approximately one year later on June 29,2007, Brock Lesnar defended his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle in a champion vs champion match, at the debut event of the Inoki Genome Federation.
50.
IGF promoter Antonio Inoki had stated Brock Lesnar was the "proper" IWGP Heavyweight Champion as he was not defeated for the title.
51.
Brock Lesnar returned to WWE on April 2,2012, on Raw, as a heel, by confronting and delivering an F-5 to John Cena.
52.
Brock Lesnar returned on the January 28,2013, episode of Raw, confronting Mr McMahon who was about to fire Heyman, and despite Heyman's pleas, Brock Lesnar attacked McMahon with an F-5, breaking McMahon's pelvis in storyline.
53.
Brock Lesnar then dared any wrestler who disapproved of that notion to challenge him, which was answered by Mark Henry.
54.
The ensuing brawl ended with Brock Lesnar delivering an F-5 to Henry.
55.
On July 4, Brock Lesnar made his first non-televised wrestling appearance for WWE since his 2012 return, defeating Kofi Kingston at The Beast in the East live event in Tokyo in a quick winning effort; he delivered F-5s to Kingston's New Day stablemates Big E and Xavier Woods after the match.
56.
Brock Lesnar later defeated Wyatt and Luke Harper in a two-on-one handicap at the Road Block pay-per-view event.
57.
Brock Lesnar failed two of his drug tests for this fight but was not suspended by WWE because he is not a full-time performer.
58.
Brock Lesnar then attacked Orton during his match the following night on SmackDown Live, performing an F-5 on Orton.
59.
The end made many people believe Brock Lesnar had gone off script due to the severity of Orton's head wound, out of which Vince McMahon confirmed that the ending was planned.
60.
Brock Lesnar was later storyline fined $500 for delivering an F-5 to SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon and his assault on Orton.
61.
Brock Lesnar became the second person to kick-out from Goldberg's Jackhammer and gave him the first clean singles loss of his professional wrestling career.
62.
The next night on Raw, Brock Lesnar was attacked by Strowman.
63.
Rumors arose that Brock Lesnar would leave WWE and rejoin the UFC.
64.
Angle threatened to fire Heyman if he could not persuade Brock Lesnar to come to the ring.
65.
At Crown Jewel, Brock Lesnar defeated Strowman in three minutes to become the first two-time Universal Champion, thanks to a pre-match attack from Baron Corbin.
66.
The next night on Raw, Brock Lesnar attacked 2019 Royal Rumble match winner Seth Rollins with six F-5s, setting up a title match for WrestleMania 35.
67.
At Money in the Bank on May 19,2019, Brock Lesnar surprisingly replaced Sami Zayn in the Money in the Bank ladder match.
68.
At the climax of the match, Brock Lesnar ran in, took out Ali, who was on top of a ladder, and won the Money in the Bank contract, granting him either a Universal Championship or WWE Championship match at any time of his choosing within the next year.
69.
At the Crown Jewel event, Brock Lesnar defeated Velasquez in under five minutes via submission with the Kimura Lock.
70.
Brock Lesnar returned on the January 6,2020, episode of Raw to declare that no one deserved an opportunity at the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, so instead he would enter the Royal Rumble match as entrant number one.
71.
Brock Lesnar confirmed in March 2022 that he initially retired from professional wrestling after WrestleMania 36, until deciding to return in 2021.
72.
The match was canceled after Reigns contracted COVID-19, and Brock Lesnar was instead added to Raw's WWE Championship match at the event to make it a fatal five-way match.
73.
At Day 1 on January 1,2022, Brock Lesnar won his sixth WWE Championship, defeating Bobby Lashley, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, and defending champion Big E, who he pinned.
74.
Brock Lesnar set the record for the least amount of time spent in the Rumble before winning it, being in the match for 2 minutes and 30 seconds and beating Edge's 2010 record by 5 minutes and 7 seconds.
75.
Brock Lesnar won the match to win the title for a seventh time by single-handedly eliminating all other opponents, except Lashley, who was removed early in the match due to a concussion protocol.
76.
Brock Lesnar answered, with the latter stipulation not applying to him as he was already banned from challenging Reigns for the title, following their match at the 2022 SummerSlam.
77.
However, the match never occurred due to Brock Lesnar viciously assaulting Rhodes before the match could begin, thus turning heel for the first time since WrestleMania 36 in 2020.
78.
Brock Lesnar is often called by his nickname "The Beast Incarnate" or simply "The Beast".
79.
Brock Lesnar's go-to finishing maneuver for his entire career has been a fireman's carry facebuster known as the F-5.
80.
Brock Lesnar is known for performing several suplexes on his rivals, with these often being described as the opponent being taken to "Suplex City", named after an ad-lib Brock Lesnar delivered to Roman Reigns during their WrestleMania 31 match.
81.
Brock Lesnar has been managed by Paul Heyman for the majority of his WWE career with Heyman being Brock Lesnar's mouthpiece for storylines and feuds.
82.
Brock Lesnar was largely criticized due to his absences from television during his time as Universal Champion.
83.
Former WWE Champion Bob Backlund criticized the fact that Brock Lesnar used mostly suplexes during his matches, saying "it gets old to do the same thing over and over and over again".
84.
Brock Lesnar has made a personal decision to put his WWE career on hold to prepare to tryout for the National Football League this season.
85.
Brock Lesnar has wrestled his entire professional career in the WWE and we are proud of his accomplishments and wish him the best in his new endeavor.
86.
Brock Lesnar later told a Minnesota radio show that he had "three wonderful years" in WWE, but had grown unhappy and always wanted to play professional football, adding that he did not want to be 40 years old and wondering if he could have "made it" in football.
87.
Brock Lesnar received an invitation to play as a representative for the Vikings in NFL Europa, but declined due to his desire to stay in the United States with his family.
88.
Brock Lesnar had several football cards produced of him during his time with the Vikings.
89.
Brock Lesnar trained with Minnesota Martial Arts Academy under Greg Nelson and Minnesota Assistant Head wrestling coach Marty Morgan.
90.
Brock Lesnar submitted Kim with strikes in 1:09 of the first round to win his first official MMA match.
91.
On February 2,2008, Brock Lesnar made his debut with the promotion in an event titled UFC 81: Breaking Point against former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir.
92.
Brock Lesnar secured an early takedown and began landing numerous punches, but was docked a point after a punch hit Mir on the back of the head.
93.
Brock Lesnar scored another takedown and continued landing ground and pound, before Mir secured a kneebar and forced a submission at 1:30 of the first round.
94.
Brock Lesnar denied Couture's takedown attempts and outstruck him on the feet, eventually knocking him down and landing ground and pound until he was awarded the technical knockout and UFC Heavyweight Championship.
95.
Brock Lesnar instead fought Mir at UFC 100 on July 11,2009.
96.
Brock Lesnar made a disparaging comment about the pay-per-view's primary sponsor Bud Light, claiming they "won't pay me nothin" and promoted Coors Light instead.
97.
Brock Lesnar later apologized for his remarks at the post-fight press conference, where he held a bottle of Bud Light and endorsed their product.
98.
UFC President Dana White said Brock Lesnar had been ill for three weeks, claiming he had never been this sick in his life and that it would take him a while to recover, therefore his fight with Carwin was rescheduled for UFC 108 on January 2,2010.
99.
Brock Lesnar initially sought treatment in Canada, but later told reporters that he had received "Third World treatment" at a hospital in Brandon, Manitoba and that seeking better treatment in the United States saved his life.
100.
Brock Lesnar went on to criticize Canadian health care further and stated that he shared his experience to speak "on the behalf of the doctors in the United States that don't want health care reform to happen".
101.
In January 2010, Brock Lesnar revealed on ESPN's SportsCenter that he was scheduled to make a return to the UFC in the summer.
102.
Brock Lesnar was replaced by Shane Carwin, who ended up losing against dos Santos.
103.
Brock Lesnar topped the list for MMA at $5.3 million, which included his reported bout salaries and estimated pay-per-view bonuses.
104.
Brock Lesnar attempted to takedown Overeem but was unable and ate heavy body shots to his surgically repaired stomach, eventually being finished with a liver kick and punches.
105.
Brock Lesnar then retired from MMA, mentioning his struggles with diverticulitis and saying "tonight was the last time you'll see me in the octagon".
106.
Speculation about a return to MMA lasted until March 24,2015, when Brock Lesnar revealed in an interview on SportsCenter that he had re-signed with WWE and officially closed the door on a return to MMA, even though he was offered a deal "ten times more" than what he had made previously in his MMA career.
107.
Brock Lesnar further elaborated that, while he was training for months for a return to the UFC, he felt "physically great but something was lacking mentally".
108.
Brock Lesnar added that "[he's] an older caveman now, so [he] makes smarter caveman decisions" and that he chose to sign with WWE instead of returning to MMA because he could "work part-time with full-time pay".
109.
Brock Lesnar dominated the first and third rounds, battering Hunt with ground and pound in the third to secure the unanimous decision win.
110.
Brock Lesnar was paid a UFC record $2.5 million purse.
111.
On July 15,2016, Brock Lesnar was notified of a potential anti-doping policy violation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency stemming from an undisclosed banned substance in an out-of-competition sample collected on June 28.
112.
Brock Lesnar would be eligible to return in July 2017.
113.
On February 14,2017, it was reported that Brock Lesnar had notified UFC he was retiring from MMA for the second time.
114.
On July 7,2018, Brock Lesnar stormed the cage after the main event fight at UFC 226 and challenged the new UFC Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Cormier.
115.
That same month, Bellator president Scott Coker expressed interest in booking Brock Lesnar to fight Fedor Emelianenko.
116.
Brock Lesnar did not respond to either man's comments, and confirmed in March 2022 that he would stay retired.
117.
In 2003, WWE Home Video released a DVD chronicling Lesnar's career entitled Brock Lesnar: Here Comes the Pain.
118.
In 2009, Brock Lesnar signed an endorsement deal with Dymatize Nutrition.
119.
Brock Lesnar co-wrote an autobiography with Paul Heyman, titled Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival, which was published by William Morrow and Company in 2011.
120.
In January 2001, Brock Lesnar was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky for suspicion of possessing large amounts of illegal substances.
121.
Brock Lesnar's lawyer described it as a "vitamin type of thing".
122.
Brock Lesnar had previously signed a non-compete clause in order to be released from his contract with WWE, which prohibited him from working for any other professional wrestling companies before June 2010.
123.
WWE responded with a counterclaim after Brock Lesnar breached the agreement by appearing at a New Japan Pro-Wrestling show in 2004.
124.
On January 14,2006, Judge Christopher Droney stated that unless WWE gave him a good argument between then and the 25th, he would rule in favor of Brock Lesnar, giving him a summary judgment.
125.
On December 15,2011, Brock Lesnar was charged with hunting infractions on a trip to Alberta on November 19,2010.
126.
Two charges were dropped, but Brock Lesnar pleaded guilty to the charge of improper tagging of an animal.
127.
Brock Lesnar was fined $1,725 and given a six-month hunting suspension.
128.
Brock Lesnar married fellow WWE performer Rena Greek, better known as Sable, on May 6,2006.
129.
Brock Lesnar is the stepfather of Greek's daughter with her first husband.
130.
Brock Lesnar is an intensely private individual who has expressed his disdain for the media; he rarely participates in interviews and avoids questions pertaining to his private life.
131.
Brock Lesnar is a supporter of the Republican Party and a member of the National Rifle Association, making an appearance at the NRA's annual meeting in May 2011 to discuss his passion for hunting and his role as a spokesman for the Fusion Ammunition company.
132.
Brock Lesnar is a fan of the Winnipeg Jets ice hockey team and the Saskatchewan Roughriders Canadian football team.
133.
Brock Lesnar developed addictions to alcohol and painkillers during his first run in WWE, later claiming that he would drink a bottle of vodka per day and take hundreds of Vicodin pills per month to manage the pain caused by wear and tear on his body.
134.
Brock Lesnar cited the incident in which he botched a shooting star press at WrestleMania XIX and landed on the top of his head as a primary source of pain.