Welp, here comes my required use of the word welp at the start of every Brock Lesnar story. Thanks, Taz!
The artist formerly known as "The Next Big Thing" is back in the professional wrestling world and he made a big splash in his return to WWE, delivering an F-5 to John Cena to close out this past Monday night's (April 2, 2012) episode of Raw.
We don't know if that means he's headed for a feud with Cena or if he was simply out to make the biggest impact possible. WWE.com published a kayfabe article exploring possible opponents for Lesnar, so it's entirely possible a feud with Cena isn't on the table.
No matter who he locks up with for his first match back, it's important to remember just what kind of beast Brock was during his first run with the company. WWE agrees and they've uploaded a blitz of videos to YouTube to showcase some of his finer moments.
Let's dive right in.
A short documentary style look at Lesnar, putting him over as an athletic monster who tore through WWE by defeating a who's who in the industry.
Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff are in the midst of the one of the worst matches in the history of Raw when Lesnar shows up to give Stone Cold Steve Austin, the special guest referee for the match, an F-5.
Lesnar uses a forklift to defeat Big Show in a stretcher match at Judgement Day 2003. Show is so big that Lesnar's F-5 is actually John Cena's F-U.
Lesnar wins the WWE championship at WrestleMania 19, defeating Kurt Angle. This is the match that featured the botched shooting star press that had Brock seeing stars and barely able to finish the match. Angle was also operating on a bad neck, so this entire match was a Wellness travesty. Amazingly, even when he was out of his head, Lesnar delivered an F-5 to Angle to finish the match.
Lesnar wins the 2003 Royal Rumble, which led to that match against Angle at WrestleMania 19. It also helped continue the feud between Brock and Undertaker, which seemed to be on again, off again throughout Lesnar's entire run with WWE.
This was earlier in his run, but Lesnar goes over Ric Flair on a Raw in 2002. It's notable for showcasing Lesnar's ability to work with a guy like Flair, who was far stiffer as he got older, and for his salesmanship. I'm still impressed that he was selling the low blows well after the match was over.
Finally, we have Lesnar going over on Hulk Hogan to keep his WWE championship match at SummerSlam 2002 against The Rock. Again, it's impressive to see this level of work from Brock so early in his run on the main roster. He made Hogan look like a million bucks. This is also the last match I can remember (I'm sure there have been plenty more since) ending via bear hug with Hogan unable to answer three consecutive arm lifts from the referee. Lamest way to win a match ever? I'd say so. But he's dealing with Hogan so you take what you can get, I guess.
Thus concludes our brief history lesson on Brock Lesnar and his incredible first run through WWE. Will this next one be as good or better?
We shall see.