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Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton; Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura

5 Superstars legitimately unhappy with Brock Lesnar in a match

Brock Lesnar is one of the most polarising Superstars in WWE history - some fans love him, others despise him. That also holds true for some wrestlers that he has met in the ring in all of his years in pro wrestling.

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While the likes of Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, and AJ Styles have professed their admiration and respect for The Beast and said that they loved wrestling Brock Lesnar, some others did not have good memories when they stepped in the ring with the former UFC fighter.

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Let's take a look at 5 Superstars who were legitimately unhappy with Brock Lesnar in a match:

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#5 Dean Ambrose

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Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32
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Dean Ambrose, currently known as Jon Moxley in AEW, wrestled Lesnar once in a singles match at WrestleMania 32, in a No Holds Barred street fight. Lesnar won that hard-fought match which lasted around 13 minutes.

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Ambrose did not have a good experience wrestling Lesnar, and explained in detail numerous issues before the match even took place. The match wasn't booked the way he wanted it, and Ambrose said that it seemed like Lesnar was "doing him a favor" by facing him at WrestleMania. Ambrose also revealed that the day of the show did not go according to plan. He said that Lesnar arrived at the venue only at 3 PM, when WrestleMania was set to kick off at 5 PM.

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Ambrose explained what he pitched to Lesnar, which The Beast outright rejected:

"We haven’t talked about any of this match, the show starts at 5 PM, we’re like fourth. He’s not really interested and doesn’t wanna be there – and this is the most important match of my life. I was like, ‘Dude, we have the opportunity, we have a Street Fight. We can do anything. I’ll take any bump you want. Literally, I’m begging you to f*****g choke me. Please, powerbomb me into thumbtacks a hundred times.’ And he said: ‘Oh, we don’t need all that'. Like, he did not have the mentality of trying to steal the show at all. Did not give a s**t.”
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Ambrose also pitched a different finish to the match, where Lesnar chokes him out, which didn't also did not get the approval of Brock Lesnar.

#4 Batista

Brock Lesnar and Batista on RAW
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Batista was one of the many star names that came through OVW in the early 2000s, making a name for himself and eventually getting promoted to the main roster along with John Cena, Randy Orton, and Brock Lesnar.

Batista and Lesnar did not have a singles feud on the main roster - and did not even have a match - but they did wrestle each other once in a singles match back in OVW. But, Batista does not have fond memories of that one-off match with the future WWE Champion.

Watch a brief clip of that match between Batista and Brock Lesnar below:

Batista spoke about that one match and he wasn't pleased with how the match ended. He also revealed why a match between the two didn't happen, taking a sly dig at Lesnar:

“I only worked with Brock in OVW. He worked one house show in WWE, be he just jobbed me out. It was a total squash match. I hadn’t even... we had been with Evolution. I don’t know if I want Brock to drop me on my head. [laughs]”
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There may have been a rivalry of sorts between Batista and Lesnar, as the latter took a shot at the former when he was to make his MMA debut. Lesnar mocked Batista's MMA debut with this statement:

"Get in line, everybody and their dog wants to get into fighting. Next question. We’re talking about a heavyweight championship fight, not some wannabe.”

This could have been one match that could have headlined WrestleMania if the two were willing to have a serious feud in WWE.

#3 Shinsuke Nakamura

WWE fans may not know that Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura have had a match in the past, when both Superstars were in NJPW. The match between the two current WWE Superstars took place in 2006 for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

The match was won by Lesnar, and although the match was a good contest, Nakamura was not pleased with how brutal and hard Lesnar was in the ring. Nakamura revealed that he cried for the first time after a pro wrestling match following the bout with Lesnar. The former United States Champion revealed this in his book:

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"First, Lesnar was saying all this stuff about how he respected New Japan, but it felt to me like that was just for show, that he didn’t really respect the promotion. Like, somewhere, he was looking down on Japanese people. I lost the match, and that was the first time I cried at pro wrestling after a match.”

Nakamura also said that he felt that Lesnar did not love pro wrestling after that match and that he wrestled because he felt that he was doing a job.

"I didn’t get the sense he had any love for pro wrestling. It felt like he was just doing his job.”

#2 Matt Hardy

Brock Lesnar and Matt Hardy
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Matt and Jeff Hardy were a part of WWE when Brock Lesnar was first introduced to the main roster, and the Hardy Boyz briefly helped to show the WWE Universe what a beast Lesnar really was. Matt Hardy said in an interview that Vince McMahon and a WWE agent had paired the Hardy Boyz against Lesnar and told the brothers to make Lesnar look good.

And the then up-and-coming Lesnar, was very grateful for the help, which Matt Hardy spoke about in the same interview:

"Every time we did something for Brock - I remember he gave me the F5 on stage one time and it hurt like sh*t, brutal bump. I remember after, Brock was just so thankful,' oh my god, thank you, man, that was so great. If there is any way I can pay you back, I will. Thank you guys so much for helping me and you've been so easy to work with.'"
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Matt and Lesnar had a mini-feud on SmackDown in 2003, and the two were set to have a match on the Blue brand. But before the match, the two had a disagreement with how much the older Hardy would get pushed.

“And I remember Brock kept coming back down the course of the day and he was like ‘Nah, you’re getting a little too much’. ‘This needs to come out’. ‘We need changes’ and so and so, ‘…because that makes me look weak’.”

Hardy said that he was "pis*ed off" with Lesnar before the match as he wasn't helping him get this push, despite Lesnar telling him earlier that he would "pay" him back any way he could. During the segment between Hardy and Lesnar, the former landed a chair shot on Lesnar's head as Lesnar had told him not to hit him in the ribs as that area was injured.

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Lesnar was angry at Hardy backstage, but things eased out later, and he said that Lesnar was actually respectful towards him after this incident.

#1 Randy Orton

Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton
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One of the most jaw-dropping moments that blurred kayfabe and reality in recent times in WWE was the match between Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2016. The brutal match saw Lesnar landing vicious elbows to Orton's head, which busted him open.

The very graphic image of a bloodied Orton was a surprise considering how WWE had moved away from blood and gore. The Legend Killer revealed in an interview that he was happy with the outcome of the match and how much "buzz" it created, but was unhappy at how he suffered a concussion.

"I think with Lesnar, it’s always going to be him coming in every few months as a monster who destroys guys who work 200 days a year. There is a tendency for that to get old. I could have looked a little better that night and that would have helped me a lot regardless of the finish and not hurt Brock’s character at all. But the fact that you’re asking me about it three-four months later, means we created a buzz. But the fact that I had a concussion and was out for three weeks and wasn’t able to do anything pissed me off."
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Randy Orton also showed his displeasure a year after that match when he retweeted a tweet mocking Lesnar, showing that he was still not over how brutal that match was.

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There was a huge uproar backstage after the match as well, as Chris Jericho was worried about the health of his friend, Randy Orton, and Jericho and Lesnar butted heads after The Beast came backstage.

Meet the man who called CM Punk the softest man alive HERE

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Edited by
Atharva Papnoi
 
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