WWE Hall of Famer reveals 2 major reasons why Brock Lesnar headlined his first WrestleMania

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently engaged in a Q&A session on the latest edition of his Grilling JR podcast, and looked back at the buildup to WrestleMania 19 in 2003.

Ross stated that WWE appreciated Brock Lesnar's work over the course of his first few months in the company, and this was a major reason why he was allowed to close WrestleMania 19 with Kurt Angle, in a WWE title match.

Ross explained that the fact that WWE was unsure about Stone Cold's physical condition at the time, was another major factor in The Rock vs Steve Austin III not headlining WrestleMania.

"I don't think so, it was a little early, but eventually that was the match we wanted to have. Brock Lesnar vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. Both healthy as they could be, and with a great build, but again Brock wasn't ready yet. He was ready physically, he was ready physically when he was in the 9th grade, he's a freak.

"To show how much we appreciated his work him and Kurt Angle closed the show at WrestleMania 19, it wasn't Rock and Austin. The reason for that was Steve was in the hospital the night before, got out on Sunday and we didn't know what we were going to have there."

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Lesnar wins the WWE title in the main event of WrestleMania 19:

Austin and The Rock's outing at WrestleMania 19 was their third WrestleMania match, with the previous two being main events contested for the WWE title at WrestleMania 15 and WrestleMania 17. Austin lost the match and retired from active competition soon after.