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Brock Lesnar is one of the few WWE Superstars who can blur the lines between fiction and reality every time he steps into a ring.
For example, looking back at his 2018 Royal Rumble Triple Threat match against Braun Strowman and Kane, the most memorable moment from the 10-minute encounter came when a visibly angry Brock Lesnar struck Strowman in the head with a real punch.
At the time, it was widely speculated that Brock Lesnar had genuine heat with his in-ring rival, but Strowman later revealed that they were on good terms after the match and they even laughed about the incident.
That Strowman altercation is just one example of a time that Brock Lesnar appeared to injure an opponent during a WWE match, but plenty of other Superstars and WWE employees have also felt the wrath of The Beast in televised segments.
In this article, let’s take a look at two injuries that Brock Lesnar legitimately caused in WWE, as well as three injuries that were simply part of a storyline.
#5 Brock Lesnar did not really injure Michael Cole
Brock Lesnar lost the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 31 after Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and pinned Roman Reigns to win the title for the first time in his career.
One night later, a furious Brock Lesnar began attacking anybody in sight after Rollins refused to give him an immediate rematch for the title.
After launching J&J Security members Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury around the ringside area, Brock Lesnar grabbed Michael Cole and threw him into the ring. The Beast hit the WWE announcer with an F-5, causing one of his shoes to fly off, and Byron Saxton had to call commentary on his own for the next hour of the show.
WWE reported that Cole suffered a bulging disc at the C6/C7 level, as well as injuries to his neck, back and right shoulder, and he was forced to miss the following week’s episode of RAW.
Brock Lesnar, who was suspended indefinitely after he followed up the attack by F-5ing a cameraman, returned to WWE two months later to set up his rematch with Rollins at Battleground.
In storyline, Cole threatened a lawsuit against Brock Lesnar after the incident but they were able to settle out of court shortly before his return.
#4 Brock Lesnar legitimately injured Bruce Prichard
Nowadays, Bruce Prichard works as the head of creative on both RAW and SmackDown. However, during Brock Lesnar’s first run with WWE between 2002-2004, the WWE director also had the responsibility of producing backstage segments.
Before returning to WWE in a behind-the-scenes role in 2019, Prichard told stories about his time with the company on WWE Network show Something Else to Wrestle With.
As you can see in the tweet above, he had a black eye in one of the pictures behind him on his office wall.
When a Twitter user jokingly asked whether The Ultimate Warrior caused the injury, Prichard simply replied, “Lesnar.”
Vince McMahon’s right-hand man elaborated on the injury during the Bob Holly episode of his Something to Wrestle With podcast, explaining that Brock Lesnar accidentally caught him in the face during filming one time.
“Brock Lesnar kicked my face in. He kicked a wall in and kicked my face in. By the time I made it home, Brock Lesnar had [sent] s*** in my house and making jokes and calling me and apologizing and checking on me damn near every f***ing day. That’s probably the part of Brock Lesnar that Brock don’t like to get out there.”
Prichard added that, contrary to what some people might think, Brock Lesnar is a good guy in real life.
#3 Brock Lesnar did not really injure Vince McMahon
In January 2013, Paul Heyman looked set to be fired by Vince McMahon during a Personal Performance Review on WWE RAW. At the time, Brock Lesnar’s advocate denied that he worked with Brad Maddox and The Shield to help CM Punk keep hold of the WWE Championship, even though McMahon had evidence that proved otherwise.
Midway through the segment, the WWE Chairman began delivering his famous “YOU’RE FIRED!” line when Brock Lesnar made a surprise appearance. The Beast had a staredown with McMahon before hitting him with an F-5, causing his boss to require hip surgery.
The injury looked very real and it appeared as though Brock Lesnar had legitimately hurt McMahon.
However, the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer clarified that, while the hip injury was genuine, it was not caused by Brock Lesnar.
“Vince McMahon is legitimately having surgery done on his left hip soon. Vince has had a bad hip for some time now. The storyline injury from Brock Lesnar was done as a reason to take off for the surgery.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]
Brock Lesnar’s attack also furthered his storyline with McMahon’s son-in-law, Triple H, leading to a match between the two men at WrestleMania 29.
#2 Brock Lesnar legitimately injured Bob Holly
Bob Holly sustained a broken neck in a match against Brock Lesnar on an episode of WWE SmackDown in September 2002.
Brock Lesnar accidentally slammed his opponent neck-first against the ring canvas whilst executing a powerbomb. Although Holly continued the match and ended up losing via an F-5, his neck injury was very serious and he was unable to compete for the next 13 months.
Speaking on his 'Something to Wrestle With' podcast, Bruce Prichard said the incident was an accident and he denied rumors of any heat between Holly and Brock Lesnar.
“People said, ‘Oh, Brock did it intentionally.’ People said, ‘Oh, Bob Holly was sandbagging [not cooperating with] Brock.’ Neither one of those is true. At all. It was a f***ed up spot, an unfortunate accident, and an unfortunate injury occurred because of it.”
WWE later turned the real-life injury into a storyline when Holly unsuccessfully challenged Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at the 2004 Royal Rumble pay-per-view. This was the only time that Holly was involved in a WWE Championship match during his 18-year association with the company.
#1 Brock Lesnar did not really injure Dio Maddin
In November 2019, Dio Maddin’s six-week stint as a member of the WWE RAW commentary team came to an end after Brock Lesnar launched him through the announce desk with an F-5.
Maddin had called the in-ring action on Monday nights alongside Vic Joseph and Jerry “The King” Lawler since the season premiere episode of RAW in September 2019, but he never returned to the announce team after being attacked by Brock Lesnar.
WWE confirmed on the company’s website in December 2019 that Maddin was not going to resume his previous role as a commentator, with Samoa Joe filling in as his replacement.
“Maddin still aspires to become a bona fide Superstar and is headed back to the WWE Performance Center to chase his dream. Maddin had not appeared on Raw since Brock Lesnar sent the WWE TV analyst crashing through the announce table during a brutal attack.”
Maddin’s next WWE RAW appearance came in August 2020 when he was defeated by Shelton Benjamin – ironically, one of Brock Lesnar’s real-life friends – on the debut edition of RAW Underground.
Could we see Brock Lesnar on an edition of RAW Underground? Get all the latest on the eight-time WWE World Champion's future with Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz in the video above.
