5 Interesting Facts about the last time Brock Lesnar wrestled on Weekly TV

Next week, WWE will begin a new era, as SmackDown will air its first episode on the FOX Network as Friday Night SmackDown on 4th October - the first time WWE has regularly appeared on network TV since its debut on UPN two decades ago. The show is set to have multiple legends and Hall of Famers, but there is another major event that will make this episode historic.

The Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar, made his return to the blue brand last week and shocked us all by challenging the WWE Champion Kofi Kingston for his title. Even more surprising was the fact that the match is set to take place at the inaugural SmackDown episode on FOX, making it the first occasion in more than 15 years when the Beast will wrestle on a weekly WWE TV program.

Lesnar's last match on SmackDown took place on 4th March 2004, when he took on Hardcore Holly, defeating him in nearly two minutes with an F5. This match took place a couple of weeks before his infamous encounter with Golberg at WrestleMania XX.

Ever since returning to WWE in 2012, Lesnar has wrestled on multiple PPVs and Live Events, but this would mark his first weekly TV match since 2004. Now, we do have many questions to discuss - will Lesnar would become the new WWE Champion? Will he be a permanent SmackDown member from now on? Stuff like that.

But before that, let's sit back and take a look at these five interesting (and a little amusing) facts about the last time Brock Lesnar wrestled on Weekly TV.

#5 Nicholas wasn't born yet

The former RAW Tag Team Champion Nicholas, who won the championship alongside the Monster Among Men, Braun Strowman, at WrestleMania 34, hadn't even been born yet.

It was Strowman who went into the crowd before his Tag Team Title match against The Bar at WrestleMania 34 and chose the then 10-year old, Nicholas to be his partner. The duo then went on to defeat Sheamus and Cesaro to lift the titles, making Nicholas the youngest champion in WWE History.

Nicholas was later revealed to be WWE Referee John Cone's son. The duo then relinquished their titles the next night on RAW, as the little boy was unable to manage his school-life with wrestling. Interestingly, he also holds a red belt in Karate.

#4 Seth Rollins was in high-school

Did you wonder where the guy who defeated Brock Lesnar twice this year was, when the Beast last competed on SmackDown? We're talking about our current Universal Champion, Seth Rollins, who defeated the Beast first at WrestleMania 35 and then again at SummerSlam 2019 - both times for the Big Red Belt.

Turns out, Rollins (Real Name: Colby Lopez) was studying in high school when Lesnar wrestled his last match on SmackDown in 2004. He graduated from Davenport West High School in Iowa in 2004, the same year as Lesnar's match with Hardcore Holly.

It was in 2005 that he made his professional wrestling debut as Gixx in the Iowa independent wrestling scene. He was previously trained in a wrestling school owned by Danny Daniels. Soon after, Rollins signed with Ring of Honor under the ring name Tyler Black, later signing with WWE in 2010.

The Beastslayer has a rich history with Brock Lesnar, as he has ended Lesnar's championship reign thrice - the first one being at WrestleMania 31 in what WE called "The Heist of the Century", when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract during the main event between Lesnar and Roman Reigns.

Could anyone have imagined in 2004 that a guy who hasn't even started wrestling yet would go on to dominate the Beast?

#3 Punk and Joe were wrestling in ROH

Punk and Joe, before they became famous!

Do you remember the famous match between CM Punk and Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2013, which many like to call WWE's version of the Wolverine vs the Hulk? One major similarity between Punk and Lesnar is that both of them have been Paul Heyman guys.

While Punk will probably never return to the world of pro wrestling, Lesnar is still managed by Heyman. The whole Punk vs Lesnar rivalry started because Heyman betrayed the Straight-edge Superstar and called Lesnar as backup protection. It was Brock who came out victorious in that match after hitting Punk with an F5 on a steel chair, but not before Punk took him to his limits.

Another guy who was able to achieve this feat was Samoa Joe. The Samoan Submission machine faced Lesnar at 2017's Great Balls of Fire PPV. The match saw the Beast being completely dominated by Joe before Lesnar somehow managed to deliver an F5 to pick up the victory. Many still believe that Joe should have gone over in this match.

Anyways, the interesting fact here is that when Lesnar last wrestled on SmackDown in 2004, both Punk and Joe were competing in ROH for the World Title. The rivalry between the two is considered to be one of the best ones in the history of the company.

#2 John Cena had not won any World Title yet

Arguably, one of the biggest rivals of Brock Lesnar since his return to WWE in 2012, John Cena has had one of the most successful careers in WWE history. Sure to become a future Hall of Famer, Cena is a record 16-time World Champion in WWE, sharing the record of the most number of World Title reigns with the Nature Boy Ric Flair.

Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012 after WrestleMania 28 and went on to challenge John Cena to an Extreme Rules match, which he lost. But he took a more than decent revenge of the same in 2014 when he almost squashed the Leader of Cenation at SummerSlam to dethrone him as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion - the foundation of the Suplex City.

Interestingly, when Lesnar last wrestled on SmackDown against Hardcore Holly, Cena had not won a single World title yet. It was in 2005 when Cena defeated JBL at WrestleMania 21 to win his first World World Championship. This was when the spinner belt was introduced by him.

From then till now, Cena has gone from being a rookie to one of the biggest legends in the business, leading the charge of WWE's PG era.

#1 The "Streak" was not a thing

In what can be considered as the biggest achievement in Brock Lesnar's pro-wrestling career, the Beast shocked the world at WrestleMania XXX when he defeated The Undertaker to end his 21-0 winning streak on the Grandest Stage of them all.

In what was one of the most debatable decisions by the company, Lesnar's victory over the Deadman immediately made him the biggest thing in WWE and all of sports entertainment. The two then went on to have a couple of more matches, including the one at Hell in a Cell 2015, with Lesnar again coming out as the overall winner.

The interesting fact to note here is that "The Streak" was not a thing when Lesnar last wrestled on Weekly TV in 2004. While The Undertaker already had an impressive undefeated record of 12-0 at WrestleMania by then, it was not until his rivalry against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 21, that an opponent wanted to face him explicitly to end his undefeated record at the Show of Shows.

It was the match against Shawn Michaels that made Undertaker's streak such a huge deal as the two had a rivalry for the ages - some of the best storytelling WWE has ever done. After all these years, though the Streak does not exist anymore, Lesnar has Undertaker to thank to give him the honor to be the one in 21 and 1.