5 WWE stars who have had real-life heat with Brock Lesnar 

Many WWE stars have heat with the former WWE Champion
Many WWE stars have heat with the former WWE Champion

Brock Lesnar has been one of the biggest stars in WWE for a number of years. Across his two stints with the promotion, the former Universal Champion has gone head-to-head with almost every major Superstar that the company has seen over the last couple of decades.

Reportedly the highest-paid member on the WWE roster, Lesnar is afforded more freedom than most of his peers and has a certain way that he likes to do business. The manner in which Lesnar conducts himself, though, has been known to rub some of his fellow Superstars the wrong way over the years, sometimes causing issues ahead of their in-ring collisions.

Lesnar isn't someone that you would think anyone would want as an enemy, but the following Superstars have all had negative experiences with 'The Beast Incarnate' at one time or another - whether it be inside or outside of the ring.


#5. Dean Ambrose

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Dean Ambrose faced off at with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 in a No Holds Barred match. However, the much-anticipated bout wasn't quite the highlight that many fans expected it to be. Ambrose's background in these kinds of matches suggested that his meeting with Lesnar would be a brutal encounter, but this wasn't the case.

Ambrose, now known as Jon Moxley in AEW, explained on the Stone Cold Podcast that many of his ideas for the match were shot down by both Lesnar and WWE. Ambrose, in fact, questioned whether Lesnar really wanted to be at the pay-per-view at all.

Ambrose revealed to PWTorch's Wade Keller that the former WWE Champion didn't arrive until three hours before their match and that the two men didn't get to discuss their match face to face until the show had already begun.

“I think he truly thought he was just doing me a favor. [Lesnar thought] me being in the ring with him was enough to do awesome things for me. I think that’s what he thought. He didn’t want to be there.”

In the months following the lackluster bout, it was revealed that Lesnar had been training for a return to the UFC around the time of his WrestleMania clash with Ambrose. Some have speculated that Lesnar did not want to risk sustaining an injury that might have derailed his MMA return - and so laid out his match with Ambrose to be as safe as possible.

#4. Neville

The artist formerly known as Neville was apparently not a fan of Brock Lesnar.
The artist formerly known as Neville was apparently not a fan of Brock Lesnar.

Neville was finally granted his WWE release in the summer of 2018 after sitting out his contract for almost a year. Now performing in AEW under the name Pac, the British star has never been shy of discussing his thoughts about WWE or his reasons for leaving the company. Perhaps the most interesting of these, though, relate to his opinion of Brock Lesnar.

A few months after his WWE departure, Neville hosted a Q & A session on his Instagram page where he was asked by a fan whether or not he could beat Brock Lesnar in a wrestling match. His reply was pretty striking:

"Yes, if he can get his lazy a*** up."

Brock Lesnar and Neville never faced off in WWE, so the former Cruiserweight Champion wasn't referring to an incident in the ring. However, his comments essentially confirm that he was not a fan of Lesnar or his backstage attitude in WWE.

Neville calling out Lesnar for being "lazy" echoes the sentiments of Dean Ambrose from the previous slide. It seems that Lesnar's apparent lack of motivation for certain matches is something that has annoyed several members of the WWE locker room over the years.

#3. Shane McMahon

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When Shane McMahon was hit with an F5 by Brock Lesnar following his match against Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2016, the son of the WWE Chairman was thought to be stepping into a feud with Lesnar. The Shane Vs. Lesnar rivalry, though, never materialized.

Interestingly, a few years later at WrestleMania 34, the pair did almost square off for real. Lesnar was filmed walking to the back following his WWE Universal Championship main event bout against Roman Reigns. Brock was seemingly fuming after the match and walked directly into a heated altercation with Vince McMahon when he stepped behind the curtain.

Seeing his father disrespected, Shane stepped in and, according to The Wrestling Observer, he was ready to fight Lesnar. However, in the end, the two men only exchanged words and things didn't turn physical.

Lesnar reportedly broke a number of WWE rules in his match with Reigns, and so Vince decided to have words. That being said, there are conflicting reports that suggest that the WWE boss called an audible in the middle of the match that saw the result of the bout changed - and that Lesnar wasn't happy with the last-second switch.

The exact reasons for the altercation are still up for debate, but what is clear is that Shane felt the need to come to his father's aid. Thankfully, the situation was calmed down before things between Lesnar and Shane escalated.

#2. Chris Jericho

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Former WWE Champion Chris Jericho was watching the previously mentioned match between Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam in 2016 from backstage - and wasn't a fan of how the match ended, to say the least.

Lesnar was awarded the bout by TKO, having legitimately busted Orton open with some hard strikes.

Current AEW star Jericho believed that Lesnar had gone into business for himself and been reckless with Orton, potentially giving him a concussion. Jericho asked Michael Hayes and a number of other WWE officials who were present at the time whether or not the TKO was the intended finish of the match, but there was no response.

This led to Jericho confronting Lesnar - who then shoved Jericho - and the two men seemingly preparing to fight before they were separated by Triple H and Vince McMahon.

Jericho then explained why this historic WWE altercation actually happened when he appeared on SiriusXM show Jim Norton and Sam Roberts, back in 2019.

"[Lesnar] did some stuff that I felt he shouldn't have done, and no one would tell me if it was supposed to happen or not. Then he started yelling at me, and I was like 'f*** this guy' and started yelling back."

Cooler heads eventually prevailed, but the fact that Lesnar was able to rile an experienced veteran like Jericho says a lot about how easily 'The Beast' can generate heat with his fellow WWE performers.

#1. Matt Riddle

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Over the past few years, Matt Riddle has made a number of comments on social media about Goldberg - the most famous of which followed his botched match with The Undertaker at Super ShowDown 2019 in Saudi Arabia. Riddle has also previously been very outspoken about wanting to face Brock Lesnar in a WWE ring. Riddle has even suggested that he could be the man to retire Lesnar.

Riddle had hoped that he would cross paths with Lesnar in the 2020 Royal Rumble match, but 'The Beast' had already been eliminated before Riddle came out - seemingly by design. Riddle and Lesnar then went on to have a backstage altercation, where Lesnar made it clear that he would never wrestle Riddle in WWE.

Riddle was said to be hugely disappointed after the exchange and Dave Meltzer noted on a recent episode of The Wrestling Observer that Matt Riddle was moved over to SmackDown by WWE because of the heat with Brock Lesnar:

"That's a weird one. There's a couple of things. Number 1, Lesnar does dislike him and there's that political situation there. So, that's the only thing I can think of, maybe other than Prichard maybe wanting him. He got AJ and he got Matt Riddle. I mean that's like a pretty good 1-2 punch. We'll see how it works."

One privilege that Lesnar undoubtedly has in WWE is the option to chose who he works with. If Brock dislikes a particular Superstar - as he seems to do with Riddle - it is fair to say that the chances of seeing that particular match or feud drop considerably.

One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE