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DISCLAIMER: The Views of the Writer Do Not Reflect The Views of Sportskeeda
Brock Lesnar is a unique star on the WWE landscape. It’s rare enough have a man of his size, strength, and athleticism, but to add in his real life amateur wrestling, and then his MMA credentials make him more credible and imposing than just about any pro wrestler has ever been.
Lesnar doesn’t always produce great matches, and has developed a bit of a reputation for being predictable when he shows up for work with WWE, as evidenced in less inspired bouts with Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania 32 and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34, besides disappointing outings with Samoa Joe at Great Balls of Fire and Braun Strowman at No Mercy last year.
When the Beast Incarnate is motivated and working with the right dance partner, though, he has held up his end of the bargain in some truly excellent bouts. This article reaches all the way back to 2002 to look at Lesnar’s fifteen all-time best WWE matches.
15. Brock Lesnar vs. The Big Show, Smackdown 2003
Brock Lesnar has been booked opposite The Big Show multiple times throughout his career. It’s a sensible enough pairing given both Show’s star power that makes him a credible opponent for Lesnar, and his sheer size that makes it believable he might stand a chance against The Beast Incarnate in a fight.
The matches between the two have never been particularly great, though they have offered up a fun spectacle for the sheer immensity of the wrestlers involved.
The most legendary match between the two went down for a June 2003 episode of SmackDown. The climax of the show saw Lesnar deliver a superplex to Show that collapsed the ring. This gimmick was recycled in years to follow with Mark Henry and Braun Strowman executing the same feat of strength to the same effect on the ring, and it has lost some of its impact for each iteration.
Nonetheless, this original instance was legitimately shocking in its time, creating one of those all too rare moments when even hardcore fans questioned if they’d witnessed a work or a shoot result of that much weight making a wrestling ring implode.
14. Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle, WrestleMania 19
Brock Lesnar is best known as a monster heel on the WWE landscape, but he has been a successful face on more than one occasion. He’s too imposing to play the underdog, but his physical attributes can also capture the imagination enough for him to play a real life super hero.
Lesnar was at his best as a face opposite Kurt Angle in their WrestleMania 19 program. Angle, backed by Paul Heyman and Team Angle threw obstacle after obstacle in Lesnar’s way, as the wily veteran Olympic gold medalist clung to his WWE Championship. The action came to a head in this WrestleMania main event match.
That Lesnar ultimately crashed and burned on a shooting star press attempt tends to overshadow the strong ring work to precede it in this match. Just the same, it was a very good match up to that point, and a testament to both Angle’s ring generalship and Lesnar’s superhuman anatomy that they collected themselves and carried to finish the match with a satisfying conclusion.
13. The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, No Mercy 2002
Not unlike The Big Show, The Undertaker came up as an opponent for Brock Lesnar a number of times as a fellow talent with the star power and physical size to pose a meaningful challenge to Lesnar. At No Mercy 2002, they blew off an early iteration of their rivalry in their first Hell in a Cell Match.
With Lesnar still a young, eager worker, and The Undertaker around his prime, these two were well set up for success. They also had the fun gimmick of The Dead Man working with a kayfabe broken hand, which at first seemed to give Lesnar an unfair advantage, until it turned out that the heavy cast was a pretty formidable new weapon in The Phenom’s arsenal.
What followed was a straight-ahead smash mouth match without big bumps, but rather operating more in the tradition of steel cage matches as the enclosed battlefields for violent wars. This one lived up to its hype, as far more exciting than its 2015 Cell successor.
12. Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar, SummerSlam 2012
In 2012, Brock Lesnar was a pretty electric act having newly returned from his successful UFC run, which contributed to every match he had, feeling like a dream match because no one had expected to see him in a WWE ring again.
There was a risk of Lesnar losing steam when he dropped his first match back to John Cena. Still, he was a monster enough for his summer program with Triple H to feel special in its own right. The resulting match was a barn burner in the WWE main event style.
Best of all? It finished with Lesnar kayfabe breaking The Game’s arm and making him tap out to his kimura lock. The finish furthered Lesnar’s credibility in the moment and was satisfying to hardcore fans who wanted to see Helmsley lose.
While the rematches these two would have in 2013 were good, their 2012 encounter was the most satisfying outing, charged by a heated program leading up to it.
11. The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar, SummerSlam 2002
In 2002, Brock Lesnar debuted on the main roster and went on a tear. He singlehandedly decimated The Hardy Boyz, bear hugged Hulk Hogan into unconsciousness, and steam rolled the King of the Ring field. In a few months, he became far and away the hottest act in WWE, leading him to a SummerSlam main event showdown with The Rock for the WWE Championship.
While neither of these two performers was necessarily at his peak when this match occurred, it was nonetheless a very fun encounter with the added weight that it felt instantly historically important based on Rock’s legend and Lesnar’s meteoric rise. Paul Heyman’s outside interference may have tainted the match for some critics, but the conclusion nonetheless sent a clear message. Lesnar pinned The Great One and The Next Big Thing was off and running as the new face of WWE.
10. Daniel Bryan vs. Brock Lesnar, Survivor Series 2018
In a match that just barely missed this countdown, AJ Styles subbed into a world champion vs. world champion match against Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2017 at the relative last minute, heading off a snoozer of a bout between Lesnar and Jinder Mahal, and producing a very fun underdog vs. monster heel showdown.
Not so dissimilar, Daniel Bryan snagged the WWE Championship less than a week before Survivor Series 2018 to replace Styles as Lesnar’s opponent for Survivor Series 2018. The early stages of this match felt a lot like a Lesnar squash match as he pummeled his smaller opponent with suplex after suplex.
However, things took a turn with the fun dynamic of Bryan’s newly heel character. Bryan nailed Lesnar with a low blow that completely shifted the momentum of the match and assaulted the Beast incarnate with running knee after running knee that created totally believable false finishes.
There’s an argument to be made that face Bryan vs. heel Lesnar would have been the more straightforward, inspiring matchup. The heel vs. heel dynamic told a fresher story, though, and created more doubt as to whether Bryan might really steal this high profile victory.
9. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar (vs. Seth Rollins), WrestleMania 31
Expectations for Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 weren’t too high. Hardcore fans both doubted Reigns' ability to hold up his end in a high profile singles match and balked at his likely emergence as the man to unseat The Beast Incarnate and carry forward as WWE Champion.
The match surprised most onlookers as a stiff, hard-hitting brawl that was by far Reigns' best solo performance up to that point. Questions lingered as to how WWE could deliver a satisfying conclusion, though. Fans still didn’t seem entirely ready to embrace Reigns as their champion. Meanwhile, the idea of heel Lesnar winning and carrying on his part-time championship reign felt pretty deflating, too.
WWE shrewdly ran with option C as Seth Rolins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to deliver an electric moment and totally logical conclusion to the match as he stole the title. The sheer surprise of the cash-in was more than enough to send fans home happy, not to mention generating some kayfabe sympathy for Reigns for having gotten robbed.
8. The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, SummerSlam 2015
One of Brock Lesnar’s main limitations as a part-time star since his return to WWE in 2012 has been that he doesn’t necessarily come across as impassioned, so much as he is there to collect a paycheck. The one time he did come across as one hundred percent committed, and one hundred percent pissed off was during his summer 2015 program with The Undertaker.
Both major stars had an easy to understand beef. The Dead Man was upset that Lesnar had not only ended his WrestleMania undefeated streak but went on to brag about it for a year to follow. Meanwhile, Lesnar was justifiably infuriated that The Dead Man had interfered to cost him his opportunity to regain his WWE Championship from Seth Rollins.
The war of words and Monday Night Raw brawl between the two were electric, and their SummerSlam showdown paid off this issue nicely in an intense war. Moreover, there was a lot of intrigue packed into The Phenom’s willingness to fight dirty to ultimately beat Lesnar—including a phantom tap out and a low blow. The final image of Lesnar flipping of The Undertaker while succumbing to Hell’s Gate was a perfect finish, signalling that he didn’t respect his opponent and this war wasn’t finished.
7. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar, SummerSlam 2017
SummerSlam 2017 saw Brock Lesnar walk in in the familiar role as champion, but also the completely fresh role of underdog. The build to SummerSlam had seen him get terrorized by Samoa Joe as a vicious, underhanded challenger. Meanwhile, Lesnar also appeared overmatched relative to Braun Strowman—that rare Superstar who was visibly bigger and stronger than The Beast Incarnate.
This Fatal Fourway match was every bit the smash mouth hoss war fans would have hoped for with four monsters taking one another apart with heavy artillery offense. Lesnar got to play the victim in going through an announce table, and play superhuman coming from the biggest bump of the match to still have enough to steal the pin and retain his title. The match was entertaining in its own right, but also terrific for its storyline implications. The build kept Joe relevant as a fringe main event threat and positioned Reigns as a clear face and main eventer in his own right. Meanwhile, the foundation was set up for Strowman to carry forward as Lesnar’s most imposing challenger.
6. CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar, SummerSlam 2013
When Brock Lesnar squares off with a much smaller opponent, it requires some degree of suspension of disbelief. After all, when someone is as fast, agile, and technically proficient as Lesnar, what hope could an opponent giving up fifty pounds or more really have?
CM Punk was one of those severely outsized challengers to Lesnar who nonetheless made the dynamic work. Punk played relentless and heavy hitting to a tee in this match key match of the Punk vs. Paul Heyman saga from 2013. While it remained difficult to believe Lesnar would lose, Punk produced sensational false finishes and some very fun spots like when he desperately clung to Paul Heyman’s tie to keep Lesnar from F5ing him.
The No DQ stipulation of this match gave Punk a fighting chance and he got some of the very best out of Lesnar as an imposing heel, but nonetheless a human who just might have been beaten.
5. Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar, SmackDown 2003
WWE has only ever aired one full hour Iron Man Match on free television. The occasion was an epic chapter in the Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar rivalry. By that point, Angle was the face and Lesnar was the heel, and the match was a showcase for both these characters and the supreme talents of the two men involved.
While one could argue that Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels from WrestleMania 12 or Triple H vs. The Rock from Judgment Day 2000 were better overall Iron Man Matches, Angle vs. Lesnar featured two guys who could most certainly go for an hour, with the added wrinkle of Lesnar willingly dropping falls by disqualification in order to punish his opponent and benefit in the long run. The end result was a truly unique spectacle of a match—particularly to have aired free on SmackDown for any fan to see.
4. Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar, WrestleMania 33
Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 20 was widely considered an embarrassment for everyone involved. Goldberg and Lesnar were both on their ways out of the company and any hopes of an epic final showdown between the two were vanquished with an incredibly awkward match that saw the Madison Square Garden crowd boo both men mercilessly, and the two powerhouses respond by mostly looking at each other, uncertain what to do.
Thirteen years later, the pairing put on a wholly different match—a sub-four minute sprint that was all explosive action and on the short list for the most fun match either man has ever been involved in. No, it wasn’t a classic by traditional standards, but it was a unique spectacle that showcased both men’s strengths without ever risking over staying its welcome. The match felt like a breath of fresh air, and like the best possible use of the talents at hand at that point in their careers.
3. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, SummerSlam 2014
Before Suplex City became a thing, Brock Lesnar stormed in the Staples Center in Los Angeles to challenge John Cena for the WWE Championship and spent sixteen minutes by and large dominating and squashing the de facto face of the company. This match saw Lesnar at his brutal best, more or less debuting the Suplex City style that saw no frills, just sheer blunt force offense in a realistic fashion to believably destroy his opponent.
This match was different, edgy, and deeply cathartic for fans who had wanted to see Cena get decimated for years, and particularly those who had felt short-changed when Cena eked out the victory in their preceding match at Extreme Rules 2012. We can certainly debate the merits of this match in terms of its influence on future Lesnar matches that largely underwhelm. However, particularly in its time and immediate context, it was an innovative, special match to take in and one of the defining victories of Lesnar’s career.
2. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar, Royal Rumble 2015
Triple Threat matches in WWE tend to suffer from a formulaic set up that sees one wrestler at a time incapacitated to facilitate more manageable one on one confrontations in different permutations over the course of the match.
While Brock Lesnar’s WWE Championship defense against John Cena and Seth Rollins at the 2015 Royal Rumble weren’t entirely immune to this dynamic, the match was well executed on the whole and benefited from a lot of fun spots involving all three performers.
The three-man set up served this combination of performers well. Lesnar could play the rampaging monster destroying two mortal men at once. Cena could play his superhero character with feats of strength and a never say die attitude. Perhaps most importantly, Rollins was the pesky, opportunistic heel ready to insert himself to try to steal falls and breakup pin attempts. It was one of the best WWE matches of 2015 and made Lesnar look especially strong on the road to WrestleMania.
1. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, Extreme Rules 2012
When Brock Lesnar first returned to WWE from UFC, he was a major source of intrigue. Could this ultra-legitimate fighter who had burned WWE once and who could undeniably wreck anyone he wanted to from the WWE roster be trusted to do business? Even in kayfabe, whom could WWE book to beat him and how? Would he pick up where he left off as the top star in the company
These questions played beautifully into the Beast Incarnate’s first match back opposite the ideal opponent—sports entertainment poster boy John Cena. The resulting match was about equal parts brilliant and brutal—fundamentally different from anything else WWE had produced in that era; of its Lesnar working a punishing bludgeoning style that badly bloodied Cena.
In the end, Cena would punch our Lesnar with a chain to steal the pin. There’s a fair argument that Cena never should have won, and that doing so undermined the match. Nonetheless, it was a surprising and appropriately violent way to finish the unique and great match.
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