'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Brock Lesnar left the WWE in 2004 following a terrible main event at WrestleMania XX with Goldberg.
After signing with the WWE in the year 2000 on a developmental contract, he made his way up the ranks in record time and found himself on Raw just two years later under the expert tutelage of Paul Heyman.
He would go on to achieve goals that other wrestlers only dream of in his short time in the company. He became a 3-time WWE Champion, beating The Rock for his first World Championship. He was the winner of the 2002 King of the Ring and also managed to capture a victory at the 2003 Royal Rumble, having beaten the Big Show earlier in the night for a spot.
He worked as both a heel and a face, enjoyed entertaining the crowd and was, without a doubt, one of the top stars in the company. He helped SmackDown beat Raw in the ratings in the latter part of 2003 and people wanted to tune in to see him destroy the competition every week.
However, despite all the great matches and the money pouring in, the then youngest ever WWE Champion, having spent two years on the main roster, decided enough was enough and looked to pursue other endeavours.
But why did Brock Lesnar leave the WWE in 2004?
Brock was a natural athlete. Known for his NCAA Division I Heavyweight Wrestling Championship win, wrestling was all he had known since a young age. Built like an Adonis, he was made for the WWE. Vince McMahon could not have created a better-looking wrestler in his vision than Brock Lesnar. He was literally perfect.
However, the news broke and hit the dirt sheets; Brock Lesnar was set to leave the WWE and the crowd at WrestleMania XX made their feelings known.
They booed Goldberg (who had also planned to leave following the event) and Lesnar out of the building and in what should have been a show-stopping match; the highlight was Austin (who acted as the special guest referee) giving both of them a Stone Cold Stunner to end their careers for the time being.
And that was it. Lesnar was gone. The man who had run the WWE and SmackDown at such a young age was gone. He’d only spent two years but had achieved everything that he needed to achieve in that field.
WWE confirmed the direction that Lesnar would be taking when they issued their statement regarding his release:
“Brock Lesnar has made a personal decision to put his WWE career on hold to prepare to try out for the National Football League this season. Brock has wrestled his entire professional career in the WWE and we are proud of his accomplishments and wish him the best in his new endeavor.”
To the casual fans, it looked like Brock Lesnar was doing a ‘Michael Jordan’. Trading in one athletic sport for another. No-one really took it seriously and no-one really had faith in Brock to succeed. He had no intention of going into martial arts and merely wanted to see if he could make it in football at this time.
He was aware of the backlash he was getting not only from the fans of the WWE but the fans of the NFL too when he responded to the critique:
“This is no load of bull; it's no WWE stunt. I am dead serious about this. I ain't afraid of anything and I ain't afraid of anybody. I've been an underdog in athletics since I was five. I got zero college offers for wrestling. Now people say I can't play football, that it's a joke. I say I can.”
However, as time has gone by, it has become clear that this career change was not a case of ambition clouding judgment, Brock was really unhappy with the way things were at the WWE and needed to get out, if only for his own sanity.
Let’s face it, the man signed a deal in July of 2003, which entitled him to a base salary of 1 million USD a year. That was absurd money for what was essentially a rookie in the business.
Brock Lesnar wrote a book with Paul Heyman entitled Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival in which he detailed why he left.
He points Vince McMahon, The Rock and a night in Miami as the final straw that led to his departure. He was due to lose to The Rock in Miami, despite being the WWE Champion at the time. The problem was, he only found out about an hour and a half before the match was due to take place.
If you’re the WWE Champion, one would think it is common courtesy to let you know if you’re going to take a loss, especially a clean one. The Rock tried to pin it on Vince and assumed that Brock had been told, but for Brock, this was not what he expected from a man who had always been straight with him.
Brock points to the fact that this sort of things goes on quite often in the wrestling business as everyone else is after your spot, they want to look after their own character and you have to be in the boss’s pocket if you want to keep your place on top.
But this did not fly with Brock as the way he liked to conduct business was at odds with the backstage politics that is rife in a wrestling locker room.
He was then asked to drop the title to Eddie Guerrero as he didn’t need it to face Goldberg in a match that should have sold itself if circumstances had have been different. Vince wanted to get into the Latino market in the same vein that he has Jinder Mahal as champion now to try and break into the Indian market.
Vince is always thinking about the business, but I don’t believe this booking decision sat well with Brock Lesnar, especially after the events above. To fans, it’s just another superstar getting a chance and keeping the programming fresh, but I suppose it’s a lot different when you’re in the business.
Someone is taking your spot, your livelihood and money out of your account essentially. Brock was not pleased and, furthermore, he'd been relegated to facing Hardcore Holly in the mid-card while being left out of the main event, despite initially being told he would be the third wheel in triple threat matches with Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero:
“I was getting angrier and angrier. I couldn’t get any time off. My body was hurting. I was going through a lot of personal drama. I was pissed off about the way things went down in Miami, and I certainly wasn’t happy about being replaced by Eddie Guerrero as WWE Champion.”
However, on reflection, Brock cites that his reasons for leaving were not because of his position on the card, but the toxic atmosphere backstage and the stress of life on the road.
“I didn’t want to leave because of Eddie Guerrero, or Bob Holly, or anyone else. I just had to get out. I had lost my faith.”
It’s pretty much common knowledge that the part-time schedule he adheres to now is a lot better for him as it involves a lot less travelling and allows him to be at home with his family a lot more regularly. He details in his book that the pain was intense from being on the road so much and the travelling was even worse.
He did not want to end up like all the stories you hear from wrestling’s past. He didn’t want a split family, a painkiller addiction or a dead career. Having only a couple of days off to recover from 5 days of travelling and physical activity got so much for Lesnar, he even bought his own plane to travel in.
He was living on a diet of Vicodin painkillers and Vodka, but recognised this was a path to destruction:
“On one of the rare weekends that I did manage to get off, I was sitting at home, and I was trying to figure out why I was so worn down. I felt like an old man even though I was only twenty-five”
Just let that sink in. 25-years-old. By the time he left he was 27-years-old but look at what he accomplished. The man was at his physical peak. If he did not leave the WWE to pursue his other dreams, it might be too late, especially given the abuse to his body, his health and his mentality.
Often, as wrestling fans, we can be quite selfish. We want our favourites to wrestle forever, we feel like they owe us something. People like CM Punk, Shawn Michaels and Brock Lesnar. We do not think about the impact that the profession can have on the athletes.
As you can see, it was not just the drive for a new occupation that led to Brock Lesnar leaving wrestling behind for 8 years. It was a combination of pain, travel, lack of family time, lack of time off and backstage politics that all built up over the short time that Lesnar was in the main roster.
He signed with the Minnesota Vikings once he left WWE but was released after the pre-season, having suffered a setback when he was the victim of a motorcycle accident causing several injuries.
He then had a long legal battle with the WWE having signed his release contract, not caring at the time that there was a no-compete clause that would see him banned from wrestling or MMA until mid-2010.
He won this battle and the rest is history. He went to Japan to wrestle and became the IWGP Heavyweight Champion there. After that he moved to the UFC, becoming the Heavyweight Champion their and breaking PPV records.
Lesnar would return to his home of WWE in 2012 on a much lighter schedule and is currently, the reigning, defending WWE Universal Champion! I think I can speak for all of us when I say I'm glad he buried the hatchet and came back to the place that made him.
Send us news tips at [email protected]
