Brock Lesnar in 2002

Brock Lesnar had an incredible, yet grueling run in WWE in 2002. The 2002 run Brock had is unique when you look at it closely. The particulars of this year haven't gone through much a review with a 20 year lookback. Specific to this review, we will only focus on what happened in 2002. We will not acknowledge prior training or matches that occurred in 2001. This is not to dimmish Ohio Valley Wrestling, but training in a wrestling ring is seldom a predictor of success in wrestling.

Fan reactions are everything. Brock made fans react.

In the first quarter of 2002, Mr. Lesnar worked several house shows in January and February. On March 18th, Brock debuted on WWE Monday Night Raw. He attacked Al Snow on this show. The crowd loved this moment and was still ready for more. This is a period of time where WWE is aggresively in a period of transition following the sale of WCW.

In the second quarter of 2002, Brock had his first TV match in April, PPV debut in May, and won King of the Ring on June 23rd. Prior to winning the King of the Ring, there were a number of matches with Rob Van Dam. Similar to his debut, Brock won King of the Ring with Paul Heyman by his side.

After winning King of the Ring in June, Brock has the summer of a lifetime (for pro-wrestling fan). Brock started off this summer by beating Ric Flair on July 1st. The momentum continues and Brock had his first and only match with Hulk Hogan in early August to become the number one contender to the WWE Championship. The Rock would lose the Undisputed WWE Heavyweight Championship at Summer Slam on August 25th to Brock Lesnar.

Let's pause here... to talk about what's happening with The Rock, WCW and wrestling in the pre-1940s.

In my opinion, this is in the top 5 of the late career matches of Dwayne Johnson (at the time of writing, this is the 14th most recent of The Rocks broadcasted full length, matches). This is essentially Dwayne Johnsons last rodeo as a full time wrestler, before becoming a part time cast member in the following 22 years. The rest of The Rocks career is known to many and he is arguably the most famous professional wrestler of all time.

In 2001, WWE would acquire the assets of WCW. The WCW Championship had lineage going back to early 20th century as an offshoot of the NWA World Championship with lineage debatably traced back to 1905. Further arguments could be made that trace the overall lineage to an era where professional wrestling had a feigning relationships with traditional Greco-Roman wrestling - all the way to the 1880s. All that said, becoming WWE Champion gives you a unique place in United States history that may one day be viewed as more prestigious, than how it is viewed today.

Going back to Brock - lets briefly recap what happened. Brock debuted on TV and became champion in 160 days. Brock was pushed to his potential quickly during his first run. To contemporary fans (last 20 years only), a run like this is almost unimaginable and quite frankly impossible in the current TV wrestling ecosystem in WWE or elsewhere.

In the modern era, this would be the equivalent of making a WWE NXT house show debut in January, debuting on NXT TV in March, moving up to the main roster by the early summer and winning a title by Summerslam. This would also requiring beating a historical rogues gallery of foes along the way John Cena (The Rock), Randy Orton (Flair), AJ Styles (Rob Van Dam) and The Rock (Hogan). All that said, I am not sure there is anyone who could make the stars align perfectly to replicate Brock Lesnars 2002 run.

By 2004, Brock Lesnar left for a wide variety of reasons ranging from physical exhaustion, personal battles and mental burnout. This was a quick therapeutic writing exercise for me. If you made it this far thanks for sticking with me.