Wrestling / Brock Lesnar

The Next Big Thing.
The Beast Incarnate.
The Alpha Male of Our Species.

"Let's get one thing straight: Brock Lesnar is not here to put smiles on people's faces. Brock Lesnar is here to shock the WWE Universe and put tears in the eyes of children."

— Paul Heyman

[guitar riff]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MY NAME IS PAUL HEYMAN, AND I AM THE ADVOCATE FOR THE REIGNING, DEFENDING, UNDISPUTED WWE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD...

Brock Edward Lesnar (born July 12, 1977) is a professional wrestler and MMA fighter. Lesnar won the NCAA Division I Heavyweight Championship in 2000, before being signed to WWE's developmental promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling later that year, and in 2002 debuted in WWE full-time. After winning the WWE Championship three times, he suddenly left WWE in 2004 to try out for American Football. He played pre-season for the Minnesota Vikings, but was cut before the regular season began. He then returned to wrestling and went on to win New Japan Pro-Wrestling's IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

After moving to Mixed Martial Arts, Lesnar won the UFC Heavyweight Championship in 2008 from Randy Couture, later losing it to Cain Velasquez in 2010. He served as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Junior Dos Santos. However, an ongoing battle with diverticulitis ended up cutting his MMA career short, and he retired after losing to Alistair Overeem in late 2011. Lesnar returned to the UFC for one night only at UFC 200 in July 2016, defeating Mark Hunt, although the decision was reversed (being declared a no-contest) after Lesnar failed a drug test.

Lesnar returned to the WWE on the April 2, 2012 episode of WWE Raw, when he came out and hit John Cena with the F5. In 2014, Lesnar defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX, ending 'Taker's previous 21-0 streak at the show. Four months later he decisively beat Cena (for the fourth time) at SummerSlam 2014 to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, only dropping it more than half a year later at WrestleMania 31 to Seth Rollins without being pinned.^ExplanationRollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract while Lesnar's match for the title with Roman Reigns was in progress, converting it into a triple threat match, and subsequently pinned Reigns to win the match and the title. Two years later, he would again become a heavyweight champion, defeating Goldberg at WrestleMania 33 to win the WWE Universal Championship and carry it until SummerSlam 2018, where he was defeated by Roman Reigns after being distracted by Braun Strowman. When Reigns was forced to take a hiatus from the ring to undergo leukemia treatment, Lesnar again won the vacant Universal Championship against Strowman at the 2018 Crown Jewel event, making him a two-time WWE Universal Champion, only to end up losing it to Rollins at WrestleMania 35 after being low-blowed. On May 19, 2019, he won the annual men's Money in the Bank ladder match, eventually cashing in the contract at Extreme Rules on July 14, 2019 to become a three-time Universal Champion. Unfortunately, Lesnar's third Universal Title reign lasted less than a month, as Rollins defeated him yet again at SummerSlam 2019 despite the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he gave to The Architect two weeks earlier.

Lesnar openly considered retiring from the ring circa 2020 following the end of his contract (namely following his match against Drew McIntyre in WrestleMania 36), but he returned in Summerslam 2021, complete with a new look including a beard and Viking ponytail, and has since made periodic appearances as a part-timer. However, in early 2024, just before the year's Royal Rumble, Lesnar was implicated in the latest lawsuit against Vince McMahon, alluded to as a co-conspirator in various sexual assault/sex trafficking allegations^note Unlike other co-defendant John Laurinaitis, Lesnar was not named in the lawsuit, only referred to as "a world-famous athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion with whom WWE was actively trying to sign a new contract", though given that Lesnar was just about the only talent in WWE's roster that fits those credentials, he was quickly pinned as such. Due to this, he was quietly pulled from all of WWE's plans for the rest of the year (including appearances at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania XL) as well as scrubbed from upcoming video game tie-ins including WWE 2K24, leaving Lesnar's future in wrestling uncertain. An official statement from WWE didn't come until April during WrestleMania XL of all times, where Triple H stated "Brock is not gone from WWE," and that he's otherwise minding his own business for now — whether that will change is yet to be seen.

Lesnar has also managed to leave an impact on pop culture. By their own admission, the creators of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things and Attack on Titan used Lesnar as a model for the physical build of two important characters — Commander Badass and the Armored Titan, respectively. Coincidentally, they both seem to know Brock mostly from his UFC days.

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These are the Next Big Tropes:

#–D

• 10-Minute Retirement:
  • He retired from wrestling to pursue a career in the National Football League, but was cut before the season began, so he returned to wrestling. He would also retire from the UFC in 2011, only to end up with a scheduled bout five years later.
  • A much briefer instance came in July 22, 2022, the day that Vince McMahon announced his own retirement. Mere hours following the surprise announcement, Brock reportedly walked out on the WWE in a huff, proclaiming "If he's gone, I'm gone." To much further surprise and confusion, Brock would end up appearing on that's night's SmackDown anyway to deliver a finishing blow on Austin Theory. According to later comments by Triple H, Brock genuinely was threatening to leave WWE, but managed to be convinced to stay after cooling off and discussing potential plans. He's continued to make periodic appearances in WWE events from SummerSlam to the 2022 season premiere of RAW, so it seems Trips has managed to keep him around for the time being.
• Achilles' Heel: Being low blowed. Seriously, in WWE, Lesnar will never lose (or even give up the slightest offence) to anyone except a chosen few top guys like Roman Reigns or Goldberg unless he gets kicked in the balls first. You'd think he'd start wearing a cup while wrestling by now.
• Actor Allusion: When Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012, his entire gimmick was essentially lifted from his UFC career. He fights four or five times a year, he wears MMA-style shorts and gloves in the ring, uses the Kimura Lock as a submission finisher, and Paul Heyman always makes it a point to introduce him like Bruce Buffer would a UFC fighter:
  Heyman: Tonight! Fighting out of the Conqueror's corner! The reigning, defending, undisputed WWE Heavyweight Champion of the world! BRRRRRRRRRRRROCK! LEEEEEEEEESNAR!
• Always Someone Better:
  • One of his few losses as an amateur wrestler came in the 1999 NCAA Division I wrestling championship to Stephen Neal, who later went on to live Lesnar's dream of playing in the NFL, and played for the New England Patriots from 2001 to 2010. Although Lesnar did win the championship the following year, and became much more famous and accomplished by going into pro wrestling and MMA, he admitted in a March 2011 interview that the loss to Neal still stuck with him.
  • Goldberg is the only wrestler Lesnar wasn't able to defeat for most of his WWE career. Worse, their second encounter not only ended with Lesnar's loss — he also got squashed flat. He finally got a win over Goldberg at WrestleMania 33.
• And Starring: WWE's April 30, 2012 show was titled "WWE Raw Supershow starring Brock Lesnar". A week later, Triple H showed up and put a stop to it.
• Anti-Villain: Or Anti-Hero in the rare instances where he's presented as a clear-cut babyface. Lesnar's pro-wrestling character has always been sort of a jerkass, but as a face in 2003, he would help out fan favorites like Rey Mysterio if they were getting mugged by a group of heels or something. In his 2012-2018 run, though, he's been either a nominal cool heel or a de facto face depending on the feud or even the night (as he seems to attack both faces and heels almost indiscriminately), he has no friends except Paul Heyman (by choice — he doesn't interact at all with anyone other than Heyman unless he's using his fists), he openly does not care about the "sport" of pro wrestling as much as his paycheck and being the best, and he respects absolutely no one. In fact, he's neither truly a Face nor a Heel: he's the WWE version of Akuma.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • In MMA, possibly Frank Mir. Mir handed Lesnar his first pro MMA defeat, but only after Brock effortlessly took him down in the first five seconds and relentlessly smashed his face into the mat (for reference, Lesnar landed 32 strikes to Mir's 2 in this fight). Mir went on to brag about the win and bad-mouth Lesnar in the following weeks, which fueled Brock to beat him decisively, by TKO, in a rematch.
  • The Undertaker. Brock has history with Undertaker dating back to Lesnar's initial early-2000s WWE run. When he returned in 2012, he would eventually end Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania. 'Taker would've been graceful with the loss if Lesnar (and by Lesnar, we mean Paul Heyman) hadn't kept boasting about it on live TV for the next year and a half.
  • John Cena. Besides the feud Lesnar had with a young Cena in 2003 and later on immediately after Lesnar's return to WWE in 2012, various reports from the early 2000s claimed that Lesnar has legitimate heat towards Cena in real life and even tried to sabotage the soon-to-be 16-time World Champion's career at some point. They would later put aside their differences from 2012 onwards and Cena wished Lesnar good luck while expecting him to win in his UFC 200 bout against Mark Hunt out of respect for "The Next Big Thing" in a real-life interview.
  • In spite of the many efforts by the members of The Shield between 2015 and 2020, Lesnar eventually met his contemporary match in - of all people - Drew McIntyre. Beginning with the Scottish Terminator's elimination of him at Royal Rumble 2020, Lesnar came out on the wrong side of virtually every encounter with McIntyre from that point up until WrestleMania 36. At the event itself, McIntyre powered through Lesnar's explosive opening assault, kicked out of three F5s, and proceeded to annihilate Lesnar within the space of about five minutes, beginning a virtually-unstoppable WWE Championship run of his own in the process.
  • Bobby Lashley became Lesnar enemy after Lashley became number one contender for the WWE Championship. At Royal Rumble 2022, Lesnar lost the match after Paul Heyman betrayed Lesnar and Roman Reigns interfere while Lashley take advantage to win WWE Championship. The feud continued after Lesnar attacked Lashley and cost Lashley United States Championship to Seth Rollins. Lesnar and Lashley have a rematch at Crown Jewel which Lesnar won ended in a controversial finish.
• The Artifact: The name of his Finishing Move, the F-5, still remains unchanged despite its name origin, the Fujita Scale, has already been replaced by the Enhanced Fujita Scale, years before he returned to WWE in 2012. If Brock or WWE decides to update his finisher's name, it will be called EF-5, which is the highest rating of the EF-Scale, just like the F-5 rating the highest on the old version.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!:
  • His main strategy. And with his speed and strength, he doesn't need to use any other strategy, although it can come back to bite him on occasion, such as against Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez and John Cena (at Extreme Rules in 2012— against Cena in 2014, this strategy actually led to Cena's embarassing loss in a frighteningly one-sided match).
  • Cena would later use this tactic against Lesnar at Night of Champions 2014 by taking a page from his matches in the UFC.
• Ax-Crazy: Best summed up by Brock himself in a vignette before SummerSlam 2014. "If you want to wrap your head around my world, you need to understand one thing: I enjoy hurting people." He isn't called "The Baddest Dude on the Planet" for nothing.
• The Bad Guy Wins: This has often been the case since Lesnar's 2012 return to WWE, during which time he became a hero-killing heel who cleanly and decisively vanquishes high-level, main-event talent such as John Cena, Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, and The Undertaker.
• Badass Boast:
  • "I am the Next Big Thing!" Also doubled as his Red Baron until it was replaced by "The Beast"/"The Conqueror".
  • During the 2004 No Way Out intro he uttered this epic line:
    Lesnar: I've beaten legends, great ones, phenoms! You are no one!
  • In a vignette leading up to SummerSlam 2014, he gives his thoughts on breaking The Streak:
    Lesnar: The thing is, I knew I was gonna beat the Undertaker. Everyone knew I was gonna beat the Undertaker. They just didn't want to believe it. For God's sake, why wouldn't Brock Lesnar be able to beat the Undertaker? Because he's some mythical god?
• Badass Decay: An interesting case, all the more so as it seems to be getting deliberately invoked. Breaking The Undertaker's streak, his notorious pummeling of Cena to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, requiring Seth Rollins to cash-in his MITB briefcase mid-match to get the title off him (and he still didn't get pinned, as Rollins instead pinned Roman Reigns), decisively wrecking 'Taker again at HIAC 2015, creaming Randy Orton via legitimately beating him halfway unconscious at SummerSlam 2016 - there have been few wrestlers in history as dominant. Then came Survivor Series 2016 where he lost to Goldberg in 1 minute 26 seconds. Since then The Beast Incarnate is still damn dominant - but he's not treated as the invincible Physical God he once was. Let's review Brock's 2017-2018...
  • Royal Rumble 2017: Goldberg eliminates him from the Rumble in under a minute.
  • WrestleMania 33: He wins the Universal Championship from Goldberg, but in a match where Goldberg hammers him for most of it until he makes a mistake that allows Lesnar to recover.
  • Great Balls of Fire 2017: He retains, but Samoa Joe kicks his ass for most of the match until an F5 out of nowhere.
  • Summerslam 2017: Braun Strowman utterly wrecks him and sends him out the match on a stretcher, and while he returns and wins, he spends most of the rest of the match getting battered by Joe and Reigns.
  • No Mercy 2017: Another close call where he gets dominated by Strowman for a lot of the match.
  • Survivor Series 2017: While he crushes AJ Styles for the first half of the match, AJ comes damn close to pulling off a win regardless.
  • WrestleMania 34: While he dominates against perennial headache Reigns, he just can't keep him down. For most of the match, nothing - Germans, busting him open hardway, multiple F5s (including one through the announce table) - can keep Reigns down, and Big Dog has a comeback rolling several times. It takes 5 F5s before Roman goes down.
  • Greatest Royal Rumble: Lesnar finds himself being almost pulverized by Reigns and only won by dumb luck because of Reigns spearing him through the cage, at which point Brock won a technicality by touching the floor outside the ring before Reigns.
  • Summerslam 2018: Finally goes down in convincing fashion to just one Reigns spear, albeit after Brock got sidetracked by beating up MITB holder Braun Strowman.
  • Crown Jewel: While he totally destroys Braun Strowman to reclaim the vacant Universal Championship, he only gets to do so after Raw GM Baron Corbin has jumped Strowman at the outset of the match, allowing Brock to take advantage.
  • WrestleMania 35: Unfortunately, after two successful title defenses, he's defeated yet again... this time by a Groin Attack from Rollins.
• Baritone of Strength: Inverted. Brock Lesnar may have the strength and size of a wrestling giant, but his voice is quite high-pitched, as evidenced by his memetic tire-like screech.
• Beard of Evil: The bearded Brock Lesnar, once a face, turned heel after attacking and brutalizing Cody Rhodes on the Raw after WrestleMania 39.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't mock his F-5, call him a Dumb Muscle, or slap him in the face, as John Cena regretted them soon after.
    Cena: [in a Simpleton Voice] Big Brock Lesnar, here comes the pain! God built me strong, forget to give me brain!
  • On an even more serious note, don't bring up his failed drug test which got him suspended for a year from the UFC. Randy Orton found this even worse!
  • Not even Heyman was safe from Lesnar's rage back in the early 2000s, as backstabbing him and later calling him "useless" turned out to be a bad idea. Heyman got an F-5 for the latter part.
    Heyman: If you F-5 me, Kurt Angle will beat you at WrestleMania so bad, you'll be as useless as a woman from Canada!
  • Don't hit him with stiff blows or he will respond with a real blow, as Braun Strowman discovered.
  • Callouts. After months of Matt Riddle angling for a Lesnar match in interviews and on Twitter (while Riddle was on NXT), Lesnar confronted Riddle during the 2020 Royal Rumble, and told him to knock it off while adding he would never work with Riddle because of his attitude.
• Big "SHUT UP!": His first line (not counting a UK-exclusive PPV) on WWE television was to interrupt Paul Heyman mid-rant by screaming "SHUT UP PAUL!" at him.
• Blood Is the New Black:
  • After busting Spanky open, Brock found Spanky's blood on his chest and then started headbutting Spanky's open wound till he was brown with dried blood.
  • After his early-career victory over Hulk Hogan, Lesnar had quite a bit of Hogan's blood on his hands (literally). To discard it, he calmly wiped it across his massive chest, which resulted in a damn cool-looking "badge of honor," as Michael Cole put it.◊
  • Lesnar busted John Cena open at Extreme Rules in 2012, making him bleed profusely, and also at one point nonchalantly licked Cena's blood off of his hands while smiling about it.
• Blood Knight:
  • Arguably anybody that competes in UFC has to be a bit of one, but he brought it into WWE with him as well. The in-universe explanation apparently is that he 'started' in WWE, and 'left' for UFC because pro wrestling didn't sate his bloodlust.
    Lesnar: What makes me happy? Beating people up. That's what makes me happy.
  • Additionally, during an interview with ESPN, Lesnar claimed, apparently with the straightest of faces, that if it was legal to go out and beat down random people on the streets just for kicks, it'd be his number-one hobby.
    Lesnar: If it was legal and I wouldn't get in trouble, I'd pick a fight on every street. If I wouldn't lose any money or nothing, I would fight. I'd fight every day.
  • Proved that he's for real about it (at least in kayfabe) when 3MB (a heel stable) called out The Shield (a face stable) due to a confrontation that the two groups had a week prior. Everyone watching was probably anxious to see The Shield lay the ass-kicking of a lifetime on 3MB, but who comes out instead? Brock fucking Lesnar, who was himself a heel at the time (heel-on-heel violence tends to be rare in WWE). Long story short, Brock Lesnar showed up during a promo of a mini-feud in which he was in no way involved, and ripped three other heels to shreds without saying a word. Why, you ask? Because Triple H, who also had zero personal connection to any of this, beat him fairly in a one-on-one match the night before.
• Blow You Away: Though very rarely, he is also being associated with storms and tornadoes. One of his old nicknames is the "Perfect Storm" (which will be later used for the billing of his match against Triple H at SummerSlam 2012) and the name origin of his F-5 Finishing Move is taken from the highest rating of the Fujita Scale, which was used for rating tornado intensity.
• Bond One-Liner: At the end of a segment where R-Truth declared, then "undeclared" for the Royal Rumble upon learning Lesnar would be entering (he thought it was Paul Heyman), Truth was on his way out after doing his usual "What's up!" greeting to the crowd... only for Lesnar to pick him up, F-5 him and pick up the mic to respond "That's what's up!"
• Bookends: He debuted in WWE on March 18th 2002, the night after WrestleMania X8, and made his final appearance on his first run for the company at WrestleMania XX. And then he returned to WWE in 2012, on the April 2 episode of Raw, the night after WrestleMania 28, providing another bookend.
• Boring, but Practical: Lesnar's Signature Move after his return in 2012, the Kimura Lock, would be more suited to the days of Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund (and probably has been used by one of them) and looks out of place beside flashier moves of today. However, it can cripple someone in real life and is a nice nod to his MMA days (even though Lesnar, being a former wrestler, wouldn't be very likely to attempt a submission in which Lesnar himself is on his back). That being said, Lesnar has used the move to, in kayfabe, break his opponents' arms.
• Brilliant, but Lazy:
  • Beat The Streak, destroyed John Cena like he was nothing, and only bothers to show up a few times a year to wrestle. To be fair, however, this may be a Call-Back to his days in UFC, in which fighters defend their titles less than once a month.^note Real fighting is more grueling than staged fighting, even full-contact staged fighting like pro wrestling. Hence MMA fighters always having several weeks between matches to recover.
  • Actually integrated into his feud with Goldberg, where he was unexpectedly decimated by the returning star. Heyman did his best to play it off as a fluke and that maybe Brock had become unfocused after sitting on top of the mountain for so long. This is also Truth in Television for Brock's "MMA fighter" gimmick, as even brilliant MMA fighters are always one bad break away from a loss.
• Broken Win/Loss Streak: The most infamous in professional wrestling history, Brock Lesnar is the first man to ever defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
• The Brute: During his first heel run, with Paul Heyman as his manager and mouthpiece. A role he frequently returns to.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Returned to Raw, April 2, 2012 and laid out Cena with an F5. This was after many believed he'd never return after the disaster that was his match with Goldberg at WrestleMania XX, plus the aftermath.
  • When Brock finally lost the Universal Title to Roman Reigns at 2018's SummerSlam, with his UFC Heavyweight Title match against Daniel Cormier also looming, and being told that he won't get a rematch for the Universal Title any time soon, it seemed he was written off at least temporarily, most likely for the remainder of 2018. Nope. He showed up at the 2018 Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, literally kicked in the door, and laid out both Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman.
• Camera Abuse: Upon the revelation that he would be facing Daniel Cormier for the UFC Heavyweight title, he smashed a camera lens after declaring "D.C! I'M COMING FOR YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!!"
• Character Tics: Lesnar has a tendency to hop in place while flexing his arms and shoulders if he's not too busy booking trips to Suplex City. This trait is completely absent in UFC, however.
• Charles Atlas Super Power: Particularly in his days in WWE, he seemed impossibly strong, even able to hoist the 500 pound Big Show around with ease. This is actually Truth in Television. As far back as middle school, Lesnar is noted to have been freakishly strong. Like many Strongman competitors, he grew up on a farm, and became accustomed to lifting heavy loads (such as young calves) and developed an iron-clad work ethic. It's best described by the man himself in a UFC Countdown video:
  Brock Lesnar: [in response to how training for MMA differs from professional wrestling] I learned early on that I don't need to lift 500 or 600 pounds once. I need to be able to press 250 pounds as many times in a row as I need.
• Combat Pragmatist: In his matches, he wants to cause as much pain as possible, rules and/or showmanship be damned. This is especially made notable at SummerSlam 2014, where, to paraphrase AJ Styles, Brock beat the piss out John Cena and peeled his head like an onion on the way to capturing his fourth WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It was an incredible display of how to physically wear down and dissect a superman, which also contained a brilliant subtle insult aimed at Cena's place in history. Described perfectly by Paul Heyman, who educated John Cena on Brock Lesnar's psychology during a match, and why he can't be beaten:
  Heyman: With all due respect, Mr. Cena, that is your biggest problem. You LIVE to be John Cena. You LIVE for the fans to chant at the top of their lungs, "LET'S GO CENA!" But you see, when Brock Lesnar steps into the ring, Brock Lesnar doesn't hear anybody but three people: (1) The referee, who has the power to disqualify him, (2) Paul Heyman, who strategizes his greatest victories, and (3) the suffering of his victims, like YOU suffered at Brock Lesnar's hands at SummerSlam.
• Commuting on a Bus: This has been his works schedule since his New Japan run. And while it's not unusual for a champion to not be in NJPW full time, it is expected that they still defended the title elsewhere. It's called the International Wrestling Grand Prix for a reason. Brock fared much better in UFC, where champions typically defend their titles less than once a month anyway.
• Construction Vehicle Rampage: Brock's got a penchant for wreaking havoc with motorized equipment in his Farm Boy face run. Most famously, his use of a massive tractor as Summerslam 2022.
• Crossover: When New Japan stripped Lesnar of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for refusing to drop it despite his poor reception (among other things), Antonio Inoki declared they had made a mistake and declared Brock was still champion in the Inoki Genome Federation. He then brought in TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle for a title vs. title match, which Angle won. After two defenses, Angle lost the title to Shinsuke Nakamura to send the belt back to New Japan for good.
• Cue the Flying Pigs: When he broke The Streak, the fans looked like the ring had just exploded while they watched in silent disbelief. It was easily the most legitimately shocking match result in the entire modern era of mainstream professional wrestling, and maybe the entire history of pro wrestling period.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • He's notorious for dishing these out in his pro wrestling persona, sometimes just for fun. None were more impressive, however, than the one he handed to JOHN CENA in 2014.
  • He was, however, on the receiving end of one at Survivor Series 2016 when he was completely decimated by Goldberg, returning for his first match in 12 years, after a pair of Spears and a single Jackhammer.
• Dark Is Evil: Constantly wears black clothes and wrestles in black fighting gear, and most of the time he's a heel.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In his 2003 and 2015 face run (although the latter was closer to Anti-Hero than anything), he didn't change his black clothes.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: He ended The Undertaker's WrestleMania winning streak 100% cleanly and decisively. Go watch WrestleMania XXVII and marvel at the ludicrously one-sided beatdown that Triple H gave to the Deadman, on top of making liberal use of various weapons, and still lost, while Lesnar defeated The Undertaker with nothing but his bare hands.
  • Played with during his SummerSlam 2018 rematch against Reigns, as Lesnar is starting to lose his confidence due to Strowman's presence. His attack on Strowman during the match proved to be his own undoing, however, as Reigns launches a surprise attack on Lesnar for the clean pin.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • In the UFC, of all places. Brock didn't have true enmity for any of his opponents (save Frank Mir), but after defeating MMA legend and fellow Olympic-Caliber wrestler Randy Couture, Brock invited him to train at his Minnesota home in preparation for his heavyweight title defense against Shane Carwin.
  • Lesnar (in real life and kayfabe) defies this trope in WWE, where he has a good deal of respect in the locker room but few actual friends.
• Defiant to the End: Gave Undertaker a middle finger before passing out in the Hell's Gate submission hold at SummerSlam 2015.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "This is a real feeling that you're feeling because I can feel it! I'm the reason you're feeling the way that you're feeling right now, John."
• Determinator: At the 2015 Royal Rumble pay-per-view. In a triple-threat match with John Cena and Seth Rollins, Rollins and Cena, despite being INCREDIBLY bitter enemies, did their best to turn the bout into a handicap match to eliminate Lesnar. Brock suffered the following: FOUR Attitude Adjustments, a Curb Stomp, an Irish Whip into the steel ringside stairs, an attack to the head using the stairs, an elbow drop through the announce table (which in kayfabe was credited for breaking at least one of Lesnar's ribs), and two shots to the side of his head with Rollins' metal Money in the Bank briefcase. Lesnar won the match... despite using no weapons and pretty much doing nothing but suplexes and finishers.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He ended The Undertaker's WrestleMania winning streak cleanly.
• Dirty Coward:
  • For all the bravado and monstrous athleticism, Lesnar shows some shades of this and is not above using underhanded tactics to win, such as his Tag Match with the still-heelish John Cena against The Undertaker and Kurt Angle back in SmackDown! through switching places without even tagging.
  • He even tried to attack Eddie Guerrero with his World Title in No Way Out 2004, only for Goldberg to interfere and cost him the match.
  • He's also fond of low blowing his opponents whenever he's too desperate to win a match, although The Undertaker and Rollins repaid him in kind... thrice each.
  • Reigns accused Lesnar yet again of being this during his promo in the 2/26/18 edition of RAW, and was right two weeks later when Lesnar hospitalized an already handcuffed and defenseless Reigns with several chairshots in the back and some F-5s. Then again, as Reigns pointed out, Lesnar is not really cowardly because a) he's a part-timer, b) he's just too lazy to cut promos, and c) he lacks a passion for wrestling.
  • And then there's his WrestleMania 35 rematch against Seth Rollins by arranging the schedule of their match so he could easily gain a significant advantage over Rollins. This action, however, backfires on Lesnar when Rollins countered his attempted F5 before giving him a groin shot.
• The Dragon:
  • To Vince McMahon following his Face–Heel Turn in 2003.
  • John Laurinaitis tried to make him this, but it backfired.
• The Dreaded: CM Punk said it best— Brock's greatest weapon has never been any of his physical gifts (and he has many), but the sheer, morbid fear that all of his opponents had towards him, whether they showed it or not.

E–M

• Easily Forgiven: After ending The Streak, you'd think he'd have heel heat forever. But once it was leaked that he would be facing John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam 2014, there were a group of fans rooting for him. People even started chanting "We Want Lesnar" on the Raw after Money in the Bank. So either people were over The Streak ending, or they just wanted Lesnar to take the title from Cena. He's also gotten cheers for not acquiescing to The Authority, and possibly for his tendency to beat up heels despite technically being one himself (and the fans might simply have a huge amount of respect for his breathtaking athletic ability and the matches that he puts on).
• Embarrassing Tattoo: His sword tattoo looks like a little too much like another type of sword...
• Enemy Mine: Cena teamed up with Lesnar at some point in the 10/2/03 episode of SmackDown! due to the former's massive beef with The Undertaker and Kurt Angle. As much as Lesnar doesn't like Cena for personal reasons until now (the Dumb Muscle rap, The first "F-U" incident, slapping his face, etc.), at least for once, Lesnar agrees that both of them wanted a piece of the deadman biker and the olympic gold medalist.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Lesnar debuted during a hardcore match on Monday Night Raw and proceeded to pound Al Snow, Maven Huffman, and Spike Dudley into the mat like they were dolls while hardly breaking a sweat (note: almost all of the participants in this match were armed with weapons— Lesnar gave approximately zero fucks). To further drive the point home, Maven was the Hardcore Champion, and this was when the 24/7 rule (so long as a WWE official was present, the Hardcore title could be defended at any moment) was in effect, meaning, in kayfabe, he could have pinned Maven and won the Hardcore Title in his first ever TV appearance if he had wanted.
  • Upon his first re-appearance in WWE, he made a beeline straight for the ring and delivered an F5 to John Cena without saying a single word.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman seem to be each other's only friend in the business, and have a genuine respect for one another. If someone looks like they are getting in Heyman's face, here comes Brock to step up and protect his manager (kayfabe-wise Heyman has some other friends. They just haven't appeared on WWE programming since he came back).
  • Even Heyman will step in to protect Lesnar, knowing full well that he doesn't stand a chance against any kind of wrestler. This was shown in the 2013 Extreme Rules match against Triple H where he runs into the cage where Trips has Brock in a submission he has no chance of escaping, without so much as a weapon, just to get him to let go. Afterwards, he wills himself up just long enough to get a cheap shot on Hunter and gives Lesnar the victory. If they weren't heels at the time, that would have been a touching Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Since Brock's de-facto Heel–Face Turn when he announced he was re-signing with WWE for three years and officially done with UFC, Heyman has been cleverly using his "Heyman Hustle" YouTube channel to promote Brock to the masses by taking advantage of relevant viral moments. This is hardly a friendship that ends when the cameras stop rolling or the alliance of convenience their characters would typically insist it is.
• Even Evil Has Standards: On the February 22, 2016 episode of Raw, Lesnar attacked and hospitalized Dean Ambrose, who showed up during a Lesnar/Heyman promo later that night, driving an ambulance into the arena, still in a neck brace, and literally unable to stand. He crawled to ringside and collapsed in a heap at Lesnar's feet, to which Lesnar showed mercy for Ambrose and settled for simply stepping over him (and on his face) and leaving the arena. That is, until Ambrose told Brock to "kiss [his] ass" and challenged him to a match at WrestleMania. He ate an F5 on the floor for his troubles.
• Everyone Has Standards: Jim Ross has gone on record stating that Lesnar, even with his Real Life abrasive attitude towards other superstars and his mercenary attitude towards WWE, actually didn't want to break The Streak, but was ordered to do so by Vince and had gained the approval of Undertaker himself.
• Evil Plan: His main objective at Extreme Rules 2012 was to hurt John Cena. Which he did.
• Evil Versus Evil: Most of his one-on-one matches as WWE Universal Champion have been against fellow heels Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman.
• Eviler than Thou:
  • John Laurinaitis tried to bring him in as The Dragon, but Lesnar turned the tables and bullied him into giving him whatever he wanted.
  • Heyman would later found out three weeks prior to SummerSlam 2018 that Lesnar sees him not as a friend, but as a pawn... except they were just faking a breakup to catch Reigns off guard.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: The McMahons and even Heyman himself seem to keep forgetting just how ruthless Lesnar can be when he's not apathetic. More than once they've had an Even Evil Has Standards reaction to Brock's antics only for him to keep going. A guy like Lesnar isn't going to stop doing whatever the hell he wants just because his handlers are suddenly uncomfortable with what he's doing.
• Exact Words: At one point, Brock had a cameraman held up across his shoulder and Stephanie McMahon told him to put the man down. The end result was an F5.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: The 2014 Royal Rumble saw Lesnar likely exceed WWE's yearly chair shot quota all over The Big Show's back - breaking three chairs in the process.
• False Friend: Turns out that Lesnar is just using Heyman so he could get paid with loads of cash, only for Heyman to reveal that this was just a Batman Gambit they cooked up against Reigns.
• Farm Boy: In South Dakota. Made literal with his gimmick post-SummerSlam 2021.
• Finishing Move: His primary one is the F5, which always has One-Hit Kill status as mentioned below. In his rookie days, he uses the Shooting Star Press and briefly used a Stretch Muffler (which is called the Brock Lock) in his first main roster run. Upon his return in 2012, he added a Kimura Lock with bodyscissors, which he usually uses like a "Break Glass in Case of Emergency" finisher if he can't use nor finish things with his F5.
• Five Moves of Doom: More like Two Moves of Doom. Nowadays, all Lesnar ever really does in a match is to go for German suplex after German suplex (plus other kinds of suplexes)... and maybe throw an occasional jab or two before the inevitable F5. This became noticeable after his 16-suplex beatdown of John Cena, and from then on evolved into a popular Memetic Mutation (i.e. Suplex City).
• Flipping the Bird: Did this to The Undertaker as Taker put Lesnar in Hell's Gate the second time during their SummerSlam 2015 rematch. Also did this to Cody Rhodes with two middle fingers after destroying Cody before what was supposed to be the main event of the Raw after WrestleMania 39, turning him heel.
• Four Is Death: Lesnar's victory over Cena at SummerSlam 2014 earned him his fourth reign with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (he previously hold the WWE Championship three times in his first run) in the company. Also, during that match, he also delivered 16 suplexes before finishing with the F5. Square root of 16 is, you guessed it, 4.
• Funny Background Event: At WrestleMania 33, when Brock was inevitably Jackhammered by Goldberg, Paul Heyman was visible at ringside, with his hand over his face in disappointment◊, as if he couldn't bear to watch Brock lose to Goldberg again. Then Brock kicked out.
• Game-Breaking Injury: His (ongoing) battle with diverticulitis hindered his MMA career quite badly, leading to his partial retirement.
• Gimmick Matches: He defeated The Collector in a "shootfight" by disqualification at OVW Night Of The Demon. after Lesnar's Tag Team partner Shelton Benjamin got a similar "victory" in a regular match.
• The Gloves Come Off: If Brock takes off his MMA gloves during a match, he's kicked it into another gear and someone is about to get hurt (more).
• Groin Attack: Has no qualms about running up behind someone (say, John Cena or The Undertaker for example) and kicking him right in the balls. This would also bite him in the ass as well, especially when The Undertaker and Rollins did the same to him multiple times. The most humiliating example is from SmackDown!, where Eddie used Cena's chain for a cheap groin shot on Lesnar for the win.
• Handicapped Badass: He kept fighting in UFC even when suffering from diverticulitis. YMMV on the claims by Paul Heyman, but Lesnar was supposedly only at "50 percent" because of his continued issues with diverticulitis even while devastating John Cena for 20+ minutes at Extreme Rules 2012, only to narrowly lose the match after two hits.^note To be fair, while Heyman the character is a pathological liar, he's generally pretty straightforward when it comes to his association with Lesnar. Plus, Brock's diverticulitis was used as part of the match psychology between him and Triple H months later at that year's SummerSlam, so it's pretty likely he's not lying here. Going into SummerSlam 2014? He was allegedly at 100%. He decisively beat John Cena.
• Handshake Refusal: Big Show offered Lesnar a congratulatory handshake after being defeated soundly by Brock at a special WWE Network-only event in late 2015. As if thinking that Lesnar would actually shake his hand wasn't already less than logical, Big Show then decided to taunt Lesnar in return by bringing up the fact that Undertaker beat him at 2015's SummerSlam, which earned Show a trip to Suplex City.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: His face runs work like this, especially during his feud with Big Show and Angle in 2002-2003.
  • His 2021 return places him as the de facto face against Roman Reigns. That same return of course was punctuated with him performing a post-show beatdown on John Cena.
• Hero Killer:
  • Before Randy Orton becomes the Legend Killer, Brock Lesnar holds that title. In just a few months after his debut, he was known to had destroyed three WWE legends; Hulk Hogan (being the first man to make Hulkamania bleeds), The Rock and The Undertaker.
  • His entire comeback run in WWE appears to be built on Lesnar being exactly this, becoming the most significant hero-killer in professional wrestling history by ending The Streak 100% cleanly, and he promptly followed that by giving John Cena the biggest beatdown of his career at SummerSlam 2014 to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (although Cena returned the favor later in Night of Champions 2014 and would've claimed back the title from Lesnar if it weren't for Rollins attacking him).
• Humiliation Conga: Lesnar can usually be counted on to play the part of the ultimate asskicker, but whenever Goldberg is involved, things tend to go badly for him, very badly: First he gets tackled by Goldberg at the 2004 No Way Out (WWE) during his title defense against Eddie Guerrero, which Guerrero takes advantage of by performing a frog splash onto his injured body and pins him to become the WWE Champion. Then Goldberg defeats him in their grudge match at WrestleMania XX — which was, not incidentally, both men's last match in their first runs in WWE — and finally, just to twist in the knife, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin "stuns" both him and Goldberg to massive cheers from the crowd. Then he attempts to break into the NFL and fails, and then he attempts a return to the WWE but is turned away, and then he tries to wrestle in Japan but can't get out of his no-compete clause. It took awhile for Brock to get back on his feet. Despite turning the trope on its head in his return run after ending The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania and downright embarrassing John Cena at SummerSlam 2014 to win the WWE Championship, Goldberg coming back is once again all it takes for Lesnar to become the butt of the joke, starting at Survivor Series 2016 where Goldberg defeats Brock yet again, this time in a squash match. It continues at Royal Rumble 2017 where, despite a dominant first impression, he's once again humiliated by Goldberg, who unceremoniously tossed him out after a Spear. Then in their Universal Championship match at WrestleMania 33, Goldberg once again takes Brock down with a Jackhammer, leaving Paul Heyman openly facepalming before the count is even made. Fortunately for Brock, he kicked out this time and then ended this Conga with a dominant championship victory over Goldberg.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Attacking Strowman and throwing his MitB brieface instead of immediately finishing off Reigns at SummerSlam 2018 has ruined his chances of becoming the first-ever two-sport champion in the history of WWE when Reigns caught him off guard with a spear to win the match.
• I'll Kill You!: Shouted that to the Undertaker on the night after Battleground. Undertaker responds with "YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO!" Echoed on each end, verbatim, at SummerSlam 2015.
• Invincible Villain:
  • During 2002-2004, Lesnar rarely loses a match, showing how stoppable he is.
  • After his 2012 return, The Big Show, Dean Ambrose, John Cena, Mark Henry, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Triple H, The Undertaker, etc., have all failed to stop him and even been brutalized repeatedly for their efforts. Cena, Rollins, and Reigns are the only ones to subvert this: Cena AA'd him on the steel steps after hitting him in the face with a steel chain-wrapped fist (although Heyman claimed that Lesnar was suffering from Worf Had the Flu at that time), Rollins used his constant Dirty Coward tactics instead of actual prowess, and Reigns took advantage of Strowman's in-ring presence during their SummerSlam 2018 rematch.
    • To sum up his one-on-one matches against Cena, he only lost twice overall: The first is due to Worf Had the Flu at Extreme Rules 2012 and the second time is because Cena got a disqualification victory in Night of Champions 2014 as a result of Rollins' interference.
    • This is played during his first WWE run in SmackDown! whenever he's in a normal tag matches involving Cena as his opponent: The most notable example of this are his tag matches with Big Show against Cena and either Chris Benoit or Eddie Guerrero. And while it's not as bad as Lesnar's first and only PPV loss to the Undertaker at SummerSlam 2015, Cena and his partner would end up winning through Combat Pragmatism or indirect outside interferences.
  • Finally inverted — exaggerated, no less — at Survivor Series 2016: It turned out that his Invincible Villain status was still no match for Goldberg's Invincible Hero status. However, as of WrestleMania 33, Lesnar finally managed to get a win over Goldberg and would later remain unstoppable (even after losing due to unfortunate circumstances) until his clean loss to Rollins at SummerSlam 2019.
• Irony:
  • Whenever Lesnar loses in a match, he would usually end up suffering from Worf Had the Flu, being low blowed, not being pinned, disqualified, cashed-in, tapped out, backstabbed, distracted, or attacked by outside interferences. For bonus points, Cena's victories in matches involving Lesnar aren't even clean.
  • Despite being a Invincible Villain in solo matches, he doesn't do well in team matches, Survivor Series, or against Hispanic opponents.
  • As Cena puts it, Lesnar is the "world's most gifted athlete" in sports entertainment but he NEVER participated in Intercontinental, US, and Tag Team championship matches and claim their respective titles.
  • Another further irony is for all the talk about Lesnar being "The Next Big Thing" or "The Beast Incarnate" through Heyman's promos, whenever Lesnar would raise his voice, it's high-pitched for some reason.
    Lesnar: LET'S! DO! THIS!?
  • While Lesnar does the Undertaker's signature sit-up after besting him at WrestleMania 30, he hasn't used a chokeslam on anyone ever since despite being qualified enough to do it. The most ironic part? It was Cena, the biggest Face of WWE in modern times, who does the chokeslam in the 3/26/18 edition of RAW.
• Ironic Echo:
  • Lesnar dominates his UFC debut match with Frank Mir but gets caught via an inexperienced mistake and loses the match. Fast forward to 2012: it happens to him again in his WWE return match against the now-veteran John Cena, destroying him for 20 minutes before running into a chain-wrapped fist as a result of attempting an ill-advised high-risk move.
  • Another echo, this time to his second match with Mir, where Lesnar's new experience and patience allows him to dominate Mir. His SummerSlam 2014 match sees Lesnar being much harder to take down, and he defeats John Cena decisively.
• It's Personal:
  • He and Paul Heyman seemed to be doing everything in their power to make his feud with Triple H this.
  • Became this with the fans who absolutely LOATHED seeing him break the Undertaker's Streak at WrestleMania at WrestleMania XXX. Heyman keeps bringing it up, too, which is one of the few things fans still boo the hell out of him for.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Can be a Jerk Jock at his worst, but is a cool guy if you don't diss him. He seems to have become this especially after a hard-fought win against Carwin and losing his title to Velasquez.
  • For all the bridges he's burned in his career (most notably with the WWE), he's done well to rebuild many of them, or keep himself from burning any more. He still praises the people who helped him get where he is today, and gives credit where it is due... unless you are Frank Mir.
  • It's pretty much impossible to get an autograph from him outside a WWE/UFC event. He's been known to completely ignore fans who approach him in public. Brock himself has repeatedly said that he is an intensely private person outside the ring, and has no tolerance for people bugging him when he's not working.
  • According to reports, he personally thanked The Undertaker after their WrestleMania XXX match; this after a long-standing feud between the two after Brock felt Taker was always reluctant to put him over.
  • Solidified during his first WWE run when Lesnar bails out Rey Mysterio (who is still recovering from his injuries) from being Chokeslammed by Big Show.
  • Out of character, he said during an interview that as someone who had suffered more concussions than he could count, he had nothing but respect for Daniel Bryan for retiring from in-ring action due to the concussions he had received, which had finally caught up with him all at once.
• The Juggernaut: Oh hell yes. Especially in his championship run. He's been compared to a final boss from an arcade fighting game.
• Knight of Cerebus: During his second WWE run.
• "Knock Knock" Joke: Used one to taunt Bobby Lashley during a promo on the January 10, 2022 episode of Raw:
  Lesnar: Knock knock.
  Paul Heyman: [...] Who's there?
  Lesnar: Bobby.
  Heyman: Bobby who?
  Lesnar: Exactly.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • After constantly brutalizing opponents with back-to-back F5s, how did Lesnar lost the Universal title? A Groin Attack, followed by back-to-back Curb Stomps from Seth Rollins.
  • After years of being an Invincible Villain, even winning the Universal Title thrice, Lesnar is finally defeated at the hands of Rollins at SummerSlam 2019, and without suffering from Worf Had the Flu, dirty tricks, or outside interferences to boot!
  • And after years of terrorizing almost the majority of entire WWE roster (including their non-wrestling allies) and getting away with it, Lesnar gets a really rude awakening from Mysterio, who brought Velasquez to attack him as payback for hospitalizing Dominick earlier at RAW.
• Lightning Bruiser: Lesnar is known for both his extreme size and and surprising quickness in the UFC. Seanbaby wrote in this article: "Brock Lesnar is a human cheat-code. He is 300 pounds of muscle and judging by the way he darts around, I don't think mass and inertia were properly explained to him." In his second-to-last MMA fight, against the highly experienced kickboxer Alistair Overeem, Lesnar actually ducked one of Overeem's trademark lightning-fast uppercuts from barely two feet away. He also plays this trope straight during his WWE career, in which he can counter moves with the dexterity of a wrestler 100 pounds lighter.
• Likes Older Women: His wife Rena (former wrestler Sable) is 10 years his senior.
• Limit Break: His F5. It often operates as a finishing move, but given that he only wrestles a few times a year in high-profile matches (where moves that are normally a One-Hit KO are nerfed for drama's sake), it becomes this. Frighteningly enough, he seems to start with what would be considered a "full gauge" at the start of the match. It's not at all uncommon to see him use an F5 (or, at least, his first one) less than a minute after the bell rings.
• Made of Iron:
  • Lesnar was already tough as nails in WWE (both in kayfabe and in real life) prior to competing in MMA. When he returned to WWE after his UFC career, however, this was taken up to eleven. At the 2015 Royal Rumble, Lesnar ate three consecutive Attitude Adjustments from John Cena, and then a Curb Stomp from Seth Rollins. After both pins were broken up (Lesnar kicked out anyway, though), Lesnar was the first of the three to his feet. And there's no 100% concrete logic behind his ridiculous level of resilience— it's perhaps implied that MMA toughened him up, but nobody (from commentators to opponents) can figure out how he does what he does, outside of either being a literal superhuman or being from a different planet than the rest of us.
  • Took this trope to another level at WrestleMania 33 when he kicked out of the Jackhammer. Here's a list of all the other wrestlers who have ever legitimately kicked out of Goldberg's Jackhammer: None. ^note technically, Hulk Hogan did it once in WCW, but only because he was forced to do so since the pin wasn't broken up as was planned
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: Played straight with his 2014 mantra "Eat. Sleep. Conquer. Repeat." After WrestleMania XXX, it became "Eat. Sleep. Break The Streak." Then it became "Eat. Sleep. Conquer John Cena." Another example that Heyman used (which didn't appear on a t-shirt, however) was "Eat. Sleep. Suplex. Repeat," referring to the 16 German Suplexes that John Cena took at SummerSlam 2014.
• Manly Facial Hair: The full mountain man's beard Brock grew out during his final MMA years and as of SummerSlam 2021 - coupled with a Viking braid in the latter case - only massively boosted his already ludicrously masculine image.
• Manly Man: Lesnar is large, muscular, athletic, aggressive, loves to fight, and is really good at it. Even in his free time, Brock is a farmer and gun collector, and can occasionally be seen in videos butchering giant steaks and cooking them on equally giant grills. Color commentator Pat McAfee likes to refer to Lesnar as "the alpha male of our species."
• Meaningless Villain Victory: How his steel cage match against Reigns at the Greatest Royal Rumble ended up: Heyman's claims of Lesnar putting down Reigns for good didn't go well as planned when Reigns had almost destroyed him (and that includes repeated Superman punches, spears, and chair shots on The Beast). It was by dumb luck that Lesnar won because The Big Dog recklessly speared him out of the cage. At the end of the match, Heyman has to help Lesnar out of the arena.
• Minnesota Nice: Averted. He's billed from Minnesota, but he's anything but nice, face or heel.
  • By all reports, outside of the ring he's perfectly civil but just doesn't like talking to people, to the point of bringing the garrulous Matt Bloom with him to Disney World to do his talking for him.
• Mountain Man: Is a proud farm boy and moose hunter in Saskatchewan in his off time, which he has incorporated into his new look and character as of his 2021 Heel–Face Turn.
• Mundane Made Awesome: On April 6, 2014, Brock Lesnar entered his 362nd scripted professional wrestling match and was booked as the winner for the 262nd time over a 49-year-old man with bad knees and a face that looked like that of a 65-year-old. The entire sports world proceeded to collectively lose its shit.
  • And then there's SummerSlam 2022, where he had a match against his longtime rival for what felt like the hundredth time. Hell, this wasn't even the first "nontraditional" match that had taken place in this rivalry. What made it stand out and be the one that will likely feature in fan discourse and WWE highlight packages for decades? A tractor.

N–R

• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Lesnar made a really stupid move by taking out Strowman during his match against Reigns at SummerSlam 2018, which cost him the Universal Title after a successful surprise attack from Reigns.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: A lot of his matches against weaker opponents like Zach Gowen turn into this (also when he threw Gowen down a flight of stairs). But then he upped it to eleven when he did it in his return match to John Cena, putting on such a vicious beatdown that even the usual split-for-Cena crowd started to rally behind John towards the end of the match. He also brutalized Randy Orton with MMA-style top-mount elbows until Randy was an unconscious, bloody heap; the referee would reward Lesnar the victory via knockout (which is rare in WWE, and quite likely a nod to his MMA career).
• No-Sell:
  • Brock Lesnar is so durable in kayfabe that sometimes a finisher (read: a move that finishes matches) isn't enough to keep him down for more than half a second. A Roman Reigns Spear or a John Cena Attitude Adjustment might as well be a basic scoop slam when you're facing Brock.
  • He tends to do this during his many, many Squash Matches. Take his Beast in the East match against poor Kofi Kingston, who tries drop kick after top-rope drop kick, and the most that elicits from Brock is a 'Seriously?' look on his face. At another time, he no-sold Jeff Hardy swinging a steel chair at his (completely unprotected) head like a baseball bat.
• Nominal Hero: Lesnar has largely fallen into this role since his 2021 return. He's still the same vicious son of a bitch as he's always been, but he interacts more with the crowd, cuts his own promos for once, and targets heels with much greater frequency, most famously including WWE's resident reigning sociopath, Roman Reigns.
• Not So Stoic: It's not often you'll see Brock laugh at anything other than his own acts of violence, but R-Truth's insanity had him splitting his sides during a segment featuring the two on the January 13, 2020 episode of Raw.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Lesnar is so fearsome that he gets this reaction from people even when he's fighting someone else. When he sprinted down to the ring to confront Undertaker after Battleground, every single one of the commentators said "Fuck this" and took off.
  • Brock himself had this reaction when he German suplexed Braun Strowman and Braun rolled through it, getting right back onto his feet. He cheerfully jumped up and down for a few seconds, not having realised what happened... then he turned around, and promptly gaped in disbelief.
  • While having a post-match celebration for winning the WWE Championship from Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio's music suddenly played, which made Lesnar look confused at first. However, Rey didn't come alone. He showed up along with a debuting Cain Valesquez, the man who destroyed Lesnar back in the UFC. Lesnar's terrified reaction sells it, then he gets beaten down by Valesquez, before retreating from the ring.
  • His fellow competitors in the 2022 Elimination Chamber had this for real, due to the nature of his entrance. To explain: Bobby Lashley was removed from the match early due to a kayfabe concussion sustained at the start before his pod opened (Austin Theory was thrown through it by Seth Rollins).^note This was actually due to a shoulder injury Lashley had suffered earlier in the month, and his early removal was planned from the get-go Brock was the last entrant to be released, and, as there were no other entrants besides him left, had expected to be picked next by the selection system. However, the system stopped on Lashley's (now-vacant) pod, causing Brock to say "fuck this," and, totally unscripted, smashed his way out of the pod to get in on the action, forcing the remaining entrants to immediately have to deal with the rampaging Beast much earlier than they (and everyone backstage) had expected.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: In WMXXX, he was the Younger Villain (36) to Undertaker's Older Hero (49) when Lesnar ended the 21-0 winning streak.
• One-Hit Kill: His primary Finishing Move, the F5, is more than enough to put even main eventers to sleep in one attempt. Only a few wrestlers are able to survive more than one F-5 such as the Undertaker, Kurt Angle, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Goldberg and Drew McIntyre.
• Only in It for the Money:
  • Lesnar was always rather upfront about the fact that his true passion was football and his real dream was to play for the NFL, but he went to WWE because "that's where the money was." During his 2012 return, this was a major aspect of his character. His honesty is magnified in his autobiography, where he clearly states that he is a "business" man who will show up to work if the price is right, even if it is for one night of easy work, like his first MMA fight.
  • After Brock defeated the Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX, this was the reason Lesnar was coming under ferocious levels of X-Pac Heat invoked from fans all over the place, as they don't believe he deserved to be the one to end The Streak, due to the fact that he's got no love for the industry or the fans. His attitude of being in it only for the money was hyped up by Heyman on Raw the following night. Fans were not willing to forgive him for it. When it comes to him and the Undertaker, however, not only had Undertaker been pegging Brock to be The Streak-ender since late 2010 (although Vince was the one who officially made the call), which may add a new dimension to the whole "wanna do it?" thing after Brock's loss to Cain Velasquez, not only is Brock visible and audible saying "thank you" to Taker during the pin, but when Undertaker was driven to the hospital due to a severe concussion he suffered mid-match as Heyman mentioned in his Worked Shoot on TV the following night, not only did Vince McMahon go with him, so did Lesnar and Heyman themselves, who left out this last detail on Raw for obvious reasons.
• "Open!" Says Me: When Lesnar returned at the 2018 Hell in a Cell PPV, he didn't let a locked cell door keep him from getting to Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. Brock literally kicked down the gates of Hell (in a Cell) before decimating Reigns and Strowman.
• Pet the Dog: On the 8/15/2016 Raw, Heath Slater kept Bullying a Dragon by challenging him. But instead of just destroying Heath right then and there, Brock actually offered him a chance to just walk away while he still could. Sadly, he chose to be Too Dumb to Live.
  • Earlier in SmackDown!, when Big Show attacks Mysterio in the middle of a segment, Lesnar shows up to beat up Big Show, and then gives Mysterio a helping lift.
  • Prior to Survivor Series 2003, Lesnar gives Cena a handshake backstage, and then tells him that Heyman is planning to add Cena as Team Lesnar's final member. And that was before Cena's Heel–Face Turn at that time.
    Lesnar: Hey, Cena! Congratulations, man.
    Cena: For what?
    Lesnar: I... I might be letting a cat out of the bag a little early on this one but, I don't know this for a fact, alright? But I think Paul Heyman is naming you the next member of my team at Survivor Series, alright? I don't know for a fact but...
• Phrase Catcher: Tazz liked to shout "Here comes the pain!" whenever Lesnar made his entrance (and was later the subtitle for the fifth game in the SmackDown! series), and appeared on several of his merchandising shirts at the time as well as his DVD. Paul Heyman sometimes uses the phrase (making sure everyone can hear him) as Lesnar is preparing to suplex an opponent during a match.
• Power Stable: "Team Lesnar" with the Big Show, Matt Morgan, Albert and Nathan Jones, all managed by Paul Heyman, though this was only a team they made for Survivor Series 2003.
• Precision F-Strike: Though Lesnar is not one to swear, he did swear on some occasions.
  • The most common one is "Suplex City, bitch."
  • When talking about Heath Slater's kids, he shows his Lack of Empathy with "I don't give a shit about your kids."
  • When he was declined a WWE Championship rematch with Bobby Lashley, he yells out "You're nothing but a chicken shit!"
  • After Roman Reigns declared he should be the rightful challenger to Lesnar's Universal Championship after beating Braun Strowman at Great Balls of Fire 2017, Lesnar responds with "You don't deserve shit, buddy."
• Protectorate: If you want to get to Paul Heyman, you have to go through Lesnar first.
• Psycho for Hire: A mercenary at heart who relishes in conquering things, dishing out pain, and getting paid in the process.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He shows shades of this as Universal Champion in which he refused to even show up to work and ponder whenever someone tells him what to do.
• The Quiet One: Throughout his entire WWE career, with sporadic exceptions, Brock's promos have consisted of Paul Heyman ranting on the mic while Lesnar himself stands by his side, silently hopping around and flexing his shoulders.
  • Double Subverted in his 2021-2022 feud with Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman working for the latter, he was forced to do all of his talking himself and was actually rather successful with it, showing arguably more personality on the mic than at any point in his career. That said, he also all but stated during one of said promos that he wasn't entirely comfortable with it.
• Rage Quit: Heyman said that should Lesnar drop the Universal Title to someone else (most likely either Lashley or Strowman as of now after the events of the Greatest Royal Rumble), he'll quit WWE and go back to the UFC. And then there's the aftermath of his loss to Cena at Exteme Rules 2012, as Cena himself lampshaded during his segment with Laurinaitis at RAW.
  Cena: And then his crowning achievement, his moment of glory: to bring in Brock Lesnar to defeat me in Extreme Rules, and become "The Next Big Thing" in the WWE. He lost, and he QUIT!!
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Overlaps with Dark Is Evil above, as his gear usually has crimson accents.
• Red Baron: The Next Big Thing, The Anomaly, The Beast (Incarnate), The Conqueror, The Carnivore, The Human Cheat-Code, The Conqueror of The Streak, The One in 21-1, The Mayor of Suplex City, The Beast in the Bank, The Alpha Male of Our Species.
• Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman, and I am the one behind the one in 21-1. I earned that distinction when my client, BRRRRRROCK LESSSSSSSNAR! ... conquered The Undertaker's undefeated streak at WrestleMania!" He repeats this monologue, more or less word-for-word, so often that the crowd has memorized it enough to say at least half of it at the same time as Heyman does. At one point, it was consistently the first thing he said when opening a promo, ever since the aforementioned win by Brock Lesnar over Undertaker.
• Rewatch Bonus: Brock Lesnar's match against John Cena at SummerSlam of 2014 is almost a perfect microcosm of Lesnar's kayfabe attitude and skillset during his 2014-2015 run, and explains why he was so dominant.
  • Suplex after suplex after suplex — that's natural, since, based on his physical tools and wrestling experience, that's the most efficient way Lesnar can hurt someone. There was no wasted motion; everything that Lesnar did to Cena hurt (even simply picking Cena up off the mat or breaking a rest hold was done with force).
  • 16 German Suplexes on a man who weighs 250+ pounds should be exhausting, right? Nope. Lesnar made sure not to use energy on anything that didn't increase his chances of winning, including simply letting Cena get up before suplexing him again, as opposed to lifting Cena from the mat himself.
  • And lastly, look at Lesnar's positioning relative to Cena throughout the entire match. He never takes his eyes off Cena, even when it looks like Cena is down and out. He, like everyone else who's followed Cena's career, has seen John win big matches with a Heroic Second Wind against an unsuspecting opponent. Not this time. (Although it definitely did almost happen, which, if anything, proves how valiant Cena is.)
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His second battle against Frank Mir was less of a MMA fight and more of Brock unleashing holy hell upon Frank after months upon months of mockery from the man.
  Brock: TALK ALL THE SHIT YOU WANT NOW, YOU PUSSY!!
• Rogues Gallery: In his initial WWE run he had constantly clashed with Kurt Angle, The Big Show, John Cena, Chris Benoit and The Undertaker.
• Rule of Symbolism: 16 suplexes seems like a rather odd number to hit someone with...unless you remember that the record for most World Championship reigns is 16, held by Ric Flair; a record John Cena is one short of tying with 15 title victories, and whom, if Brock has anything to say about it, won't be getting that sixteenth championship.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All: Ironically, WWE had originally gone to the University of Minnesota to sign Lesnar's teammate Shelton Benjamin, not Lesnar himself.

S–Z

• Sadist: Big time as a Heel. Aside from being a Wrestling Monster and an Invincible Villain, Lesnar is seen by many the "Baddest Dude on the Planet". Just look at what he did to Gowen in the stairway at SmackDown!.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The muscular, aggressive, athletic manly man to Paul Heyman's cunning and scheming, if weak and sensitive Non-Action Guy.
• Signature Move: Suplexes (usually the German ones). Multiples of it is called the Suplex City, and the crowd always count how many suplexes he gives to his unlucky opponent.
• Shout-Out: His Tag Team in WWE's developmental program OVW with Shelton Benjamin was called the Minnesota Stretching Crew, based on the old school team the Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Gene/Lars/Ole/Arn Andersons).
• Slasher Smile: Sported one◊ during his "match", with John Cena at SummerSlam 2014, even emulating the Undertaker's signature sit-up taunt.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: On-air, Brock wears his character-themed shirts when he's not wrestling, and it's rare to see sleeves on said shirts. Averted in UFC, however.
• Small Name, Big Ego: This is pretty much his gimmick since his 2012 WWE return i.e. the inherent belief that he should be waited upon hand and foot and have everything handed to him right when he asks. And the way he destroyed the undisputed face of WWE (plus defeating The Undertaker at WrestleMania), he may have a point.
• Smug Smiler: Lesnar can kick anyone's ass six ways from Sunday and has the arrogance and bravado to show for it.
• Sore Loser: Takes his loss against Cena in Extreme Rules 2012 very poorly backstage to the point of wrecking the locker room. Subverted in real life: this was all part of Kayfabe, but Lesnar openly admits that he's a bit upset over how the match ended.
  • An even bigger one is against Reigns and Rollins in Wrestlemania 31. Although this doesn't happen right away, when Lesnar shows up again in RAW after that, he's royally pissed off!! Some fans must wonder if Cena is laughing his ass off in the backseat for that.
• Spam Attack: His match against John Cena at SummerSlam 2014. Suplex after suplex... after suplex. And when Brock was done with that, he delivered - you guessed it - more suplexes. 16 in total. This has since become his gimmick, more or less; the commentators and the crowd often count the number of times he German Suplexes his opponent. It's by far the move he uses most often.
• Spanner in the Works: When Angle is about to fire Heyman for failing to convince Lesnar to show up at the 7/30/18 episode of RAW, Lesnar shows up to F-5 Angle and scare Corbin off the arena... before choking Heyman for continuously nagging him earlier.
• Strong and Skilled: Most prominent during his first run with WWE but nevertheless. Even if you take away Brock's superhuman strength and agility, you're still left with an incredibly gifted amateur wrestler who can still take down anyone short of Olympic Gold-level wrestlers.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • 2016's Survivor Series. After Goldberg shoved him to the mat, Lesnar tried to psyche him out by slowly standing back up with a Slasher Smile. Since the product is more spectacle than sport, most wrestlers would have probably let Brock get up for the sake of drama. Goldberg is not most wrestlers, and he Speared Lesnar out of his boots before Brock knew what hit him, pinning him in less than 2 minutes.
  • Despite being built up as an unstoppable monster, Brock is portrayed as highly vulnerable to Groin Attacks. Doesn't matter how tough you are — getting punched or kicked in the goolies always hurts. Anyone pushed far enough by Brock (e.g. the Undertaker, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio) will eventually resort to this tactic.
• Take Over the World: Between his "Conqueror" tagline and the time he tried to make Monday Night Raw "Starring Brock Lesnar", he's as close as a part-time wrestler is gonna get to making this trope a goal. Heyman even once described Lesnar as a modern-day Alexander the Great, sitting on a rock and weeping, because he had no worlds left to conquer. He would further elaborate later, citing the fact that Lesnar is the only man in history to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship, WWE Championship, and NCAA Division I Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, making sure to note that no one else has even won any TWO of those titles, let alone all three^note regarding the NFL, Brock tried out for the Minnesota Vikings, but was cut because of his attitude, not his lack of skill. "Taking over the world" (at least the world of athletics) may be no understatement.
• Take That, Audience!: After his underwhelming WrestleMania XX match with Goldberg, Lesnar gave the MSG crowd a one finger salute for the X-Pac Heat^note they were mocking Lesnar because he was leaving for the NFL they gave him (and Goldberg) earlier. He later clarified on the Stone Cold Podcast that the gesture was meant for Vince, not the fans.
• Take That, Critics!: Came from Paul Heyman on the October 23, 2017 episode of Monday Night Raw, in the form of a downplayed Stealth Insult. At one point during the promo, Heyman praised Lesnar for dominating what he described as the most stacked WWE heavyweight division of all time; a frequent criticism of Brock's UFC career is that while he was active, the UFC's heavyweight roster was not at its strongest.
• Theatrics of Pain: Despite being a near-invincible monster, Brock can make his opponents look like a million bucks with his selling ability, which greatly adds to the drama of his matches.
• This Cannot Be!: After Braun Strowman wasn't affected by his German Suplex. He didn't say anything, but his expression spoke volumes.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Suplex City, Bitch!
• Underwear of Power: In his initial WWE run. Since his WWE return, he's been wearing MMA gear (shorts and fingerless gloves) with boots.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Lesnar severely underestimated Goldberg during the weeks leading up to Survivor Series 2016 by constantly mocking him and threatening Goldberg's family, thinking that since Goldberg hasn't been in the ring for 12 years that he would be an easy win and paycheck. Goldberg proved Lesnar wrong by decimating Lesnar in 86 seconds come the event.
  • Another one with Samoa Joe right before their match at Great Balls of Fire. During the weeks leading up to the event, both Brock and Paul Heyman underestimated Joe by saying that he's a "bitch" and that he relied on cheap shots. Come the event, Joe very nearly put Brock out of commission even after Brock began to fight back, making this the first time that Brock has been put on the ropes since his match against Goldberg back at Survivor Series 2016.
  • A more in-the-moment example: when he and Braun Strowman end up facing off in the Fatal 4-Way main event of Summerslam 2017 Lesnar is openly grinning and laughing before they lock up. Strowman wrecks Lesnar in the ensuing throwdown, culminating in Lesnar getting put through two announce tables before the Monster Among Men dropped a third on him.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Lesnar makes it clear that Heyman works for him instead of taking orders from Heyman as a "friend" and nothing else. Although it's later revealed that they've planned this all along to ambush Reigns two weeks later.
• Unskilled, but Strong:
  • Sort of a running theme to his MMA run. Note that, as a NCAA Division I heavyweight champion, he is a highly skilled martial artist, but his expertise is entirely in wrestling. His strength and speed were enough to overwhelm some opponents (and even then he was vulnerable, as Frank Mir proved when he submitted him in their first fight), but against high level opposition his relative lack of experience in striking and submissions really showed.
  • This is basically him in his second WWE run, too. He basically strikes and spams German suplexes and F5s. And his suplexes are noticeably 'sloppier', which may be by design as they tend to look and be sold more like 'legit' suplexes, which aren't much of a stretch for a guy with Brock's raw power. As athletic as he still is, it may not be so much that he can't use any other moves as much as he just doesn't need any other moves.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Well, it was really Paul Heyman who wouldn't shut up about ending The Streak, but Lesnar certainly made no effort to stop him. It would come back to bite Lesnar in the ass a year and a half later when 'Taker decided he'd had enough and cost Lesnar his chance to regain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
• Unstoppable Rage: After Seth Rollins denied him his rematch the night after WrestleMania and high tailed it out of there, Lesnar proceeded to completely lose his shit and upended the announcer table, knocking down the commentators before waylaying J&J Security. He then grabs a fleeing Michael Cole and delivers an F5 in the ring, before grabbing a cameraman to do the same. Stephanie McMahon pleads with him to stop, even promising him his rematch with Rollins, only for Lesnar to F5 the cameraman anyway.
  Stephanie: [with Brock holding a cameraman on his shoulders] Brock, PUT HIM DOWN!
  Lesnar: [F5s the cameraman]
• Villainous Breakdown: On the March 30, 2015 episode of Raw, the day after WrestleMania 31, Brock called in his rematch clause against Seth Rollins, who had cashed in Money in the Bank on him and won the title. Seth, being the weasel that he is, decides not to go through with it, saying he's jetlagged and his foot's sore from Curb Stomping Lesnar and Roman Reigns. After Rollins manages to escape, Brock goes on a tear first by flinging Rollins' security escorts, flipping the announcer's table pinning JBL and Booker T. Michael Cole tries to get away, but he gets pulled into the ring by Brock who gives him an F5. He pulls a cameraman into the ring until Stephanie McMahon has to come down and stop him. She promises he'll get his rematch if he puts the cameraman down. He doesn't listen and F5s the guy twice, leaving Stephanie to suspend him indefinitely.
• Villainous Friendship: He and Paul Heyman when they're heels, as they're also each other's best friend inside the business, and have a genuine respect for one another. Subverted as of the 7/30/2018 episode of RAW, however, as Brock makes it clear to Heyman that they are not friends and he only sees Heyman as someone leaching off Lesnar's own success. And then double subverted two weeks later at the RAW before SummerSlam 2018 when they were just faking a breakup in a successful attempt to attack Reigns by surprise.
• Villain Respect: Brock isn't above showing credit where it's due, such as when he openly admits to CM Punk that his year long WWE title reign is worthy of respect.
• Violence Is Disturbing: This is pretty much Brock's entire gimmick since returning to WWE in 2012, by means of stiff strikes and throws, and a tendency to draw blood with his bare hands, all while (in kayfabe) enjoying every second of it and never relenting. Perhaps the best example occurred at 2016's SummerSlam, when Brock laid down some brutal MMA-style top-mounted elbows on Randy Orton. Randy was left unconscious in a pool of his own blood, his head leaking like a faucet, after Lesnar was declared the winner by knockout.
• Vocal Dissonance: Not so much when he speaks (although his voice is maybe a tad higher than one would expect from a testosterone-fueled muscle head) but whenever he tries to yell. The screeching tires sound that issues from his throat has become the stuff of memetic legend.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • Lesnar doesn't react well to getting punched in the face. Note that he is never knocked down or knocked out (he took a freakish amount of punishment in his fight with Shane Carwin), but when someone gets through and lands a hit he tends to backpedal away.
  • Came into play in his return match at Extreme Rules 2012 when Cena managed to overcome a then-Curb-Stomp Battle with a shot to the face of a leaping Lesnar with his chain wrapped around his fist, which stunned Lesnar enough to allow Cena to get the AA on the steel steps for the improbable, even by his standards, win.
  • Came up again during his match with Triple H at SummerSlam. While not as one sided as his match with Cena, he was dominating for most of the brawl until Triple H managed to get a hard strike on his stomach^note Brock suffers from diverticulitis, which causes intestinal and stomach problems at which point Brock promptly doubled over in pain and was staggering for the rest of the match.
  • During an episode of SmackDown when Chris Jericho was a guest manager, he unwisely picked a fight with Lesnar. While the fight didn't even last a minute, Jericho delivered a punch to Lesnar's face that stunned him for a good five seconds. Even more interesting considering how small Jericho is compared to Lesnar.
  • Subverted in his match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31. Reigns was able to bloody Lesnar up both in the beginning of the match when he madly grabbed and punched at Brock before being put down with an F5, and also when he busted Brock open by sending him headfirst into the ringpost. However, with Lesnar being on the roll of his (or anyone's) life in terms of pure dominance, it took three Superman punches (usually one suffices) for Roman to finally floor him enough to stand a chance at being able to pin him after two Spears.
  • His WrestleMania 35 rematch against Rollins reveals that he's vulnerable to groin shots, leaving him unable to fight back when Rollins gave him three Stomps to the head.
• Why Won't You Die?: Went through this with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31. Lesnar dominated the better part of the match, pummeling Reigns with strikes, suplexes and F5s. Reigns, however, simply laughed at Brock, on more than one occasion during the match. Three F5s into the match, Roman still refused to be beaten, but unlike most heels, Brock didn't cost himself the match by losing his temper. He showed minor signs of frustration, but in the end, kept his cool and just beat Reigns up for another 10 minutes or so until Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract during the match itself.
• Wild Card: Whether he's nominally acting as face or as heel, it's safe to say his true alignment is a lot closer to "Force of nature that fucks up any unfortunate fool in its path".
• Worked Shoot:
  • His confrontation with The Undertaker at UFC 116. It never led anywhere, as there is simply no way Dana White would let Lesnar appear for any other fighting or pseudo-fighting organization while he's still under UFC contract.
  • Ironically, the two would have a completely unrelated one-month feud in his WWE return resulting in Brock breaking the streak cleanly, and Heyman throwing on a Worked Shoot the following night in which he verbally showed up everyone from both the fans and the industry who did not like Lesnar's victory while simultaneously convincing them to hate it even more.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Heyman claimed that the reason why Lesnar ends up losing to Cena in Extreme Rules 2012 is because he's not at full power: in this case, Lesnar is still suffering from stomach and intestinal problems.
  • While Lesnar puts up a decent fight against Cena at Night of Champions 2014, Cena took advantage of his weakness in the UFC by continuously pummeling him and performing four AAs on him for the clean pin. Fortunately for Lesnar, Rollins' failed cash-in attempt gave Cena a Disqualification-Induced Victory instead. Reigns would later do the same to him at WrestleMania 31.
  • Lesnar's clean loss to Reigns at SummerSlam 2018 is also a case of this, mainly due to not paying attention against his actual opponent and being too occupied with preventing a potential cash-in by taking out Strowman instead.
  • At WrestleMania 35, Lesnar had the upper hand against Rollins for the majority of their match... until Rollins threw him at the referee before hitting him in the groin. The match ends with Rollins winning after three Stomps on Lesnar's head.
  • Though Lesnar proves to be the better fighter during his rematch with Reigns at Crown Jewel 2021, he didn't expect The Usos to show up and kick him in the face, giving Reigns the opportunity to finish him off with the Universal Title for the pin.
• World's Best Warrior:
  • In Real Life: NCAA Division I Wrestling Champion his senior year in college (runner-up his junior year) and won his UFC Title in his third UFC fight (and fourth MMA fight in general).
  • In Professional Wrestling: won his first WWE Title (from The Rock) five months after his WWE debut, won his IWGP Title in his first match for the company, and on top of it all, as Paul Heyman is fond of saying, he conquered The Undertaker's undefeated Streak at WrestleMania! Four months later at SummerSlam he threw 15-time world champion and resident Superman-slash-Invincible Hero John Cena around the ring like a rag doll to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Discussed and defied; Brock Lesnar (in character, at the very least) simply does not believe in the concept of a worthy opponent; by his own admission, he "respects no one at any time." Roman Reigns claimed, in response, "... but you will." Paul Heyman, after WrestleMania 31, would comment that Lesnar comes closer to respecting Reigns than he does any other person he's fought. He doesn't, but it's close.
  • His 2016 feud with Goldberg portrays him as Lesnar's most worthy WWE opponent, as he's the only wrestler who has a winning record against Lesnar in one-on-one matches. Again, to be specific, it's actually Paul Heyman who feels this way; according to Lesnar, the reason he lost to Goldberg at WrestleMania is because Brock "didn't give two shits about wrestling" at the time of the event.
  • He and The Undertaker have had rocky relations both in-and-out of the ring, but after quitting WWE for a time, Lesnar actually maintained close contacts with Undertaker for a good long while. 'Taker personally had pegged Lesnar to end the Streak all the way back in 2010. On Lesnar's end, he personally didn't want to end the Streak (according to Jim Ross), but did so under direct orders from Vince McMahon and with Undertaker's blessing. And after the Streak was broken, Undertaker was so taxed by the events of the match that he collapsed not long after making it past the ramp to the backstage, and both Lesnar and Paul Heyman accompanied him as he was carted off to a hospital.
  • But finally, twenty-one years after his debut, 2023 saw Brock finally find an opponent he respected in an onscreen capacity: Cody Rhodes. Ending his four-month, three-match feud with Rhodes 2-1 in his opponent's favor, Brock finished their final outing at SummerSlam 2023 by doing something he had never done for anyone else in his entire career, embracing Cody and raising his hand in victory after the Nightmare's ultimate triumph over him at a PPV considered, widely, to be Brock's home territory. This was apparently spontaneous on Brock's part too.
• Would Hit a Girl: After a confrontation with The Hurricane early in his career, Lesnar found himself face-to-face with The Hurricane's sidekick, Mighty Molly. He didn't hesitate to blast her with a clothesline that would have easily floored many male wrestlers.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: His 2003 Face–Heel Turn was set off by him faking a backstage attack and concussion prior to a Steel Cage Match against Vince McMahon with Kurt Angle as a Special Guest Referee in order to trap Kurt.
• Wrestling Monster:
  • Less out-there than most of them, but there isn't really any other way to justify the way he completely no-sold weapons used by, among others, Matt and Jeff Hardy during his rampages (most memorably when he remained standing after Jeff Hardy swung a chair at Brock's head as if it were a baseball bat). Lesnar is an especially notable case in that he doesn't have any supernatural or otherwise gimmicky effects to his character: his sheer physical prowess and attitude alone causes this trope.
  • In a way, Lesnar is an Outside-Genre Foe for professional wrestling. His 2014-onward run has him as a living subversion of the tropes of the industry. He doesn't try to tell a story, unless that story is "The big man hit the other man until he stopped moving. The end." He doesn't play to the crowd (they might as well not even be there— in every match, the story is that Lesnar showed up to win, not to put on an aesthetically pleasing contest). He doesn't engage in chain wrestling or dazzling aerial moves. If you even manage to mount any offense, he'll take your finisher, shake it off after a few seconds, then sit up and laugh. Lesnar simply hits you with whatever body part is closest to you, suplexes you for a while, and when he gets bored of that (because he could have pinned you ten minutes ago), and throws you around with a few F5s just to make sure you have no more fighting spirit. His status as a part-timer also helps him play this trope straight, as he's a sort of Weapon X in WWE who's only unleashed sporadically because of how dangerous he is.
• You Are Already Dead: In his fight against Alistair Overeem, he provided a great example of this reaction. He got hit with a thunderous kick to the liver, took two steps back and then doubled over in pain, unable to continue. To anyone unfamiliar with the physiology, this might have looked suspicious, but fighters who have taken clean shots to the liver say that it does take a second or two for the pain and shock to register. At that point, according to former UFC fighter Scott Smith, "You feel like you're gonna die."
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Heyman backstabbed Lesnar during his match against Big Show back at Survivor Series 2002, although Lesnar got his Revenge later when he challenged Heyman in a steel cage match at SmackDown!.
  • Cena indirectly does this to Lesnar seven months later when the Doctor of Thuganomics pulled a Screw This, I'm Outta Here stunt after pinning Angle back at SmackDown!, which ultimately resulted with The Undertaker chokeslamming Lesnar through the announce table after failing to deliver an F-5 on the Deadman.
  • As Brock put it the week following his Wounded Gazelle Gambit mentioned above, the moment Kurt Angle made him lose the WWE Championship in their Triple Threat Match with Big Show at Vengeance 2003, Kurt Angle stopped being Brock's friend.
  • He seems to have developed this attitude towards Heyman as of late, if the events of the 7/30/2018 RAW are anything to go by. They were just pulling a Batman Gambit on Reigns all along.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Prior to WrestleMania XXX, everyone from commentators to managers to fellow wrestlers to the Deadman himself commonly referred to Undertaker as, in some form or another, the most dangerous wrestler in WWE history. Since defeating him at WrestleMania, Brock Lesnar appears to have taken that title.

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BRRRRRRRROOOOOOCK LLLLLESNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!