YMMV / Brock Lesnar

• Alternative Character Interpretation: His infamous "lack of passion" for the business added to his self-described competitive streak could be viewed as a positive: As long as he's paid well, he's not going to let his ego get in the way of where he is on the card, wins/losses, and will make a huge effort within the match.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • His feud with Roman Reigns was on-and-off for three years, exceeding even the infamous Cena/Rock feud. This in itself wouldn't have been a problem if Brock hadn't been the main champion for Raw for most of it, with his Universal Championship reign surpassing even CM Punk's historic reign of 434 days by two and a half months, making it the longest world title reign in the company's history since 1988.
    • This feud was brought back after Reigns's heel turn, presumably to finally give Reigns the clean win WWE had been trying to give him originally. Which did happen. But then they kept bringing Lesnar back (though in the case of SummerSlam 2022, reports indicate that they only revisited the feud because Reigns's original opponent, Randy Orton, suffered a back injury that would take him out for the rest of the year). Going back to their original confrontation at WrestleMania 31, Reigns and Lesnar have participated in nine PPV matches over a period of well over seven years. What makes it worse is that, unlike other long-running feuds like Cena/Orton or AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels, general agreement is that most of their matches suck, meaning they have no leeway with the fans on that front like those feuds did. The only silver lining in the situation is that Lesnar and Reigns finally had a truly great match, which washed off some of the disappointment of having to watch them wrestle again, and that the company seems to consider this the true cap of their of feud.
  • The Universal Championship reign in general. It lasted 504 days, but Lesnar barely showed up for even a quarter of that, and had only three consistent challengers: Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, and, of course, Roman Reigns. It reached a point where a significant portion of the fanbase considered the Intercontinental Championship the top title on Raw instead. When Reigns finally won the title at SummerSlam 2018, several fans breathed a sigh of relief, as, whatever issues they may have had with Reigns, he would be a far more consistent champion than Lesnar and more likely to lose it to someone new in a reasonable time frame. When Reigns was forced to relinquish the title due to his leukemia and Lesnar won it back in his place over Ensemble Dark Horse Strowman in a match that barely lasted five minutes, the internet lost it.
• Awesome Music: If the aptly-titled "Here Comes the Pain" doesn't get your blood pumping, we do not know what will.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • He's...a bit of a touchy subject among wrestling fans. On one hand, it's hard to argue with the fact that he's a hell of a talent. On the other, there's a lot of resentment over the fact that during his first run, he had (in the words of CM Punk) the keys to the kingdom handed to him and just walked out.
  • To say fans are polarized that he was the one to break The Undertaker's Streak at WrestleMania XXX is a bit of an understatement. Reasons being: he's a part-timer (bad), he's an old veteran instead of a young guy (YMMV), he's a beastly athlete and clearly Taker's physical superior (good), he's a mercenary at heart who's walked out on WWE before (bad), he's got the most potential as a fearsome heel out of anybody active today if used and booked correctly (good), he's the most legitimate fighting badass in pro wrestling history by virtue of his accomplishments in Mixed Martial Arts, a sport which Taker heavily respects (good), the moment of his victory legitimately shocked the wrestling world, something that rarely ever happens (good), the streak is so legendary that the whole question of it being broken at all is a dicey one (bad)…let's just say this is the stuff of backlash legend! Mick Foley pointed out that, if the streak was to be broken, Lesnar was the one to do it. Foley mentions that whoever broke the streak, there would be heat on that person, but Lesnar does not give a damn what the fans think about him.
  • As the years go on between WrestleMania XXX and the present grow, there is a growing frustration with Brock Lesnar's character: on one hand, yes it is awesome to have a certified asskicker monster. On the other hand, Lesnar's lack of availability, exorbitant price tag, repetitive moveset (the number of moves he hits in a match that are not a German suplex can be counted on one hand), and the overprotective nature of his booking makes a lot of people wonder if breaking the streak was worth it if this is the outcome.
  • The aftermath of his UFC 200 fight has caused perhaps one of the biggest base splits since his breaking of the Streak. First, Lesnar defeated Mark Hunt in the fight...only it was revealed that he tested positive for steroids, thus calling the legitimacy of his victory into serious question. Then, Dean Ambrose (then the current WWE Champion) gave an interview revealing that his and Brock Lesnar's infamously lackluster WrestleMania 32 match was frustrating because Brock apparently wasn't interested in doing anything beyond a basic squash match. It didn't take long for fans to put two and two together, and accuse Brock Lesnar of deliberately sandbagging a WM match because he didn't want to get hurt while training for UFC, nearly derailing a whitehot babyface in Dean Ambrose in the process. That's not even getting into his SummerSlam 2016 match with Randy Orton, which ended with Orton lying in a pool of his own blood after taking unprotected elbows from a professional MMA fighter on the head. As the planned finish. Not only was this seen as an unnecessary attempt to make an already strong-looking Lesnar look even stronger at the expense of the most mainstream full-time wrestler in the company after Cena and a twelve-time world champion, it was also considered a confusing and dangerous finish. It was fairly obvious to everyone that the one thing the company didn't plan on was Orton losing that much blood, and those with knowledge of MMA outright stated that Orton could have been seriously hurt by those elbows.^note  It was such a shock that Chris Jericho apparently got into it with Brock Lesnar backstage, absolutely livid over what had happened. Jericho's reaction was totally justified and near-universally praised, especially in comparison to Lesnar's response, where he came across as a bully. (He allegedly dared Jericho to fight him or kiss him, and didn't immediately let Jericho know that the beatdown on Orton had been the planned finish.) Later reports indicated that Randy actually did get hurt — with a concussion. It caused the company to scrap his match with Bray Wyatt at Backlash three weeks later.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • For everyone that hates John Cena's character, and his repetitive wrestling style, and absolute refusal to tweak anything while the WWE stubbornly pushes him as the one and only thing worth caring about in their company…the sight of Brock Lesnar beating the unholy fuck out of him at SummerSlam 2014 was glorious. Utterly, utterly glorious.
  • On the other hand, for those who have been getting sick of Lesnar being pushed as an neigh-unbeatable monster since breaking the Streak, the sight of him getting beaten by Goldberg in under two minutes at Survivor Series 2016 is sure to put a smile on your faces.
  • After nearly two whole years of an unpopular reign as Universal Champion (with the exception of the two and a half months where Roman Reigns held it and then vacated it due to his leukemia), Lesnar getting low-blowed by Seth Rollins than hit with three Curb Stomps to lose the title at WrestleMania 35 led to the vast majority of the WWE going insane.
• Creator's Pet:
  • His second run in WWE is widely hated by fans. Other than being the person to end the Streak, Lesnar has been criticized for being a part-timer who not only hogged the world tittle constantly but can carry it for months without defending it. His in-ring moves have also been reduced to simply him giving out suplexes and ending with an F-5. This coincides with WWE attempting to have Roman Reigns to be their top dog and to ensure it, Reigns have to be the one to defeat Lesnar at WrestleMania, which ended making Reigns the most hated wrestler for several years. This also has the effect of WWE neglecting everyone else in favor of the two.
  • After losing the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 35, Lesnar shows up at the Men's Money in the Bank ladder match at the last minute to win the contract. It turns out that Mustafa Ali was the intended winner of the match, only for Vince to literally changed the result at the last minute, a decision that has been heavily criticized. And before the year ended, Lesnar, after losing the Universal Championship again at Summerslam, is immediately put into the WWE Championship picture and squashed Kofi Kingston in less than 10 seconds. This has the effect of not only ending Kingston's world title run but also putting him back into the tag team division with reports that WWE creative team doesn't fully have confidence with Kingston as champion and that they planned to feed him to Lesnar since day one of his championship reign. Following this, he would go with a dull feud involving both Rey Mysterio and Cain Velasquez, that fans disdain as said feud doesn't require Lesnar to be a champion.
  • 2022 once again has fans turning against Brock. At Day 1, After Lesnar's Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns has been cancelled when the latter contracted COVID-19, instead of having Lesnar sit out for the night, he is instead added to the WWE Championship match at the last minute, and captured the tittle from Big E, with the effect of ending Big E's singles run like with Kofi. Although he dropped the tittle to Bobby Lashely at Royal Rumble, Lesnar would enter the titular match later that night as the 30th entrant and win. This is a first since champions who lost their titles has never enter the Rumble before. And if that isn't enough, Lesnar participitated the Elimination Chamber and successfully recaptured the WWE Championship. Said match was also heavily criticized as defending champion, Bobby Lashley, is removed due to injury during the match, from a never established "concussion protocol", and Lesnar proceeds to squashed everyone else to win the tittle again, turning his WrestleMania match with Roman at Unification match. And even though he loss at Mania, he would again challenged Reigns Summerslam, replacing the injured Randy Orton.
• Fan Nickname: Bork Laser.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: Brock's "mountain man look" (beard and ponytailed with an undercut) when he returned in SummerSlam 2021 is seen as a refreshing makeover for him by fans as they're so used seeing him being clean-shaven with a military cut for pretty much his entire appearances.
• First Installment Wins: Despite its short length, his original WWE run is significantly more revered than his second. This is because unlike his second run, he made regular appearances, had a more diverse moveset, actually did his own promos, and in general at least appeared to give a damn about his work.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Brock's continuous high-profile squash matches after he beat the Streak, which became progressively worse with each match. Cena? Absolutely glorious due to the Catharsis Factor. Reigns? Same.^Explanation Two most protected wrestlers in the company, the latter of whom was widely despised as a Creator's Pet, plus Seth Rollins cashed in Money in the Bank for a historic steal in the latter match. Rollins? Well, he is playing chickenshit heel, and we're getting the rematch with 'Taker.^Explanation Rollins was just starting to transition out of playing a chickenshit heel character at the time, plus the fans got the rematches with Taker in which Brock actually lost once. Ambrose? Okay, this is starting to get bad.^Explanation This is when everyone started seeing a pattern and flipped since Ambrose was majorly popular (arguably the most popular wrestler on the main roster) and many saw his match with Brock as a chance to permanently break into the main event, only for Brock to phone it in so that way he wouldn't get hurt for his upcoming fight at UFC 200. Ambrose did eventually break into the main event and win the WWE Championship later that year, so it worked out in the end for him. Orton? Oh hell no. ^Explanation Here's when people started turning in droves, since Orton was seen as the one person that could've gotten a decent match out of Brock, especially since Brock had no more distractions and it was assumed that as an older talent, Brock would have more respect for him. By this point a large part of the fandom was getting sick of Brock and his squash matches and wanted him gone.
  • As an extension of the aforementioned high-profile squash matches, "Suplex City". Many fans flat-out state that it is the worst thing that ever happened to Lesnar, because it gave him an excuse to half-ass his matches with a move set that made John Cena's look plentiful. As proven by his first run, and his early-second run matches with the aforementioned Cena and CM Punk, Lesnar is perfectly capable of stellar matches. But after "Suplex City", just about all his matches degraded into him spamming German Suplexes until he got bored and hit the F-5 for the pin. While he has gotten better at this in later years, many of his matches still have similar blueprints in signature and finisher spams (not unlike a video game), making fans less eager for his appearances.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Lesnar screaming "just die" at Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out 2004 became much more uncomfortable to hear, after Guerrero's death in November 2005.
• Ho Yay: He kissed Kurt Angle in the lips during his Face run in 2003 as a way to throw him off during a match.
  • After getting eliminated from the 2023 Rumble by Bobby Lashley, Brock would cut a promo later on, describing how Brock hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Lashley even as he would try to take his mind of it by hunting, fishing, or a big steak dinner. Then Brock starts to note, “I crawl into bed with my wife…”, prompting a noticeable snickering from the crowd. Brock realizes how homoerotic this is starting to sound in real time and clarifies “…and four or five hours later, I’m thinking about Bobby Lashley!” which didn’t really do much to dispel how suspect it sounded.
• Like You Would Really Do It: The Fatal 4-Way match at SummerSlam 2017 was pretty much a Foregone Conclusion. The terms of the match was that if Lesnar lost, he would have to retire from the WWE. His opponents? Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, and Samoa Joe. Given that Roman Reigns already ended one extremely popular wrestler's career only a few months before, and got X-Pac Heat like no tomorrow for it, Reigns winning would've just shown that absolutely nothing was learned. Braun Strowman winning was also unlikely, since he and Reigns had recently attacked each other rather savagely, and a victory here would mean a heel prevailing over one of the most heavily pushed faces of the company. Really though, the biggest factor was that Lesnar was just barely pushing 40 at the time of the event, and it was doubtful that he would get discarded so easily, especially considering the above factors. Knowing the full context behind the match, it was pretty obvious that Lesnar was going to win.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Clips of him spinning and staggering all over the cage during his fight with Cain Velasquez became quite popular.
  • "That's a stupid question!"
  • BROCK LOBSTER!◊
  • This superfan who was caught on camera mimicking Brock's pose after he returned to the WWE after Wrestlemania. He's even been introduced at conventions by CM Punk.
  • Bork Laser, after a member of the IWC tweeted during Brock's return in a state of... well, shall we say, OVEREXCITEMENT.
  • Brock has succeeded in everything in life, from NCAA wrestling, to professional wrestling, to Mixed Martials Arts. Now he can add Taylor Swift videos to that collection.
  • Eat. Sleep. Conquer. Repeat.
    • Eat. Sleep. Break. The. Streak.
    • Blood. Urine. Vomit. Repeat. ^Explanation  In a video package hyping up his match with John Cena at SummerSlam 2014, Lesnar vowed that he would leave Cena lying in a pool of his own blood, urine and vomit. During Lesnar's entrance, the cameras pointed to a sign displaying those words in the format of Lesnar's signature motto.
    • Eat. Sleep. Maul. Repeat. ^Explanation  His match against Orton at SummerSlam 2016 ends with him busting Orton's head and won by TKO as Revenge for Orton's bragging of his failed drug test that got him suspended in UFC for a year.
    • EAT. SLEEP. KILL. REPEAT! ^Explanation  In the 7/20/15 episode of RAW, Lesnar says "I'll Kill You!" to the Undertaker.
  • "Paul, say something stupid!"
  • "Suplex City," which was born as a result of what was likely just an offhand remark by Lesnar to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31 (Lesnar simply yelled "Suplex City, bitch!" after one of his many throws); the commentators played up the concept during the match, including Jerry Lawler warning Reigns not to "Take up residence in Suplex City," which probably helped somewhat with this trope being played straight. His reappearance at Raw post-Money in the Bank 2015 saw him wearing the meme shirt, its design changing based on the city in which WWE is performing, the implication being that Suplex City is wherever Lesnar goes, and it even got its own song in the form of a rap song based on Tyga's "Rack City", though after UFC 200 and his doping violation came out, "Steroid City" has also become a popular counter-chant. 2K Sports also defictionalized Suplex City into a real (and very dangerous looking) city for a commercial ad.
• Moral Event Horizon: As a heel, Brock occasionally crosses lines most other wrestlers don't frequently and often.
  • Pushing Zack Gowen down the stairs during his 2003 Heel run. Even Vince McMahon, who has often been called Satan himself by commentators, looked shocked/horrified by Lesnar's actions and tried to talk him out of it to no avail.
  • He crosses it after his 2012 return by assaulting Shawn Michaels and breaking his arm. Even Paul Heyman seemed disturbed he actually went through with it.
  • In 2015, he F5'd a cameraman out of frustration for not getting to fight Seth Rollins, something that's usually beneath all but the lowest of heels. Stephanie McMahon responded to this by indefinitely suspending him.
  • In 2019, he beat the living hell out of Seth Rollins and then proceeded to F5 him three times on a chair, enough to make Rollins bleed from his mouth. Both Heyman and Corey Graves were horrified and disgusted, respectively, by Lesnar's actions and the former begged him to stop it. Afterwards, he got an injured Rollins out of the ambulance and attacked him, which made Graves even more disgusted than he already was.
  • Also from 2019: it was bad enough he beat the tar out of Rey Mysterio Jr. that night, but doing the same to Rey's son Dominick, who wasn't a trained wrestler and was only in the crowd to support his father? Heyman was so horrified by this that he actually apologised to Rey Mysterio's family for Brock's actions.
• Narm:
  • His original WWE run gave us "I'm begging you, at WrestleMania XX, give me...BROCK LESNAR VS GOLDBEEEEEEEEEEERG!!!"
  • He's never been a strong promo worker, so they had Paul Heyman do most of the talking during his first run. They didn't get him back at first for his return, leading to this gem during his contract signing: "This is real, John. This is a real feeling that you're feeling, because I...can FEEL IT!" Brock set a record for most uses of the words "feeling" and "real" in an episode of live action television on that night. Following that, Brock himself pretty much demanded they bring Paul back.
  • His screeching screams are unintentionally hilarious, such as the one at WrestleMania 29 (seen here) and the one at the last Raw of 2013 (seen here). On a related note, "LET'S DO THIIIIIIS?!"
• Narm Charm: After Brock won the 2019 Men's Money in the Bank ladder match, the usually stone-faced Lesnar broke into a wide grin as he held the briefcase, and retained that same smile as he opened Monday Night Raw the next night, holding the briefcase like a boombox over one of his shoulders and looking as goofy as a 260-pound ass-kicking machine can look, which even his detractors admit that they like seeing Lesnar doing this as it makes his character more entertaining. WWE seems to be leaning into this, as the briefcase got a custom paint job that has speakers drawn into it to make it look like a boom box, and he began wearing shirts with a green boom box shaped like a briefcase and the words Brock Party on them.
• Older Than They Think: In re "Eat Sleep Suplex Repeat": There was a Friday the 13th spinoff novel titled Hate-Kill-Repeat.
• Questionable Casting: In his early career, WWE twice tried to put him into grievously ill-fitting gimmicks that could have potentially killed his career in its tracks.
  • In OVW, they tried to push him as a whitemeat, all-American boy babyface amateur athlete. Lesnar rebelled against this characterisation by getting his “Beast” back tattoo and playing Heel at every opportunity, much to Jim Cornette’s consternation.
  • Shortly after his call-up, WWE creative pitched him a gimmick as an 80s-style silent, immovable, Russian bad guy. Paul Heyman overheard, realised what a bad idea that was and pushed to be allowed to lay out Lesnar’s matches and develop his persona. This was granted, and the rest is history.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Much like Roman Reigns in 2020 with his Face–Heel Turn, Brock's 2021 return as a Face delighted fans due to the switch in dynamics. Without Heyman as his mouthpiece, Brock showed more of his comedic side as well as some new found aggression from his first run. His new Viking-Cowboy mountain man look was also a nice change of pace.
• Replacement Scrappy: Ironically, he was this for Roman Reigns during his second Universal Championship reign. Whatever issues the fans had with Roman, they were all willing to put with his eventual run with the title after the sheer Arc Fatigue of Lesnar's, because at least Roman would show up regularly and have good matches with the other wrestlers on the roster again, opposed to the scant three Lesnar had over the course of almost two years. When he had to relinquish it after his heartwrenching leukemia announcement and the company put it back on Lesnar, the fans were furious, and were literally counting the days until the belt landed on someone else (who turned out to be Seth Rollins).
• Rooting for the Empire: Despite being pushed as a merciless, remorseless heel of heels, Lesnar gets huge cheers from the adult males in the audience due to basically being the biggest badass in the company by a wide margin.
  • At SummerSlam 2002, the night he became the youngest WWE Champion ever, Lesnar was heavily cheered during and after the match with The Rock. This was justified though, because the fans knew Rock was leaving WWE to pursue an acting career.
  • The fact that he has spent 2014 (minus appearances at the Royal Rumble and the aforementioned streak breaking) feuding with John Cena certainly does a lot to make the smarks and in general male fans side with him.
• The Scrappy:
  • He wasn't the most hated IWGP Heavyweight Champion of all time (that role is probably occupied forever by Tadao Yasuda), but he's still frequently held up as one of the lowest points of New Japan's Audience-Alienating Era. The main reasons behind his heat were a) he was brought by Simon Inoki, the son-in-law of Antonio Inoki - the man had almost led NJPW to bankruptcy, b) his bringing was seen as an imitation of a failed experiment by AJPW involving Goldberg two years earlier, c) he won the title in a three-way match instead of a proper singles match as the puroresu tradition demands, d) he did not work full-time and his matches lacked title bout quality e) he refused to drop the championship and even give the belt back when he was stripped of it, and f) he refused to get Inoki's fighting spirit slap (It Makes Sense in Context).
  • MMA fans are even more unanimous in hating Lesnar than NJPW ones. Reasons for this are several too: a) he came from a pro wrestling background, specifically WWE, something UFC fans usually dislike, b) he received a title shot for his name value alone, stepping over several fighters who were seen as deserving the chance much more than him, c) he dared to win his title match, which was precisely against a fan favourite like Randy Couture, d) he is considered the ultimate incarnation of Unskilled, but Strong, as his in-cage success (even when he is a decorated amateur wrestler) owes more to his incredible strength and athleticism than to skill or training, e) he notoriusly reacts very badly to being struck in the face, a trait which is unpopular among fans, and finally d) his return to the Octagon in July 2016 was overshadowed by being notified of potential USADA doping violation.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Not only is he ungodly strong, but he made use of a couple of moves in WWE that guys his size have NO business using. Very early in his career,^note before he missed it at WrestleMania XIX and suffered a concussion as a result one of Lesnar's finishing moves was a SHOOTING STAR PRESS. This is him in developmental, circa 2001.
  • HE ENDED THE STREAK CLEANLY.
  • Lesnar's freakish physique and jaw-dropping accomplishments have led to him being referred to as some sort of bear-devouring manbeast. It's not without reason.
    Seanbaby: There aren't enough Coors Lights in The Mandalay Bay Events Center to drop a Brock Lesnar after it's made a fresh kill.
  • It's not uncommon on the internet to see Lesnar (whose shoot-fighter-esque gimmick, if it can be called that, is about as down-to-earth and grounded in realism as one could find in the world of pro wrestling) spoken of as less a human being or even an animal and more a force of nature.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Roman Reigns cutting this viciously savage promo in which he hung a massive lampshade on Lesnar's terrible work ethic, contempt for his audience and disrespect for the WWE in general, all of them gripes that the audience have had with Lesnar since his return.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
  • He started to cause this for more than a few fans in 2016. What's the point of even getting invested in his next feud at all, when he'll almost assuredly win as well as brutalize whichever babyface steps up? Then we got a piece of suspense by the name of Goldberg — who ultimately managed subvert this up to eleven by actually invoking Curb-Stomp Battle at Survivor Series 2016 and again at Royal Rumble 2017.
  • Lesnar's run as Universal Champion has also been poorly received, with fan reception sliding downhill directly in relation to how long Lesnar has held the title. On top of retiring Goldberg just to get the belt, Lesnar has repeatedly defended his championship against increasingly-absurd odds, with the WWE throwing fan favorites like Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman right under the bus in their effort to keep the belt on a man who more and more fans have come to see as a boring, two-note part-timer. The Strowman feud proved especially egregious - seeing Lesnar put Strowman away with one F5 at No Mercy 2017 in spite of Braun repeatedly curbstomping Brock in the weeks leading up to the PPV - and more or less marked the point where the fans started turning on Lesnar again.
• Unexpected Character: His sudden arrival at the end of the men's ladder match at Money in the Bank 2019 took everyone by surprise, especially since the audience had been expecting Braun Strowman. The fact he won the match shortly after arriving was even more unexpected.
• X-Pac Heat:
  • Lesnar's background in pro wrestling is constantly mocked and decried by his MMA detractors. When he defeated perennial fan-favorite and UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture the crowd was solidly against him and roundly booed him during the post-fight interview, and then there was the infamous post-fight rant after his second bout with Frank Mir in which he attacked a major UFC sponsor and concluded with the now-immortal, "I might even climb on top of my wife tonight."
  • He's got a bit of this in pro wrestling, too. Mainly because he's always been honest about his second run in WWE only being for the money, where as most fans tend to have more respect for wrestlers who are in it because they are truly passionate about the business. 90% of wrestling fans were dishing this out for months over his ending The Streak cleanly, and some either still haven't gotten over it or feel that it's been wasted based on his booking and lack of regularity.

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