Brock Lesnar arrived in WWE in 2002 and was instantly labelled as The Next Big Thing. Now over twenty years following his debut, Lesnar has consistently maintained a spot as a special attraction and is a true box office star for WWE. With a legitimate fighting background to his credit from his time in the UFC, Lesnar's ability to blur the lines of reality has made him incredibly dominant and he rarely suffers losses at this point in his career.
However, looking back at the start of Lesnar's wrestling career, he may have been dominant but he suffered losses not only more often, but to several surprising names. Lensar's unique combination of size, strength and speed may have propelled him to the main event level, but he was a rookie once as well.
10 The Hardy Boyz
From the moment Brock Lesnar burst onto the wrestling scene in 2002, he had wrestling fans take notice due to his size, strength, speed and brutality. Lesnar looked like a star out of the gate, establishing himself as a monster by taking out everyone in his path.
The first wrestlers to stand up to Lesnar were Matt and Jeff Hardy, who were tired of suffering beatings at Lesnar's hands. Despite both Matt and Jeff losing to Lesnar separately, they were technically able to defeat him when they teamed up at Insurrextion 2002. However, it was only due to the ineptitude of Lesnar's partner Shawn Stasiak, who stepped into the ring for a few moments and was taken down by the Hardys.
9 Edge & Rey Mysterio
Infamously, Brock Lesnar has spent his entire WWE career without any secondary title wins and has spent each stint in the company vying for top prizes. However, as SmackDown introduced their own Tag Team Championships in 2002, even Lesnar got in on trying to win the prize. However, he was unceremoniously eliminated in the first round of the tournament due to choices made by his partner.
As the reigning WWE Champion, Lesnar teamed up with Tajiri to take on Edge and Rey Mysterio and started by dominating the challengers. However, once Tajiri chose to blind-tag Lesnar, things started to go downhill. Lesnar's frustration got the better of him and he did not tag Tajiri before jumping in the ring, which led to Tajiri still being legal when he was hit with multiple moves and lost the match for his team.
8 The Big Show
Survivor Series 2002 is touted as one of the best incarnations of the pay-per-view from top to bottom, but it also saw Brock Lesnar's first singles loss that did not occur by disqualification. Lesnar entered the WWE Championship match against The Big Show with injured ribs, but it was not his body that caused him to lose the match and his championship.
Despite the injury, Lesnar looked on track to defeat The Big Show and retain his title, but Paul Heyman had other plans. Heyman double-crossed his client and passed Big Show a chair to use on Lesnar's injured ribs, allowing him to pin Lesnar for the first time in his WWE career.
7 Kurt Angle
The rivalry between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar helped ignite Lesnar in the main event scene and was the premiere rivalry for the SmackDown brand. While they would eventually trade the WWE Championship back and forth, including at their infamous WrestleMania 19 encounter, Angle was not only able to defeat Lesnar before this, but he outsmarted him as well.
While defending the WWE Championship against Lesnar on an episode of SmackDown before WrestleMania, the match looked to end quickly in Lesnar's favour only a few moments in after he hit Angle with an F-5. However, it turned out that this was Kurt's brother Eric in his place, and Kurt switched places back with him to roll up Lesnar for a quick win.
6 The FBI
When it comes to impactful teams in WWE, the Full Blooded Italians are not usually mentioned. After being revived in WWE years after appearing in ECW, the FBI toiled around the SmackDown brand without accomplishing much. However, their win-loss record does hold a win over Brock Lesnar, which not many people can claim.
In a three-on-two handicap match, the FBI teamed with The Big Show to take on Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker on an episode of SmackDown in May 2003. While the two big men looked extremely confident against the FBI, it was The Big Show who was the difference maker. After spending plenty of energy beating up Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli, Show snuck in and chokeslamed Lesnar to give him another pinfall loss.
5 The World's Greatest Tag Team
As Brock Lesnar was settling into WWE after his first year, he was certainly still a big attraction but was taking more losses than he had before. Particularly during tag team matches with multiple stories being told, Lesnar was more susceptible to losing with more people involved.
While teaming with Kurt Angle and Mr. America against The Big Show and the World's Greatest Tag Team, Lesnar had his hands full. However, his team lost when Mr. America got distracted by Vince McMahon and ended up getting dominated by The Big Show to end the match giving two young stars a big win in their career.
4 The Undertaker
The rivalry between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker was a big part of Lesnar's return to wrestling, all the way up to WrestleMania 30 with the ending of The Streak. However, their rivalry goes back to 2003 when they were all vying for a shot at Kurt Angle's WWE Championship.
The main event scene was incredibly hot at this time, and The Undertaker, The Big Show and Brock Lesnar faced off in a number one contender match. The big men beat each other up and down the ring, but ultimately The Undertaker's experience took over and he was able to powerbomb Lesnar to take the win and spark a feud that would last over ten years.
3 Eddie Guerrero
Leading up to Eddie Guerrero's emotional WWE Championship win in 2004, he and Brock Lesnar did not have much time to interact in the ring before this. With only one singles match between them during Lesnar's first reign as champion, there was not much time to build history.
However, leave it to Eddie Guerrero to make magic happen. On the episode of SmackDown before their scheduled title match, Guerrero gave a passionate promo at the beginning of the show about how badly he needed the championship and then teamed with John Cena to take on Lesnar and The Big Show. Ultimately, Guerrero's ability to get away with cheating paid off when a low blow with a chain gave him a quick win over his would-be opponent.
2 Goldberg
If there is one match in Brock Lesnar's career that sticks out for all the wrong reasons, it is his encounter with Goldberg at WrestleMania 20. Despite two titans clashing in the ring, the crowd was much more interested in expressing their hatred for both due to reports of them leaving WWE following the event.
The match itself was slow and boring, but the crowd reaction is what makes it so memorable. During the match, Lesnar was visibly annoyed at the reaction and after being speared by Goldberg, Lesnar suffered his first WrestleMania loss and would not appear in WWE for another eight years.
1 John Cena
By Extreme Rules 2012, Brock Lesnar had built a name for himself as a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and had showcased his fighting skills across the world. While WWE fans knew he was big and dangerous, they were not prepared for the level of brutality he was going to dish out during his latest wrestling stint.
With hard-hitting strikes and merciless suplexes, Lesnar was seemingly out to end John Cena's career when he returned to the ring. Fans had never seen John Cena dismantled like this before as Lesnar threw him around the ring and pummeled him. While Lesnar may have suffered a loss in his WWE return, he certainly made an everlasting statement.
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