Looking Back At The 'Beast’ Career Of WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar Ahead Of WrestleMania 

WWE Superstar and Current Champion Brock Lesnar is gearing up for a historic match at WrestleMania. On the final evening of the two-night event, Lesnar will face off Universal Champion Roman Reigns in a fight that could win him both titles and unify the Universal Championship and the WWE Championship. 

The April 3 match — one of the most anticipated of the event — will mark the first time any one pair of opponents (other than “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock) have headlined WrestleMania on three separate occasions.  

While it’s been predicted by some that Reigns will reign as the winner, Lesnar has certainly made it clear he’s up for the challenge. 

Nodding to his “background” and “history,” he told the New York Post earlier this month that he thinks he, not Reigns, is the one person “capable of accomplishing” the feat of combining the two titles. 

He’s certainly got the competitive pedigree. 

“Possessing the type of staggering strength and frightening intensity seen only among Superman villains, this 6-foot-3, 266-pound freak of nature from Minneapolis, Minn., has forced his way to the top of every major combat sport,” the WWE describes him. “He won the NCAA Division I collegiate wrestling championship as a senior at the University of Minnesota, the WWE Championship within six months of his debut and the UFC Heavyweight Title in his fourth professional MMA fight.” 

They add, “plain and simple, the man was built to destroy.”

Brock Lesnar. Photo: Joshua Bilenko

His ability to “destroy” has led to his many intimidating nicknames. 

“The Conqueror, The Beast Incarnate, The Anomaly or whatever godlike title you choose to bestow upon Brock Lesnar,” the WWE states. “Surely, this creature fits each and every one of them.” 

Lesnar made his debut for WWE — where they called him "The Next Big Thing” — during 2002's Raw after WrestleMania X8 where he “single handedly destroyed a ring full of unfortunate Superstars,” including Al Snow, Maven and Spike Dudley. 

He won the WWE Championship by beating The Rock that same year — at the age of 25, making him the youngest WWE Champion in history at that time. 

While Lesnar departed the WWE in 2003, he came back just how he started: on 2012's Raw after WrestleMania, bursting onto the WWE scene to once more battle John Cena. 

It took until 2014 for Lesnar to defeat Cena at “Summer Slam 2014” to win the WWE Championship, a title he held for more than six months. 

That was a golden year for “The Beast Incarnate”: He also defeated The Undertaker at “WrestleMania 30," breaking the WWE legend’s 21-match unbeaten streak at WrestleMania. 

After losing the WWE Championship in March 2015, Lesnar continued to fight and won WWE's Universal Championship in 2017, holding onto it for more than a year. In doing so, he became the first male superstar star to have won both the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship.  

In 2020, after losing the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36, he departed WWE again.  

But he left only briefly — returning (with a new look and attitude which might be the funnest Lesnar we’ve ever seen) by Summer Slam in 2021. And, in February 2022, he reclaimed his WWE Championship title at an Elimination Chamber match, outlasting Bobby Lashley, Seth Rollins, A.J. Styles, Austin Theory and Riddle.  

With that win, he’s now poised to fight Reigns to unify the WWE Championship and Universal Championship at WrestleMania. 

Of Reigns — a competitor he's fought often over his years in the WWE — Lesnar told the Post, “I see a guy who came into his own and is a real threat as a person and as a character. […] Roman has the 'it factor,' has had it. It’s exciting to me. I get goosebumps just thinking about this match.” 

But can Lesnar win both titles? Fans will soon find out. 

WrestleMania will stream live on Peacock Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3 at 8/7c. Raw After WrestleMania will air live on USA on Monday, April 4 at 8/7c.