Brock Lesnar is one of the most popular wrestling stars in the world today. He first established his presence in the wrestling business when he debuted as The Next Big Thing in the 2000s.
Shortly after debuting on the main roster in March of 2002, Brock Lesnar became the youngest World Champion in the history of the company at that time. Lesnar would have a dominating run for the next two years before departing in 2004.
His last match took place at WrestleMania 20, where he faced Goldberg. Both wrestlers got booed by the Madison Square Garden crowd because fans knew they were leaving WWE after this bout.
At that time, Lesnar was a mega star for the company. But his departure wasn’t a mutual thing. The Beast was exhausted by the brutal wrestling schedule and wanted to leave the company altogether because of it.
As part of his release, Lesnar signed a non-compete clause with WWE that would prevent him from working for another wrestling promotion or MMA company. But as fans know, Lesnar worked for NJPW in 2005, which led to WWE suing him for breach of contract.
The Beast recently discussed this on a podcast.
Brock Lesnar Talks About WWE Suing Him For Breaking His Non-Compete
On Spittin’ Chiclets, Brock Lesnar discussed his time with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings. He signed a contract in July 2004, but was cut from the final roster.
He also had the IRS show up at his door and dealt with a lawsuit from Vince McMahon for joining NJPW. He called this a “tough time in my life.”
Fans can read the full quote below (courtesy of Fightful):
“They gave me the opportunity because I was a hometown hero there already, and they did me a huge solid by at least giving me the opportunity and then, that kind of turned into a reality as I got into camp and I was doing alright and then they wanted to send me to Europe and I just — I’d already been on the road for four years at this point.
“I got cut from the Vikings… The I.R.S. showed up at my doorstep. I was in a custody battle for the kid, for my daughter, and I was getting sued by Vince McMahon for a non-compete. It was a tough time in my life, from ‘04 to ‘06, and so, there was people and I won’t mention — that had helped me through those times, and I was able to get on my feet again, and I thank them a lot and they know who they are but, they helped me out and got me stable and they believed in me.” (
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Brock Lesnar eventually returned to WWE in 2012 on the night after WrestleMania 28.
During his years outside WWE, Lesnar also had a spell with the UFC and became its World Heavyweight Champion in 2008 as well.
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Ishaan Sharma has been following wrestling ever since he was 8. That was over a decade ago. He loves to write about this pretend sport and has worked with online publications such as Sportskeeda and TheSportster, where he shared his insights about the wrestling business.