Off-script WWE chaos saw Brock Lesnar stun fans with real punch that left rival dazed
When Brock Lesnar steps into a WWE ring, it comes with a certain weight.
His reputation as a genuine athlete, a former UFC champion and one of wrestling’s most convincing performers, has followed him through two decades at the top.
The Beast Incarnate has often been praised by his peers for the way he makes every move look real without ever breaking the code.
Mustafa Ali once recalled the experience of sharing the ring with him, joking that he’d been left so terrified by Lesnar’s in-character entrance that he expected to take a real life beating once Lesnar arrived to topple him off a ladder he was stationed on. It was a beating that, of course, never came.
He explained: “I’m watching and I’m like: ‘Ah, he’s gonna murder me! … [and] I hope I’m not destroying the mystique of Brock here, but what a pro. He looks up to me and goes: ‘Hey kid, you ready?… Okay, nice and easy.’
“He was so nice about the push [of the ladder]…I was expecting this violent thing and I hurled myself off the ladder and I ended up hitting the top rope [and] cutting my mouth, totally my fault. He’s a pro’s pro, man.”
That combination of menace and professionalism in the wrestling ring is exactly why so many names have spoken of Lesnar with quiet respect.
Why Brock Lesnar’s ‘safe style’ made his off-script WWE punch even more shocking
A pro’s pro he may be, but even Lesnar had to up the ante when another WWE star got a little too heavy handed.
The Universal Championship triple threat at the 2018 Royal Rumble was one of those nights. Sharing the ring with Braun Strowman and Kane, Lesnar found himself on the receiving end of a shot that was not meant to land the way it did.
Strowman, in full throttle, delivered a knee that cracked against Lesnar’s head with sickening force.
What was meant to be ‘snug’ was ‘stiff’ – the wrestling term for working a little too close to a ‘real’ style. It was a mistake in the chaos of a pay-per-view spectacle.
For a split second the stadium froze. The camera caught it, the commentators stumbled, and fans watching at home felt the hit as much as they saw it.
Lesnar’s response was immediate. He reeled from the blow, set himself, and then fired a punch that thudded straight into Strowman’s temple.
That blow was very real and was intended as such – a reminder of the raw power behind the character. And as the strike landed, microphones picked up his roar: “Slow the f*** down.”
It was as blunt as it gets, and as real as it gets. A multi-time WWE Champion cutting through the script with a single line and a single blow.
Strowman has never denied it. In fact, he has laughed about it since, adding to the myth. “I stiffed him on accident with a knee and he wasn’t happy about it so he clobbered me on the side of the head,” he told Chris Van Vliet.
Far from rattled, Strowman even spun it into a badge of honour. “I like to think I’m the only human on Earth that’s taken a right hand from Brock and didn’t go night-night. I went 20 more minutes in the match.”
The off-script WWE moment that turned Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman into history
The truth is that it meant little in terms of the result. Lesnar retained, the match played out, and the storyline rolled on. But in the memory of fans, it became one of those off-script moments that stayed alive far longer than any match ending.
For Lesnar, it was, depending how you view it, a crack in the aura of professionalism that so many had praised, or merely a reminder that he’s the pro who’ll very firmly tell you when you’ve crossed the line.
Strowman can rightly wear it as a badge of pride – while fans treat it as a rare in-ring moment in WWE history when stars broke character to get the show back on the road.
What's Your Reaction?
Like
0
Dislike
0
Love
0
Funny
0
Angry
0
Sad
0
Wow
0
