Brock Lesnar‘s WWE career nearly started in a very different way. According to Paul Heyman, AEW veteran Taz stepped in early and helped prevent WWE from presenting him the wrong way.
Before becoming one of WWE’s biggest stars, Brock Lesnar was preparing for his main roster debut after an impressive run in OVW. At the time, Paul Heyman was expected to be paired with Chris Benoit. However, speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Heyman revealed there were concerns about how WWE planned to use Lesnar.
Heyman recalled that Lesnar became frustrated while waiting in OVW. “Brock was very impatient in OVW and moved back to Minneapolis. He told WWE, ‘Put me on the main roster.’ However, Heyman felt some producers did not fully understand how unique Lesnar was.
Paul Heyman recalls how Taz helped Brock Lesnar
“‘Just stand in the middle of the ring, kid. You’ll be fine. Let everybody bounce off of you. Don’t move too much.’ He should be a Russian? He’s an NCAA Division I heavyweight champion. Look at his combine numbers. Look at what he can do. Look at his leaping ability. Look at the way that he moves. Have you ever seen anyone move like that? Let alone someone of that size move like that? And listen to his name. You couldn’t think of a better name for a fighter: Brock Lesnar. And you want him to be a Russian.”
The situation changed when Taz approached him. As a longtime admirer of Lesnar’s amateur wrestling background, Taz believed WWE was making a mistake. “Taz brought him over to me because Taz was such a huge fan of Brock’s amateur career. Taz said, ‘Hey brother, they’re going to screw this up. You got to get involved in this over here.’
Afterward, Heyman went directly to Vince McMahon. “So I went to Vince and I said, ‘Hey, we have a heavy investment in Brock Lesnar. We’re going to screw this up.’ ‘Oh, god damn it. Do something about that. Take over his matches. You produce them.'”
Their partnership eventually became one of the most successful pairings in WWE history.
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