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The “real Brock Lesnar” almost didn’t make it to WWE television.
Lesnar was done, happy to retire to his home and farm in Saskatchewan after dropping the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre at a fan-less WrestleMania 36 at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., in April 2020.
“Had my first wrestling match in a garage in front of no people, and 20 years later I’m WWE universal champion of the world, wrestling in front of no people,” Lesnar said. “So I came full circle. I had 20 years as an athlete, as an entertainer, and I was OK with it. The pandemic hits, and my contract was up, and so in my mind, I was retired and just settling into it. I grew my beard out, grew my hair out. This wasn’t some master plan. I just kind of went off the map and was OK with it.”
Lesnar, 44, wasn’t seen again on a WWE mat until this past August at SummerSlam, when he confronted current WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns to close the show. That kicked off a now seven-month storyline with Reigns and his former on-screen advocate, Paul Heyman, during which Lesnar has won the WWE championship twice (the second time in the Elimination Chamber) and also the Royal Rumble. Getting to tell this particular story was one of the things that drew Lesnar back to WWE.
“Yes, but this thing has taken a lot of different twists and turns we didn’t discuss, and it’s fun,” said Lesnar, who will defend the WWE Championship at a loaded live event at Madison Square Garden on March 5. “But I came back because I was asked very nicely, and I was compensated very nicely. I have a passion for it, this storyline for sure.”
When Lesnar did return, he did not dress or act like the person the audience had watched for so many years with Heyman as his mouthpiece. This baby-face version of Lesnar is doing his own promos, telling knock-knock jokes and taking selfies with fans.
The South Dakota native’s hair is longer and in a braid, and he only wears his MMA shorts during matches. Lesnar said WWE chairman Vince McMahon told him he didn’t really care what he wore on TV. So the rest of the time, he is dressed in the overalls, flannels and the cowboy boots and hats he wears on his farm. This usually very private person is finally giving fans the most genuine look at him than he ever has.
“This is the real Brock Lesnar,” he said. “I’m a country hillbilly f–k, and that’s who I’m am. I grew up the same way.’
Lesnar said jokingly that now he can come to work and not have to “change my f–king clothes.” But what it also means is this is the most comfortable he has been performing in WWE.
He said he has 20 years in the company, and he tried to be someone “who I really never kind of was.” Lesnar didn’t quite know where he fit in with Heyman speaking for him and said, when he first started, “he just wasn’t feeling” WWE’s vision for him. Doing it more on the fly this time has allowed him to present an amplified version of his real self without losing his identity as a serious, combustible asskicker. He’s having “a whole lot of fun.”
“I can be a funny f–ker,” Lesnar said. “I can be serious. I can be bipolar and change my persona on a flick of a switch, just ask my kids. I can change on a dime. I can be joking with you and then rip your f–king head off the next second. It’s just the way I am.”
Lesnar has enjoyed working across from Heyman instead of alongside him this time, saying he can’t wait to get his hands on him and “see his fat little jowls bouncing around by whips of my hands.” He said he thinks the breakup of their on-screen partnership is a piece of the story that makes it easy for the audience to digest.
“I step into that role, and I want to kill Paul because he f–ked me over, right?” he said. “This is a serious angle for me, and it’s a passionate angle. That’s why I think the product is so good.”
Lesnar, a former NCAA Division I champion wrestler, is also serious about wanting to be a dual champion after the two-night WrestleMania 38 in Dallas on April 2-3, saying he believes he is the only person in WWE, because of “my background and my history,” who is “capable of accomplishing that.”
He does have a ton of respect for his opponent, Reigns, and the excellence that has come with the Tribal Chief persona Reigns has created over the past two years. The two have crossed paths in storyline before, dating back to WrestleMania 31 in 2015. When they step into the ring this time in the main event of Night Two on April 3, the former UFC heavyweight champion and Reigns will be the first pair other than “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock to headline WrestleMania on three separate occasions.
“I see a f–king superstar,” Lesnar said of Reigns “I see I guy who came into his own and is a real threat as 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.”
Lesnar gets a different feel when a match is over.
He revealed on “The Pat McAfee Show” last week that, after performing — especially in front of large crowds — he deals with anxiety. The experience can exhaust Lesnar and leave him needing to find solitude, usually at home, to recharge. When asked about it by The Post, Lesnar said he felt that way even as a kid, when the audience watching was much smaller than the thousands at a WWE event.
“I was a kid who had anxiety issues. I grew up in the ’80s. When we went to school, they didn’t have a definition of whatever, and I didn’t take any pills,” said Lesnar, who also admitted the “door is closed” on a return to MMA. “I didn’t go to the doctor, got my behavioral happenstances or whatever. I just learned … and wrestling was my savior.
“Wrestling, I could take all of my anxiety and energy into that and be exhausted at night and go to sleep. I’m just a high-strung person. So for me, to be in front of all those people and even as a young kid to go to a tournament, a wrestling tournament just in a little gymnasium and to get home and just be exhausted. Not only from wrestling, but being in a loud auditorium.”
It doesn’t have an effect on him before and during a fight or wrestling match. There, he can focus on winning and putting on a show for fans, which he hopes to at the Garden on Saturday. Bobby Lashley has been billed as his opponent, but the two-time WWE champion is in “concussion protocol” in the storyline and reportedly dealing with a real injury.
“I don’t know if I’m not wrestling Bobby tomorrow. We’re going to find out later today tonight or tomorrow, but I really don’t care,” Lesnar said. “I want to put on a performance. I want to get in front of these New York fans and put on a good event. We’ve had a shitty couple years, and I think everyone has. … It’s exciting for me to come back to the city, be and the Garden. Hopefully, we can get back to some normalcies in life.”
Back in 2020, Lesnar thought his normal wasn’t going to include WWE any longer. He said an ideal day for him at home means waking up at 5 a.m. to get a workout in, getting a coffee, then waking his kids up at 7 a.m. to “start my day being a father.” After that, he might go hunting, fishing or do some farming, depending on what time of the year it is.
Added back in again is enjoying what’s left of his wrestling career, further advancing his legacy in WWE all while giving the audience a closer look at Brock Lesnar the man. Lesnar said he hopes to work with some of WWE’s younger talent at some point, and he doesn’t have a set time when he truly wants to walk away.
“As long as I’m looked after and my health is good and I’m enjoying myself,” Lesnar said, “I’d probably continue.”
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