Welcome to a new series on the website, called Rating The Champ. This will follow my prior World Title Series, where I reviewed each and every WWE Heavyweight Champion in history from Hulk Hogan’s first title win in 1984 all the way to the current days. Money in the Bank cash-ins will not be included for obvious reasons, unless it was a proper match (ie: Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand 2006). Royal Rumble and battle royales won’t be included as well.
In this new series, I will rate all the PPV matches from each and every WWF/E Heavyweight Champion in history. To be fair, since this is the WWF/E title, I’ll only rate their PPV matches in the WWF/E. In this edition, we’ll be looking back at the PPV career of the one and only, former WWE & Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar.
2002
- Vs. Jeff Hardy (Backlash) *
- W/ Paul Heyman vs. The Hardy Boyz (Judgment Day) **
- Vs. Test (King of the Ring) *
- Vs. Rob Van Dam (King of the Ring) *1/2
- Vs. Rob Van Dam – WWE Intercontinental Championship (Vengeance) **
- Vs. The Rock – WWE Undisputed Championship (SummerSlam) ****1/2
- Vs. The Undertaker – WWE Championship (Unforgiven) ***
- HIAC: Vs. The Undertaker – WWE Championship (No Mercy) ***3/4
- Vs. Big Show – WWE Championship (Survivor Series) **1/4
2003
- Vs. Big Show (Royal Rumble) *1/2
- W/ Chris Benoit vs. Team Angle (No Way Out) ****
- Vs. Kurt Angle – WWE Championship (WrestleMania XIX) ****3/4
- Vs. John Cena – WWE Championship (Backlash) **3/4
- Stretcher: Vs. Big Show – WWE Championship (Judgment Day) ***1/2
- Vs. Kurt Angle vs. Big Show – WWE Championship (Vengeance) ***3/4
- Vs. Kurt Angle – WWE Championship (SummerSlam) ****1/4
- Biker Chain: Vs. The Undertaker – WWE Championship (No Mercy) **
- W/ Team Lesnar vs. Team Angle (Survivor Series) ***
2004
- Vs. Hardcore Holly – WWE Championship (Royal Rumble) 1/2*
- Vs. Eddie Guerrero – WWE Championship (No Way Out) ****1/2
- Vs. Goldberg (WrestleMania XX) 1/2*
Second run
- Extreme Rules: Vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012) ****3/4
- Vs. Triple H (SummerSlam 2012) ***1/2
- No Holds Barred: Vs. Triple H (WrestleMania 29) **1/2
- Steel Cage: Vs. Triple H (Extreme Rules 2013) ****
- No DQ: Vs. CM Punk (SummerSlam 2013) *****
- Vs. Big Show (Royal Rumble 2014) *
- Vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXX) **
- Vs. John Cena – WWE World Heavyweight Championship (SummerSlam 2014) ****1/4
- Vs. John Cena – WWE World Heavyweight Championship (Night of Champions 2014) ***3/4
- Vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins – WWE World Heavyweight Championship (Royal Rumble 2015) ****3/4
- Vs. Roman Reigns – WWE World Heavyweight Championship (WrestleMania 31) ****1/2
- Vs. Seth Rollins – WWE World Heavyweight Championship (Battleground 2015) **
- Vs. The Undertaker (SummerSlam 2015) ****
- HIAC: Vs. The Undertaker (Hell in a Cell 2015) ****1/2
- Vs. Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose (Fastlane 2016) ****1/4
- Handicap: Vs. The Wyatt Family (Roadblock 2016) **1/2
- Street Fight: Vs. Dean Ambrose (WrestleMania 32) ***
- Vs. Randy Orton (SummerSlam 2016) ***
- Vs. Goldberg (Survivor Series 2016) N/R (not rated)
- Vs. Goldberg – WWE Universal Championship (WrestleMania 33) ***1/2
- Vs. Samoa Joe – WWE Universal Championship (Great Balls Of Fire 2017) ***1/2
- Vs. Joe vs. Reigns vs. Strowman – WWE Universal Chapionship (SummerSlam 2017) ****3/4
- Vs. Braun Strowman – WWE Universal Championship (No Mercy 2017) **
- Vs. AJ Styles (Survivor Series 2017) ****1/2
- Vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane – WWE Universal Championship (Royal Rumble 2018) *
- Vs. Roman Reigns – WWE Universal Championship (WrestleMania 34) *
- Steel Cage: Vs. Roman Reigns – WWE Universal Championship (Greatest Royal Rumble 2018) 1/2*
- Vs. Roman Reigns – WWE Universal Championship (SummerSlam 2018) **1/2
- Vs. Braun Strowman – WWE Universal Championship (Crown Jewel 2018) 1/4*
- Vs. Daniel Bryan (Survivor Series 2018) ****1/2
- Vs. Finn Bálor – WWE Universal Championship (Royal Rumble 2019) ***3/4
- Vs. Seth Rollins – WWE Universal Championship (WrestleMania 35) **
- Money in the Bank Ladder Match (Money in the Bank 2019) ****1/4
- Vs. Seth Rollins – WWE Universal Championship (SummerSlam 2019) ****1/4
- Vs. Cain Velasquez – WWE Championship (Crown Jewel 2019) DUD
- No DQ: Vs. Rey Mysterio – WWE Championship (Survivor Series 2019) ***3/4
- Vs. Ricochet – WWE Championship (Super ShowDown 2020) DUD
- Vs. Drew McIntyre – WWE Championship (WrestleMania 36) 1/2*
TOP FIVE
5. John Cena (Extreme Rules 2012)
After WrestleMania XXVIII, Brock Lesnar came back to wrestling for the first time since his bout with Kurt Angle in 2007. He attacked John Cena in his first night back, starting a feud between the two.
In the match’s first minute, Lesnar immediately made Cena bleed and just proceeded to kill him from bell to bell, using the most lethal of weapons in this exreme rules bout : his own hands.
That is until the end, where Cena for some reason wins the match with a single AA into the steps to beat Brock in his first match back… only to lose to John Laurinaitis at the next PPV. That was indeed a thing that happened.
4. Fatal 4 Way Match (SummerSlam 2017)
At this point, Lesnar had been the Universal Champion since WrestleMania, having retained against Samoa Joe the prior month. Meanwhile, Reigns and Strowman had been feuding for ages and they were added to the title match as well.
Brock did a spectacular job of making Braun Strowman look like a badass in this match, being overpowered by him numerous times and even taking two Powerslams through the table.
Near the end, Lesnar made his way back in the ring and took advantage of the fact Braun had been taken out for a while, hitting Reigns with the F5 to retain.
3. Triple Threat Match (Royal Rumble 2015)
Back at SummerSlam 2014, Lesnar had murdered John Cena to win the WWE Title, and Seth Rollins got involved in their rematch at Night of Champions the following month to set up this match.
Brock at this point was an absolute monster, and both challengers sold him like a big deal and tried to take him out of the match as much as possible.
After breaking Lesnar’s ribs and taking him out on the floor, Brock made his way back in and took out both guys before putting Seth away with the F5 for the win to retain.
2. Kurt Angle (WrestleMania XIX)
Despite being a former WWE Champion already, Brock Lesnar needed this. He had spent most of his career in WWE up until that point working “main event WWE style matches” with the likes of Undertaker and Big Show, but Lesnar was an amateur wrestling champion.
His opponent, Kurt Angle, was an olympic Gold Medal winner in amateur wrestling. This was exactly the style Lesnar needed to prove how damn good he is (and boy is he great), and there was no better opponent than Angle.
The match tells a great story and is a technical masterpiece, and had it not been for that ending it could’ve been number one on this list.
1. CM Punk (SummerSlam 2013)
In his first year back to wrestling in WWE, Lesnar had won two matches out of four. To say John Cena and (especially) Triple H didn’t need to be the ones beating Brock so early in his second run would be the understatement of the decade.
Lesnar needed a new opponent, a fresh match: enter CM Punk. Not only was the story with Paul Heyman fantastic, but also the match was believable and engaging from start to finish.
Lesnar dominated Punk, as he should’ve, and Punk was only able to fight back after taking advantage of where he was (ie: the ringpost). The ending saw Punk almost get the big babyface win, only for Heyman to get involved and get his ass kicked, which then allowed Lesnar to kill Punk with the chair followed by the F5 for the academic win.
For the record, this is not my favorite Brock Lesnar match ever, that would be the Iron Man bout with Angle on SmackDown – however, do not forget, these pieces only look back at PPV matches.
Overall average rating
2.82/5
Don’t miss the next piece on Rating The Champ, where I’ll be looking back at former WWE & Universal Champion, Bray Wyatt.