Brock Lesnar walked away from huge WWE contract to chase NFL dream, suplexed a Kansas City Chiefs player, became a UFC champion and then ended Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak

Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest box office attractions in WWE history.

As a former NCAA Division 1 wrestling champion and UFC heavyweight champion, it’s safe to say the Beast Incarnate is legit.

With that pedigree comes a price and Vince McMahon has been willing to pay it in recent years – at a reduced schedule, too.

Lesnar earns over $5million (around £3.8m) a year for his relatively small WWE schedule. He can make even more than that on merchandise and pay-per-view pay-offs.

But according to ESPN, the 44-year-old walked away from a hefty sum at the height of his powers, too.

You may recall Lesnar conquering the wrestling business inside two years and fleeing as quickly as he came between 2002 and 2004.

And it is claimed he walked away from a seven-year, $45 million contract when he left WWE.

His whopping offer works out at roughly $6.4 million-a-year.

Back then, the WWE didn’t have the Network and main eventing pay-per-views was a lot more lucrative.

So it’s fair to say Lesnar would have raked in around $10m-a-year had he stayed.

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Lesnar dominated as champion on RAW, however, The Beast wanted to try his hand at the NFL and given his freakish athleticism, he was given a few opportunities, namely being included in the Minnesota Vikings practice squad.

Unfortunately a motorbike accident derailed his football dream but the big man did more than enough to be remembered as an American football player.

Former Vikings wideout Nate Burleson revealed Lesnar once ended a 2004 training camp fight…by suplexing a Kansas City Chiefs player.

He said: “(Lesnar) came out, and somebody cheap-shotted Daunte Culpepper late, and Brock was like “who did it?” The next play he went and suplexed the guy.

“Different type of nasty, but he picked up a grown man after the play, it was a royal rumble, Minnesota versus Kansas City in Mankato during training camp. That was a nasty suplex on the football field.”

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Not content with wrestling and football, Lesnar then ended up taking the UFC by storm.

He had a heavyweight title shot in his third fight under Dana White and he has two cards over the magic one million buys mark. Only McGregor has more than two.

He is still the only athlete to hold both WWE and UFC heavyweight gold but was forced to retire from the latter in 2019.

A bout of diverticulosis derailed Lesnar’s formidable MMA career, and that’s when he found wrestling again.

The reigning WWE champion returns to headline WrestleMania again this weekend in a unification bout with Universal title holder Roman Reigns.

But even if he wins, Lesnar has already secured the most famous victory in the history of the Showcase of the Immortals.

Heading into WrestleMania 30, precious few people believed Lesnar would beat The Undertaker.

The Deadman was 21-0 at WWE’s most famous PPV heading into his showdown with The Beast Incarnate, but Lesnar would pull off the unthinkable and snap the streak.

But considering the headline worthy moments he has made throughout his varied career, we really shouldn’t have been surprised…

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