Brock Lesnar’s Foe From Rival Promotion Criticizes Him for His “Selfish Way of Wrestling”

Vince McMahon introduced Brock Lesnar to the pro-wrestling world as a powerhouse who would usually crush his opponents in the ring. However, The Next Big Thing quickly achieved every major milestone in the company, including main-eventing WrestleMania in his short stint of 2 years. Lesnar then moved to Japan for more laurels but cultural differences within the wrestling business did not spare the beast. One of his former rivals has criticized him for his wrestling skills even though he graduated from the iconic OVW 2002 batch.

Lesnar tried his hands at different places after leaving WWE. His adventures took him to Japan where he became part of the NJPW and became a world champion as well.

NJPW Legend criticizes Brock Lesnar for his wrestling style in Japan

46-year-old NJPW legend Hiroshi Tanahashi recalled his experience with Lesnar while referring to his IWGP title match against The Beast Incarnate on 17th July 2016 in Hokkaido. Lesnar could not travel to Japan due to visa issues and hence the match could never happen.

Tanahashi gave an interview that was published in April’21 for Ace’s High, a prominent magazine in Japan. In the interview, he talked at length about his unfinished match with WWE Legend Brock Lesnar.

A wrestling fan tweeted about the interview on October 27th. Tanahashi wrote, “To be brutally honest, I could never get into any of what I saw of Lesnar. It was all one-sided, a completely selfish way of wrestling. I saw him come up in the early 2000s, and he was just pounding people, you never got to see anything from his opponents. I just didn’t understand his deal at all.”

The Japanese Legend was not impressed with Lesnar’s way of wrestling as he felt that Lesnar’s style was selfish and did not promote his opponents. He also believes that Lesnar’s opponents barely do anything other than get pounded by The Beast Incarnate in a match that is considered a squash match.

Read more: ‘He Was Looking Down on People’: Brock Lesnar Accused of Lying to Japanese Fans While Making Money Off Them in 2006

In Lesnar’s defense, we can say that such was his gimmick and his moveset. In NJPW Lesnar won the IWGP title and then dropped it later to his old WWE rival.

Brock Lesnar drops his title to Kurt Angle

In 2007, Lesnar invited his former WWE mate Kurt Angle for the IWGP title match at NJPW. Recalling the match, Kurt Angle said, “Brock did approach me about working with him in Japan, and I ended up going over for NJPW, and I had a match with Brock.”

Angle further revealed that Lesnar received a high pay-off from Japan but wanted to leave NJPW in 2007. Since Lesnar did not want to job for anyone in NJPW, he called Angle to lose the title through a match. 

What do you think about Tanahashi’s criticism of Brock Lesnar?

Watch this story: Conquering Brock Lesnar And More, Drew McIntyre’s Greatest WWE Moments