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From John Cena to Kofi Kingston: Here’s 5 Times When Brock Lesnar Squashed the Fan-Favorites and Broke Millions of Hearts While Smiling Ear-To-Ear

Published Oct 5, 2023 | 4:30 PM EDT

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Brock Lesnar has time and again shown how dominating he can be in the ring. Not only has the wrestler won a number of feuds, but he has also destroyed countless opponents during his career runs. oday, we’re going to take a look at a shortlist with names of beloved wrestlers whom Lesnar treated with utter disrespect inside the ring.

T While he has faced most of them on numerous occasions, we shall be focusing on the matches in which he was an absolute ‘beast’.

Brock Lesnar’s endless rivalry with John Cena

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The two talents made their WWE debut around the same time. So, there was a direct competition between the two. The promotion also saw them as good rivals. So, from 2002 to 2015, The Beast Incarnate faced the WWE legend a number of times. However, one match that John Cena‘s fans would dreadfully recall is the SummerSlam of 2014.

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In 2014, Lesnar showed up in WWE only for a total of four PLEs. One of them was SummerSlam. At the time, Cena was reigning as the World Heavyweight Champion for the promotion. However, his opponent had other plans for him. As the bell went off, the two rivals, hungry for the title, faced each other head-on. A few moments into the match, Lesnar slammed down ‘The Cenation Leader’. And after that, the match had been won even before the final pinfall.

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The ex-UFC star used the rest of the time on the clock to toy around with the already-beaten John Cena. As a result of the intense beatdown, Lesnar came out on top, with the WHC title secured to his name. This was ideally the event where the “Suplex City” was born with Cena its first visitor.

Even though it was an embarrassing moment for the 16-time world champion, Cena was still able to hold off against Lesnar for a decent amount of time. Kofi Kingston, on the other hand, couldn’t even handle 10 seconds in the ring with the beast.

The time when Brock Lesnar took away Kingston’s pride

Much like how it was with Cena, Kofi Kingston also faced the frightening wrestler a number of times. However, his performance during their 2019 SmackDown match was the most tragically disappointing for fans. Since Kingston was the reigning WWE Champion at the time, everyone expected him to defend his title successfully. However, things did not turn out to be in his favor at all.

The New Day member was confident enough in himself to stand tall inside the ring before the big challenger. As soon as the match started, the two opponents ran toward each other. It merely took Lesnar seven seconds to catch Kingston, hit an F-5 and pin him in order to win the title for himself.

Conquering Kingston in such a dominating manner was another example of his ruthless nature. He went on to repeat the same method of quick-finishing a match in 2020. But this time around, the victim was a bit more athletic.

Brock Lesnar taking on an athletic foe

WWE’s Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia was one of the few PLEs of 2020 before the pandemic lockdown and Lesnar’s performance during the event did not disappoint. During the February 27 show, Lesnar defeated Ricochet in less than two minutes. Considering how long some PLE matches run for, this was considerably short. In fact, prior to this match, the athletic wrestler had defeated Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley to get this opportunity.

Lesnar was the WWE Champion around the same time as the event. Ricochet’s chance to snatch away the title didn’t sit well with the reigning champion. This resulted in the PLE match ending in no more than 90 seconds. Fans were not expecting the destruction that Ricochet received that night, leading to several broken hearts.

While all these fan-favorite ‘squashes’ were fairly recent, let’s look back at a couple of older ones to finish off the list in a nostalgic manner.

A trip to the past, featuring more of Brock Lesnar’s destruction

Zach Gowen lost his left leg due to amputation at an early age of 8 years old. The inclusivity in WWE peeked when the impaired wrestler showed up on the main roster. Fans liked seeing Gowen on screen because of his fighting spirit despite his condition. However, the ‘wholesome’ part of this concept was torn apart by Brock Lesnar on SmackDown in August 2003. Ironically, Gowen ultimately won the match because Lesnar was disqualified for smashing a steel chair on his head.

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Despite the outcome of the match, we cannot ignore the destruction Lesnar had caused in WWE. This also brings us to his first-ever feud, which started with the Hardy Boyz. Weeks after his debut in the Stamford-based company, Lesnar finally picked up a feud when he assaulted one of the most famous tag teams of the era. Although during this feud, Matt Hardy had gotten injured, Jeff Hardy carried on to avenge his brother.

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READ MORE:- As Netizens Await Brock Lesnar’s Return, Here’s the Time That Joe Rogan Scared the Crowd While The Beast Incarnate Made His Grand Entrance

It was at Backlash 2002 that Lesnar made his PLE debut against the fan-favorite Hardy. Only a few months into his WWE career, he was already appearing as a top heel in the company. He also ended up winning the match using his brutality, as was the case with all the other matches on the list.

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WATCH THIS STORY:- Brock Lesnar And Cody Rhodes Set A Vital Precondition Ahead Of SummerSlam Showdown

What do you think about the list? Is there any other name that you would like to add? Comment below.

Written by:

Kaif Ali

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Kaif Ali is a combat sports writer at EssentiallySports, known for his coverage of UFC and WWE. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in the English language from a top university. He is a passionate fan of legendary UFC fighters Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, as well as a dedicated supporter of WWE icon Steve Austin.
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Edited by:

Sherjeel Malik