Don't bother asking two-time World Wrestling Entertainment champion Brock Lesnar about the biggest moment of his career. Although it occurred less than six weeks ago, he doesn't remember pinning Kurt Angle to regain the WWE title in the main event of WrestleMania XIX before 54,097 screaming fans at Seattle's Safeco Field and millions watching on pay-per-view.
Lesnar recalls standing on the top rope, poised to deliver a "shooting star press," a spectacular move in which he jumps off the top rope, flips backward in midair and lands chest first across his prone opponent's chest and midsection. It gets blurry shortly thereafter.
"We had wrestled 25-30 minutes already," says Lesnar, who will be among the WWE performers appearing at the 1st Mariner Arena Tuesday for a taping of UPN's SmackDown!
"When I climbed up the ropes my hand was full of sweat, and I got sweat on the top rope. When I first attempted to jump, my right foot slipped, and then I caught my balance and decided to go anyway. I didn't get the full rotation I needed, and I landed on my head."
The impact of the jarring, head-first landing knocked him out for a few seconds. Problem was, Lesnar, who suffered a concussion, was scripted to win the match with that move. Somehow, Lesnar, glassy-eyed and bleeding from the nose, managed to improvise and deliver one final maneuver to make the winning pin.
"I don't even remember it," he says. "Not at all."
While Lesnar is feeling better now, the 25-year-old professional wrestler's head probably still is spinning from his dizzying rise to sports-entertainment superstardom.
Last August, five months after making his WWE television debut, Lesnar defeated wrestling's biggest star, The Rock, to become the youngest champion in WWE's 40-year history.
With The Rock reduced to a part-time role because of his Hollywood commitments, former champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin recently announcing his retirement from performing in the ring (although he continues to appear on WWE programming as a non-wrestling character) and injuries taking their toll on other established wrestlers, Lesnar has become WWE's new standard-bearer.
"This business has been very good to me," says Lesnar, who initially played a villainous character before morphing into one of the good guys. "I've met a lot of great people and gotten to see places I probably would have never seen. I've traveled all over the world and I've only been in the business for three years, on TV one year. I've had opportunities that other people would love to have, and I'm fortunate for those opportunities."
