You never know in pro wrestling if over really means over.
But Brock Lesnar this week announced the end of his storied 26-year career, which included some time in mixed martial arts. He was first known as the 2000 NCAA heavyweight champion while with the Gophers. Then he earned nicknames like “The Next Big Thing” and “The Beast Incarnate” as he became a wrestling superstar.
But if you go online and look up Lesnar’s career descriptions, “American football player,” is one of them.
Do you remember that time?
That brings us to today’s delivery. While Lesnar’s wrestling career is being celebrated, let’s remember the month he tried to make the Vikings as a defensive lineman.
It didn’t make sense at the time. Brock Lesnar, a Viking?
Lesnar, earning about $9 million a year through World Wrestling Entertainment, hadn’t played football since high school in South Dakota. But the travel and heavy WWE schedule weighed on him.
So he trained during the summer of 2004, worked out for the Vikings in June and signed with them in late July. He was a shade over 6-3, weighed 290 pounds and ran a 4.7-second 40-yard dash. So there was some intrigue as to what he could do in pads.
Lesnar was raw. He didn’t understand leverage.
He was pancaked in one early practice.
But he could rumble, and that’s what he did.
It was 22 years ago this week when the Vikings and Chiefs had four brawls in one day over two joint practices in Mankato. Lesnar started it off when he hit Chiefs quarterback Damon Huard, who was held out of the evening practice as a precaution, in the stomach.
Quarterbacks aren’t supposed to be hit, and the Chiefs didn’t like it. And the sidelines kept clearing as skirmishes turned into fights.
Later that day, Lesnar ripped off the helmet of a Chiefs lineman who shoved him after Lesnar took down a running back.
“I’m here to play football and make the team,” Lesnar said that day. “I’m going 110 percent. I’m not dialing it down.”
That pretty much was what Lesnar was remembered for in camp. Fans attending practices didn’t care.
They were just fired up to see him on a football field and mixing it up.
Lesnar played in some preseason games, picking up some things quickly. But he was still too raw, and the Vikings released him on Aug. 30.
Lesnar was good headline fodder that summer.
If Lesnar’s storied career is indeed over — there already are rumors he could come out of retirement next year for WrestleMania 43 — it was fitting that it ended in Minneapolis during Summer Slam 2026 last weekend.
It took place in the city where he was an unstoppable force for the Gophers. And his final match took place in the home of the Vikings.