Brock Lesnar's concussion
WrestleMania 19, March 30 2003
Brock Lesnar was, and is, a freak of nature. The man is the size of a Buick, but he moves like someone who is 150 pounds lighter. He's mostly known for his incredible strength, but when he was still training in developmental promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), he mastered the Shooting Star Press. Yes, you read that right. A 250+-pound heavyweight was able to do a mid-air backflip off the top rope and land in a face-down splash. If you haven't seen Lesnar pull it off successfully, you should. He flies halfway across the ring. But he stopped doing the risky move once he moved up to the main roster in 2002.
Fast forward to WrestleMania XIX, where Kurt Angle was fighting Lesnar in the main event. And Angle, eager to create a "WrestleMania moment," suggested to Lesnar that he finish the match with the shooting star press. Lesnar agreed. And on the biggest stage, in the biggest match of his career, Lesnar botched the move for the first and only time. He slipped on the rope, under-rotated, and landed on his head, giving himself a severe concussion in the process.
From there, a glassy-eyed Lesnar improvised the finish. He got to his feet, delivered an F-5, scored the pin, and collapsed in the corner. It's a small miracle that Lesnar didn't paralyze himself from the neck down. But Lesnar retained consciousness, so it worked out in the end. The Beast became WWE champion, and his missed shooting star press became the subject of multiple highlight reels for years to come.
