Wrestlers Who Can't Stand Brock Lesnar

"The Beast Incarnate" Brock Lesnar is one of the most dominant forces in wrestling history inside the squared circle, having won an iteration of WWE's top championship numerous times throughout a career that's spanned more than 20 years. He's known for being the man to end The Undertaker's iconic WrestleMania streak and being by the side of WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman throughout most of his career, defining what it originally meant to be a "Paul Heyman Guy." Lesnar found success not only in the WWE ring, but in the Octagon in UFC, as well, before the two companies were merged as TKO Group Holdings.

Despite not being seen in WWE since SummerSlam 2023 when he was defeated by current Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes, his name has recently been in headlines for more allegedly nefarious reasons. Lesnar was alluded to in the January 2024 lawsuit by former WWE employee Janel Grant, accusing Vince McMahon of sex trafficking and abuse, and was officially named in an amended lawsuit a year later. Since then, fans have speculated as to whether or not Lesnar will be seen again in a WWE now led by Paul "Triple H" Levesque.

Outside of recent happenings on a legal front, Lesnar has always been a divisive character, not only amongst fans, but in the locker room as well. In addition to Heyman, Lesnar is known to be close friends with now-AEW wrestler Shelton Benjamin, and even has a relationship with CM Punk, who called Lesnar "a sweetheart" back in 2020. He's ruffled some feathers with his wrestling style and massive success, however, leading to other wrestlers within the business, like Shinsuke Nakamura, Chris Jericho, and more being unable to stand the star.

The former Dean Ambrose, now Jon Moxley in AEW, had many issues with WWE, and some of them seemingly started around the time he entered a feud with Lesnar, of whom he is not a fan. The pair went toe-to-toe at WrestleMania 32 in a No Holds Barred Street Fight after fighting in various brawls on WWE TV, adding heat to the rivalry. Before their match, Moxley received a variety of weapons from hardcore legends like Mick Foley, making fans assume their WrestleMania match would be a good one, but they were sadly disappointed. The match was arguably the most underwhelming of that WrestleMania and certainly wasn't as extreme as it was set up to be. Moxley barely got in any offense during the match, despite having the crowd behind him going in to the bout. He lost to a single F-5.

The former Ambrose spoke out about how much he hated the match on an episode of "The Broken Skull Sessions" with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Moxley said that Lesnar was hard to work with and said he was met with "straight up laziness" before their match. He explained he pitched ideas involving more extreme weapons, like thumbtacks, but Lesnar wasn't into it. Moxley said that Lesnar wasn't interested in stealing the show. He was critical of the finish, which he said didn't feel very WrestleMania-worthy. The ending killed any heat that Moxley had going in to the feud, and things got even worse for him via Vince McMahon's arguably terrible booking after that night.

Both Lesnar and Matt Riddle had been successful in mixed martial arts, with the latter starting in the combat sport before moving to WWE. Riddle spoke about wanting to have a match with Lesnar throughout his first years in the company with "WWE NXT." He took it a step farther when he starting posting on social media about how he wanted to retire Lesnar. Riddle even spoke in an interview and said his main goal since he started wrestling was to retire "The Beast Incarnate." The more laid-back star thought Lesnar would take it as a compliment and be flattered, but Lesnar, a notoriously private person, perceived it differently.

Lesnar infamously confronted Riddle backstage ahead of the 2020 Royal Rumble about constantly tagging him on social media about having a match and told him that would never happen. Riddle said that Lesnar grabbed him by the neck and told him to "keep his f***ing mouth shut." He said that Paul Heyman and Lesnar's security guard also told him backstage that day there was "no chance in hell" that they would ever have a match. The pair went face-to-face in the Elimination Chamber match in 2022, however, with Lesnar hitting a F5 to Riddle, but they never had a singles match throughout Riddle's time with the company.

Following his release from WWE, Riddle went as far say to say he was meant to win the 2022 Royal Rumble before Lesnar came in and changed the plans. Riddle said that he has no hard feeling toward Lesnar, but he did at least have a role in changing the finish of the Rumble that year, even if he wasn't fully involved with changing the winner of the match.

Chris Jericho is another wrestler who is no fan of Lesnar's and they had an infamous backstage altercation after Lesnar's match against Randy Orton at SummerSlam in 2016. During the match, Lesnar busted open Orton the hard way, or intentionally, using elbow strikes, and made Orton bleed all over the mat and gave him a concussion, though that was indeed the planned finish. The match ended in a no contest and Jericho was reportedly waiting backstage in gorilla position to confront Lesnar as he came through the curtain.

Jericho was completely unaware of the fact the finish of the match went exactly as it was supposed to and Lesnar didn't just go into business for himself against Orton. According to Dave Meltzer in "The Wrestling Observer Newsletter," Jericho and Lesnar had to be separated backstage before they came to blows. According to Meltzer, producer Michael Hayes wouldn't tell Jericho if the finish was planned or not when he asked, and Lesnar told Jericho to mind his own business when he got backstage. Things calmed down after Jericho was told Orton was aware of the planned finish, but there are various iterations of the story of how things went, including one where Jericho pushed Lesnar into a wall and the fight was broken up by Triple H. The future boss of WWE reportedly told Vince McMahon that Lesnar started the fight and Jericho was only standing up for himself and concerned for Orton's health and safety.

Jericho explained in an interview that he was ready to "bite Lesnar's f***ing nose off" as he was waiting for him to come through the curtain. Jericho confirmed that Triple H tried to break the whole thing up, but the men told him to "f*** off."

The Undertaker has never said outright that he doesn't like Lesnar, but has said multiple times that he wishes it were someone else who broke his iconic WrestleMania streak. Undertaker claimed in March 2023 that he wished it would have been Roman Reigns, the only other man to defeat him at WrestleMania, to end the streak, as he believed Lesnar didn't need "the rub" at the time. He said Lesnar was already a main attraction and wasn't sure if it enhanced him in any way.

Ten years after Lesnar shattered the streak, Undertaker said in another interview in March 2024 that it should have been Bray Wyatt who did the honors. He believed that if Wyatt overcame the streak, the two demonic characters could have joined forces. He said he thinks the win would have meant even more for Wyatt's career than Reigns' due to the comparisons between Wyatt and Undertaker's characters.

Undertaker said in February 2025 that he ultimately gave in due to his respect for Vince McMahon. He said while he didn't agree with it, Lesnar wouldn't have been in that position without McMahon's blessing, and he wouldn't have gotten as far as he did without McMahon giving him opportunities over his many years in the business. McMahon even did the unthinkable and left his post in gorilla position at WrestleMania 30 to go to the hospital with Undertaker after he suffered a concussion early in the match with Lesnar.

Shane McMahon is one member of the McMahon family who isn't a fan of Lesnar, and he even attempted to go after "The Beast Incarnate" backstage to defend his father. According to reports, Lesnar marched backstage after the WrestleMania 34 main event that saw him defend his gold against Roman Reigns and threw the Universal Championship at Vince McMahon, though a reason for his anger was never revealed. Road Dogg said on an episode of his podcast that the younger McMahon was also in gorilla at the time and kept trying to go after Lesnar. Road Dogg said he tried to calm Shane down to prevent a fight that Shane couldn't win.

Dave Meltzer noted on "Wrestling Observer Radio" that Shane reportedly jumped in after Lesnar threw the belt, like he wanted to fight. Words were exchanged between the pair, causing a scene, but Lesnar left the building with Paul Heyman and that was the end of it.

The pair once again had heat, however, at the Royal Rumble in 2022, the event where Shane is infamous for attempting to insert himself so much in that match that he was fired by his father afterwards. Even though Lesnar won the Rumble match that year and even eliminated Shane along the way to victory, Lesnar reportedly was annoyed at the way Shane booked things, which led to his firing.

Lesnar reportedly used his megastar influence backstage for many things throughout his career, including who he did and didn't want to work with, with Matt Riddle being the biggest example. However, back in 2022, Lesnar reportedly didn't want to work with Jinder Mahal. Dave Meltzer in the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" reported that Lesnar wielded his power back in 2017 to change the main event of Survivor Series that year.

Mahal held the WWE Championship for six months in 2017 but suddenly lost the belt on an episode of "WWE SmackDown" to AJ Styles ahead of the premium live event. Meltzer claimed that Styles beating Mahal wasn't WWE's original plan and Mahal was meant to defend the belt against Lesnar at Survivor Series, but "The Beast Incarnate" didn't want to work with Mahal. WWE took the gold off Mahal right before the company went on a tour of India, which was reportedly why they put the belt on him to begin with.

"The Modern Day Maharaja" addressed the reports from 2017 in the summer of 2024, following his release from WWE. He said there was a lot of misinformation swirling around at the time. Mahal said he didn't think Lesnar refused to work with him, but wanted to work with Styles more because of their in-ring styles. Mahal noted that he and Lesnar were both heels at the time, so the match wouldn't have worked in that sense, as well.

Bob Holly, also known as Hardcore Holly during his time in WWE, may not have heat with Lesnar today, but there was certainly a time where he wasn't "The Beast Incarnate's" biggest fan due to an almost-deadly serious reason. Lesnar inadvertently broke the veteran wrestler's neck during a match back in 2002. Lesnar got Holly up in the middle of the ring and barely hit a full move on him, in what many perceive as a botched powerbomb, but dropped him directly on his neck. Holly grabbed his head right after he hit the mat and the referee checked on him as Lesnar stood over him. Holly was on the shelf for over a year and didn't return until Survivor Series in 2003, where he attacked Lesnar and later unsuccessfully challenged Lesnar for his championship.

In 2015, Holly refuted the internet rumors that Lesnar had injured him on purpose due to a dispute. He said he loved working with Lesnar due to his rough style, and knew it wasn't intentional. Holly explained Lesnar called him after he had surgery on his neck and kept checking in on him. He confirmed there was no heat backstage on Lesnar at the time due to the accidental injury. He said in 2018 that he and Lesnar were good friends outside of the ring and reiterated that sometimes, things just happen that are just mistakes with no malicious intent behind them, despite what internet trolls write.

United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura not liking Brock Lesnar may come as a surprise, as they've never met in a WWE ring before, but they did cross paths when Lesnar went to New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2005, after leaving WWE in 2004 and later being cut from the Minnesota Vikings. Lesnar defeated Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in their first encounter, and Nakamura has said that he didn't like Lesnar's attitude and personality and called him unprofessional. Their bout turned out to be Lesnar's final match in NJPW and he took the title home with him to the United States. NJPW wasn't able to pay Lesnar what they had initially promised, and he walked out of the promotion.

Nakamura said he felt like Lesnar was "seriously scoffing" at those in NJPW and he was upset Lesnar took the championship belt home, and he warned the company that if they didn't "get their s*** in order" that the belt would be stolen. That wasn't the case, and Lesnar dropped the championship to then-Impact World Champion Kurt Angle in a champion versus champion match at the IGF in 2007 after not returning to Japan due to "visa issues." Lesnar would then go on to return to WWE in 2012; Nakamura joined the company in 2016.

"The King of Strong Style" said he wants a rematch with Lesnar when speaking to Renee Paquette on "Oral Sessions" back in 2021. Nakamura said if he had the opportunity, of course he'd want it, but the pair were much younger back in the day, so he didn't know if a rematch would ever come to fruition.

It may seem strange now since Triple H is known more as professional executive Paul Levesque, COO of WWE, rather than his D-Generation X leader character in the ring, but there was a time when "The Game" wasn't a fan of Lesnar, and was vocal about it. Triple H blasted Lesnar in an interview back in 2004, when Lesnar left the company after two years on the main roster to pursue a career in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings. He spoke on "Off the Record" and went as far as to reference his father-in-law Vince McMahon's infamous line about the Montreal screw job, "Bret screwed Bret," but said rather "Brock screwed Brock."

Triple H said he thought that Lesnar "hosed himself" and turned down a great opportunity in wrestling to play football, something he hadn't done since high school. He said that Lesnar had little knowledge of football, but said he guessed that Lesnar did the right thing for himself, since he didn't like travel and constant fan recognition, according to the future boss. Triple H said that he had a problem with Lesnar leaving because a lot of people "sacrificed" to make him a star, but he wasn't yet a megastar with the clout to do so. Triple H said Lesnar "crapped" on those people by leaving.

Lesnar would make numerous, successful returns to the WWE throughout the years, including in 2012 and 2020. All seems to be water under the bridge when it comes to in-ring action, at least, since Triple H's initial statements, with the pair most notably going head-to-head in a no-holds barred match at WrestleMania 29 and in a cage match at Extreme Rules in 2013.