The Rock Reflects On SummerSlam Match With Brock Lesnar & The End Of Full-Time WWE Career

WWE

The Rock has looked back on his SummerSlam 2002 match against Brock Lesnar and the end of his full-time WWE career.

Twenty years ago, Brock Lesnar reached the mountaintop of the industry as a rookie by defeating The Rock to win WWE Undisputed Championship for the first of 10 world title reigns at SummerSlam 2002.

That night proved to be the final match for The Great One as a contracted full-time WWE star.

Despite brief returns in 2003 and 2004, his full-time wrestling career in WWE that started at Survivor Series 1996 was finished following this bout.

On Instagram, the eight-time WWE Champion reflected on his historic bout against Brock Lesnar.

He wrote:

20 years ago this week, we made history in New York and pro wrestling was never the same again ——

The Rock vs Brock Lesnar
WWE UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

I always had great chemistry with Brock as he was one of the greatest pure athletes I’ve ever danced with.

We spent about 6 months wrestling around the world together, grooming Brock to become @WWE Heavyweight Champion.

It culminated to this historic SUMMER SLAM PPV where the crowd was absolutely electric.

Historic for two reasons:

#1) In wrestling terms, I “did the honors” of having Brock beat me right in the middle of the ring, 1-2-3.
Brock is new champion.
Brock is new face of WWE.

#2) My contract was up in WWE and I quietly – and GRATEFULLY – retired as a full time pro wrestler after an incredible (and insanely short) 6 year career.

It’s so wildly incomprehensible at times when I think back – that I only wrestled for 6 YEARS.

How crazy is that irony?

A 6 YEAR CAREER —

What a journey.

Roman Reigns recently commented on the likelihood of his much anticipated WrestleMania 39 showdown against The Rock in a new interview, which you can read more about here.

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• SummerSlam 2002
• Brock Lesnar
• The Rock
• wwe

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