Death Clutch - Brock Lesnar [21]
That’s why the match with Dwayne was such a big moment in my life. It wasn’t about who was better, who would really win. Come on, that’s ridiculous. It was about the fact I wanted to buy my mom and dad a house. I wanted to put money away for my daughter’s education. I wanted to be able to afford nice things in life for me and my family. I was the undisputed WWE Champion, on the fast track to fame and fortune. I was on top of the world.
And I was already looking over my shoulder, because I knew that the clock was ticking and my days were numbered.
THE UNDERTAKER
As soon as I became Undisputed WWE Champion, the decision was made to let both Raw and SmackDown! have their own champions. So WWE branded two weekly shows that aired on different nights, and each brand carried its own roster of wrestlers.
My very first television appearance as the WWE Champion was on a Monday Night Raw that was broadcast live from Madison Square Garden. I know all these famous arenas mean something to a lot of people, and there is a lot of history in the Garden, but none of that means shit to me. Today, I like fighting in Las Vegas, because I have a routine there that I’m used to. Minnesota is great because I can just drive home that night. Anywhere else is just another place to me—just another in a long line of arenas in cities I don’t get to see, with the same locker rooms where I have to shake everyone’s hand, and then say good night and safe travels before meeting up with all of them in a few hours in a new city I won’t get to see.
At the end of that first night on TV as champion, Paul and I jumped ship and went over to the SmackDown! roster—all part of the script, of course, as everything is in professional wrestling—and Raw was left without a champion. With Paul writing SmackDown!, I saw how this was going to play out. When I left Raw, it opened the door for HHH (who is now Vince’s son-in-law) to be a champion. But that never bothered me. I really didn’t care, because as long as I could just keep main-eventing the pay-per-views, things would be fine. HHH would be the World Champion on Raw. Good for him. I would be the WWE Champion on SmackDown! When it came time for the pay-per-views, someone had to be the top dog. Sometimes, that depended on the person you were defending the title against.
Advantage: Lesnar.
Why? Because my first feud as champion was against one of Vince’s favorites, the Undertaker.
I have to say, there were some guys I liked wrestling with, or I guess I should say “performing” with. In the business, we just say “working,” and I enjoyed working with the Big Show. I also liked working with Kurt Angle, Hulk Hogan, and Dwayne Johnson. I liked working with anyone who was what they called “over,” which meant the person meant something to the audience. I liked working with anyone who was going to have some box-office appeal, because I was in the business to make money. The fame and the glory goes away. The money can help you and your family afford a better life.
Of all of the guys I worked with, I probably liked working with the Undertaker more than anyone else. Despite our personal differences, working with him was just so easy. He had that “Dead Man” gimmick, and he knew how to play it. Taker is a bright guy, too, and he knew I could make him look great. He also knew it was going to look believable when I beat him down.
Another reason I liked working with Taker is that it was so much easier for me to bump around the ring for his moves. He was a lot bigger than I was, and the fans not only loved his character, but they believed he was a legitimate badass. Bumping for a guy bigger than me is always going to be easier than bumping around all night long for the Hardy Boyz. It’s just a different-style