Death Clutch - Brock Lesnar [29]
Then it hit me. What if I bought my own plane, and avoided all the lines, check-ins, time spent waiting to board, walking through the airport, getting my bags? What if I could just hop on my own plane, go to work, do my job, and get back on my plane and come home? It would be just like driving to work for most people. Yeah, I could do that!
So I added up some more numbers, and I figured it out so that I could buy my own plane, have one of my oldest friends, Justin, fly it for me, and actually save Vince money at the same time. Vince would only need to pay for maintenance and fuel, and he would come out ahead. One day during a SmackDown! taping, I went into Vince’s office with my spreadsheets and told him my plan. I showed Vince how he’d actually save money making this deal with me, and maybe I wouldn’t need as much time off as I was looking for. Wouldn’t you know it, the very next day the son of a bitch got back to me and said, “Let’s do it!”
By September 2003, I had dropped the title back to Kurt Angle, only to “turn heel” in order to “beat” him for the title again. I wasn’t even a full year and a half into my run, and I was WWE Champion for the third time. I wasn’t a mark for the title, but I was very happy to grab the championship so I could be in more main events. I was already making millions. I had my own plane. The company was counting on me, and I was being reminded of that every day.
Then came Miami . . .
BROCK VS. ROCK IN MIAMI
I was so excited the day I heard that I had been booked against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in Miami for our second one-on-one match (and if we’re including the Triple Threat Match with HHH in Australia, our third match overall). It ended up being one of the most important days in my pro wrestling career, because that match in Miami was a pivotal point in my decision to quit WWE.
Before that first SummerSlam, the company flew me down to Miami so Dwayne and I could work out the high points and the finish of our upcoming match. It was Dwayne’s daughter’s first birthday, and he invited me to stay in his home, with him and his family.
Dwayne’s dad was a journeyman wrestler named Rocky Johnson, so he knew how to play the pro wrestling game as good as anyone. Just like Curt Hennig, Dwayne was born into the business. These second-generation wrestlers, and even third-generation wrestlers like Randy Orton understand the business a lot better than guys who break in from other walks of life, because they grew up around it. Dwayne, Curt, and Randy all saw what the business was about, and the sacrifices a family has to make. They also learned the psychology behind the scenes because they were exposed to it from day one. That’s a tremendous advantage for them, because it might as well be in their blood.
I wasn’t born into the business, so unlike Dwayne and the others, I had to learn the hard way about a lot of things.
If someone from the company would have called me and said, “Hey Brock, would you mind doing a job for the Rock this weekend in Miami?” it wouldn’t have been a big deal to me. I owed him that much. I liked Dwayne, and I learned a lot from him that week before he put me over for the championship. But the way everything was handled in Miami really opened my eyes to the wrestling business, and the night of my big match with Dwayne is one that I will never forget.
I showed up at the arena and was met by Jack Lanza, the road agent in charge of the show. Jack was a Minnesota boy and took me under his wing when I moved up to the WWE main roster. As the road agent, Jack would get the finishes on the phone or via e-mail from Vince, or J.R., or Laurinaitis. He would then produce the live event, and report back to the bosses on how the show went, who performed well, and who didn’t.
I had been up and down the road with Jack