Death Clutch - Brock Lesnar [35]
Rena stood by my decision to leave WWE, which wasn’t easy for her because she was still with the company at the time. But she could tell there was no way I was going to stay any longer. Besides the lifestyle and all the bullshit, I wanted to compete and get back into athletics again. I thought maybe I would give pro football a try.
But, in my desperation to get out of WWE, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I signed a release that included a noncompete clause.
Vince was pissed at me because we had just done the new deal in July 2003, and he claimed it was the best deal he ever gave any wrestler. But by then I didn’t care about the money or the contract. I had money, and I just wanted to be done with Vince.
At the time, I didn’t know I was going to pursue a career in mixed martial arts, or try to get into UFC. I had no idea I was going to wrestle in Japan. I thought I was headed into the NFL, but that wasn’t the main thing on my mind. All I could think about was getting away from Vince, and escaping the WWE lifestyle. Everything else was secondary.
Vince finally said he would let me go, but he wanted me to sign a release agreement. This time, I thought it would probably be a good idea to have my lawyer look at the document before I signed it. I was sitting in a hotel somewhere when I got the release from Vince, and I faxed it to my lawyer in Minneapolis. He called me, said he would look at it, and then would fax back a marked-up copy to discuss with me.
But I got impatient. I just wanted out. I never intended to compete with Vince and WWE, and I didn’t care if Vince’s agreement said I couldn’t. So before my attorney even had a chance to comment, I signed Vince’s release. I thought it would be quick and easy, I would get my WrestleMania payday, and I’d be done with pro wrestling forever. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
What I didn’t know, because I didn’t wait to hear back from my lawyer, is that while my WWE contract had a one-year noncompete clause, the release I signed was much different.
Just to avoid the hassles of lawyers negotiating and everything that happens when you’re leaving, I signed a release that stated I couldn’t appear for any wrestling, ultimate fighting, or “sports entertainment” companies, anywhere in the world, until mid-2010.
With one stroke of the pen, I royally screwed myself over. I went from not being able to wrestle in TNA (Vince’s only televised U.S. competitor) for a year, to not being able to wrestle, fight, or do anything in “sports entertainment” worldwide for almost six years. I had just turned twenty-seven years old. If I didn’t fight that non-compete clause, I would have been forced to stay out of work until I was thirty-three . . . which happens to be my age at the time I’m writing this book. Everything I’ve accomplished since that final match at Madison Square Garden with Bill Goldberg would never have happened. The prime of my career would have been spent sitting on the bench.
I guess the old expression “you live and you learn” applies here. It cost me nearly a year and a lot of money to fight that noncompete clause. But that’s in the past, and I won my freedom. I have my family. I love my life. I don’t walk around thinking about it. It’s the past. That part of my life is over.
CLOSURE
It’s fitting that my last match in WWE was against Bill Goldberg, and the referee was Steve Austin, because Bill and Steve are two guys I really like. It’s a shame that I didn’t get to know either one of them very well until after we all got out of the business.
Steve’s a good guy. I thought Steve was going to be a WWE Lifer, but he surprised me and everyone else. I don’t have any regrets about my time in WWE, and I certainly don’t have any regrets about leaving, but I sometimes wish that Steve and I had one match during the time our paths crossed. That would have been interesting, because his character and my character would have been natural enemies. That makes for great box office.
Steve had this rough edge to him, a no-bullshit kind of