Wrestlemania 38 is buzzing this weekend with former Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman Brock Lesnar being featured in the main event of a champion vs. champion matchup with Roman Reigns on Sunday.
He’ll be looking to take Reigns, another former Viking, to “Suplex City” the same way he did a Kansas City Chiefs player during a training camp practice nearly 18 years ago.
We’re taking a stroll down memory lane in honor of this weekend’s festivities.
Some of the younger readers might not remember “The Beast” taking his talents from the squared circle to the gridiron when signing with the Vikings back in 2004. He appeared in preseason games and even became a part of a famous training camp scuffle story.
Nate Burleson, an 11-year NFL veteran, recalled the incident when asked to detail the “nastiest thing” he’d ever seen at training camp, when appearing on the NFL Network.
CBS Sports even ran an animated video featuring the story.
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According to Burleson, the incident all started when a Chiefs player landed a cheap shot on quarterback Daunte Culpepper after a play.
“You remember Brock Lesnar, WWE? He came out and somebody cheap-shotted Daunte Culpepper late, and Brock was like, ‘Who did it?’ The next play he went and suplexed a guy,” Burleson said. “Different type of nasty but he picked up a grown man, and after the play, it was a Royal Rumble—Minnesota and Kansas City in Mankato during training camp. That was a nasty suplex on the football field.”
Lesnar was ultimately released by the Vikings before the season started, but he certainly made an impression on his teammates for defending the quarterback.
Granted, he turned the entire practice field into a barn-burning “slobberknocker,” which is a phrase coined by legendary pro-wrestling commentator Jim Ross.
One thing was made certain that day: Lesnar is somebody you’d rather have with you than against you.