#3.) The Rock vs Brock Lesnar – 2002
The summer of 2002 was an exciting time in WWE. It was the first SummerSlam under the new “WWE” name and The Rock, despite being the babyface WWE Champion, clearly had one foot out of the door and was phasing out for his move to Hollywood. Fans were smart to this, and when the day came they negatively reacted to the People’s Champion.
At the same time, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin had walked out of WWE after being told to put Brock Lesnar over in a throwaway match, while Lesnar himself was on a never-seen-before meteoric rise to the top. The Rock’s role was clearly to put Lesnar over as a main event star and on the night, he sprinted to the ring and tried to take it to The Next Big Thing, only to get stopped in his tracks. Lesnar reached the pinnacle of WWE just months within his debut. It was a fantastic match that topped off one of the greatest wrestling PPVs ever.
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