“Sued By Vince McMahon”: Brock Lesnar Opens Up on His Grueling Legal Battle With WWE

From the beginning of his WWE tenure, Brock Lesnar was a beast, and he became the Heavyweight Champion in less than two months. However, he left the business in 2004 to pursue his passion for playing football, but he was injured and had to give up on his dream. And once again, after overcoming his injury, he wanted to go back to WWE.

As per his book, Death Clutch, strangely, The Big Man and The Beast planned up a secret meeting where McMahon proposed him a rookie deal, which seemed insulting to him. Knowing Lesnar, he wanted a deal of his own making and a term that fit him.

Meanwhile, the New Japan Pro Wrestling wanted to hire Lesnar and was willing to pay anything he asked for. After seeing the WWE contract, he made the decision to travel to Japan to perform, but he was concerned that Mr. McMahon may sue him due to a non-compete clause that forbade him from competing in any wrestling promotion in the world.

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The legal team at WWE has threatened to sue Brock Lesnar

9 months later, The Beast left the organization and decided to travel to Japan with Brad Rheingans and his wife Rene. To quote Lesnar, “In January 2005, about nine months after leaving WWE, I went to Japan with Rena and Brad. I wanted to see exactly what opportunities I had waiting for me over there, but I had to be very careful not to do anything that would get me sued by Vince McMahon.”

After arriving in Japan, he attracted a lot of media, fans, and NJPW interest. Additionally, he attended the show not to perform just as a celebrity guest. And as soon as they announced it, it went online in an instant. Later, attorneys from WWE began threatening him with legal action if he worked there because of the non-compete agreement.

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Although in response, he filed a lawsuit against WWE, claiming that the non-compete agreement was unlawful since it forbade him from competing in other wrestling promotions until 2010. He also decided to reach a settlement with NJPW since he had no other source of income and the case had rendered him insolvent. And that’s how he entered NJPW.

Lesnar in New Japan Pro Wrestling

The advertisement for The Beast Incarnate’s Triple Threat Match versus Fujita and Chono featured Lesnar as a monstrous heel. WWE attempted to stop him as soon as the commercial got there. The Beast was undoubtedly concerned that they would cancel the match, but that didn’t happen.

Additionally, two additional matches involving Lesnar were set for December 2005 and January 2006. Additionally, Lesnar felt certain that everything will go according to plan at this point since WWE had just threatened and had no real plans to act.

To prevent him from competing in NJPW, WWE filed a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) right before his bout in December.

The judge refused to issue the TRO as a result of Lesner’s attorney’s defense, and he continued competing in the NJPW. Notably, Lesnar had a great stint in Japan, as he won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Later, he went to UFC and had several memorable bouts.