Coming off an impressive collegiate wrestling career for the University of Minnesota, where he became the NCAA Division I Heavyweight Champion his senior year, Lesnar made his WWE debut in 2002 and was quickly nicknamed “The Next Big Thing” by his advocate, Paul Heyman. Later that year, he became the youngest WWE World Heavyweight Champion in company history, at age 25, by defeating Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at SummerSlam.
Lesnar later won two additional WWE World Heavyweight Championships and had notable rivalries with WWE Superstars Undertaker, John Cena and Big Show, among others. Lesnar’s first stint with WWE concluded at WrestleMania 20 in 2004, where he was defeated by Bill Goldberg, the focus of WWE 2K17’s pre-order bonus content.