Brock Lesnar's NCAA Career Showed Glimpses of the WWE Star He Became

Seconds after Brock Lesnar rolled Wes Hand onto his back, the NCAA standout heavyweight began springing off the floor in celebration, flexing his arms and roaring before he tore off his headgear and stared down his opponent.

The flash of grandstanding felt out of place here. This was more of a WWE moment.

The emotional response to the clinching victory for the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the semifinals of the NWCA Cliff Keen National Wrestling Duals was not something one saw often in the world of amateur wrestling. That sport has long been one marked by tradition and humility, a world where powerhouses were known for skill, not showboating.

But Lesnar was different, even early on. 

His size alone made it easy to project that he would one day step into the carnival world of WWE. Add his startling athleticism and an attitude that clashed with the more stoic landscape of amateur wrestling, and envisioning him working for Vince McMahon was easy.

While many of the top pro wrestlers today are sleek athletes no taller than the guy who makes your coffee in the morning, size is still an invaluable asset. It's a huge part of why WWE officials scouted Lesnar during his junior year at Minnesota. You can't coach massive; you can't coach intimidating.

The Size for the Squared Circle

A huge part of the WWE formula, both then and now, is to look the part. And the former NCAA, UFC and WWE champ thrives in that department. 

Lesnar looks like the kind of bulking gladiator McMahon would build if he were to construct the perfect WWE Superstar in a laboratory.  

The man now referred to as The Beast Incarnate has always been big. His mother recounted in a film about Lesnar that he was nine pounds and nine ounces and soon earned the nickname "Pork Chops." 

In his first years of high school, he was long and lanky. Wild, reddish hair sat atop his head. He was far from the unsettling predator he would become. 

But the bulk came quickly.

His neck widened. His arms thickened. He began to look more super-soldier than youth athlete. By the time he transferred to Minnesota, there were questions about his physique and whether he had acquired it naturally.

His wrestling coach, J Robinson, had him tested for steroids. He was clean, just a huge bruiser growing into his body.

B.J Schecter wrote for Sports Illustrated back in 2000 that Lesnar could "deadlift 720 pounds, squat 695 and bench-press 475." And as Schecter also noted, Robinson had "seen Lesnar, who is 20 to 30 pounds heavier and four inches taller than the average college heavyweight, throw 260-pound men around like dolls and execute finesse moves rarely used by guys in his weight class."

In his first year after transferring to Minnesota from Bismarck Junior College, he faced future New England Patriot Stephen Neal in the NCAA Wrestling Championship finals. Neal was the more polished, complete wrestler and rode that advantage to a win.

Even Neal, a man who would later play in the NFL at over 300 pounds, noticed Lesnar's size. He told the Boston Herald (h/t ProWrestling.net), "He was just this big, strong, powerful man the wrestling world hadn't seen."

That alone may have earned him a ticket to WWE. Giants of varying degrees of skill have stepped between the ropes for that company. Lesnar, though, had panther-like movement to go with his bullish strength.

Freak Athlete

The numbers alone speak to how talented Lesnar was on the mat.

He won a title in the junior college ranks in 1998. Next came two Big Ten heavyweight titles for the Golden Gophers. In 1999, he was the the NCAA heavyweight runner-up (losing to Neal), and the next year, he earned the right to be called the nation's top heavyweight, winning the NCAA crown.

As noted on GopherSports.com, he left school with a 55-3 record (32-1 in dual meets) to his name.

WWE scouts don't just seek out those wrestlers who pile up victories in college. Once one moves from college to the theatrical, over-the-top atmosphere of the pros, skills beyond takedowns and defense come into play.

Even the big guys in WWE's employ need to be able to pull off a high-flying move from time to time. And not every college champ can execute a Shooting Star Press as Lesnar can. 

The North Dakota farm boy moved like a man much smaller than himself. Lesnar was impressively agile, something that was on display in a move that has become known as the "Wheel of Death."

In 2000, Lesnar went up against Bandele Adeniyi-Bada in the semifinals.

Locked up, with Lesnar's hands around Bada's left wrist, something nutty happened. Lesnar flipped over in a cartwheel of sorts, taking his foe down with his spinning momentum.

It's a move straight out of Lucha Libre. One would expect Rey Mysterio to nail someone with that on SmackDown, but this just didn't happen in the college ranks. Lesnar wasn't being showy; he just improvised, and his athleticism took over.

Lesnar is known in WWE as more of a wrecking ball than an acrobat, but when he leaps onto the ring apron or springs at his opponent, it's clear that he's a special athlete. Glimpses of that showed against Bada and others.

An Aura Made for the Stage

Lesnar's uniqueness went beyond his athletic ability. It was in his presence and his look as well. WWE had to be watching Lesnar at work on the mat and daydreaming about pyrotechnics shooting up around him, about him marching into its mishmash of circus and sport.

In a breakdown of Lesnar's wrestling acumen for Bloody Elbow, Coach Mike R wrote the following:

"

I have never seen a college wrestler that looked like Brock Lesnar, and I probably never will again. He appeared as if he had, Cool World-style, emerged from the cover of a Jim Lee comic book illustration and transformer into a flesh and blood person. He was ridiculously freaking swole, and had a look in his eye like he had an itching to hand out a country ass whoopin'.

"

That sums it up quite well. There was an unreal quality about Lesnar.

It's a quality that makes him right at home at WWE, a place where an undertaker rises from the dead in the ring or where a man in face paint grumbles on about rocket ships.

He was plenty intimidating as well. As Lesnar recalled for a documentary about his pre-WWE life, "I don't have any highlights as an amateur wrestler. The only thing that I can remember is people being scared to wrestle me."

Along with that fear came curiosity from the audience. 

Lesnar was bigger than the everyday college wrestler. There was a buzz around him that normally went to athletes in the more glamorous sports.

As Jonathan Snowden wrote in Shooters: The Toughest Men in Professional Wrestling:

"

Fans came out to see him in droves and he became a celebrity in the Twin Cities. The 'Minnesota Wrestling Weekly' was a hit on KFAN with Brock as a regular guest on the show. The athletic department even went so far as to release a Brock Lesnar poster called the 'Brockfast of Champions' that they gave out at wrestling meets.

"

This sort of drawing power would become one of his biggest assets for WWE. Today, when Lesnar bursts through the curtains on Raw or agrees to do battle on a pay-per-view, viewership trends upward.

He's a marquee star, an attraction like no other, much as he was at UFC and wrestling for Minnesota.

Seeing the snarling, wide-shouldered kid draw a room full of eyes his way at a wrestling meet, it didn't take clairvoyance to see a future for him in WWE. There was a star under that singlet, a beast built for the bright lights.