Jim Ross was the one who introduced Vince McMahon to Brock Lesnar and the boss’ first reaction to the beast was exactly what you would expect. The former WWE commentator recently had an interview with Talk Sport where he talked about his other role in the company as the head of talent relations.
Ross has previously explained how they did not tell Vince about Lesnar earlier as they wanted the former WWE champion to complete the senior year of his college. Speaking of the time he and Gerry Brisco finally brought Lesnar to a TV taping, JR revealed how Vince reacted when he first saw him:
“I said to McMahon ‘that new kid I’m recruiting is here tonight. If you get a chance I’d like you to say hello him. So McMahon is walking about with his Mr. McMahon walk and he happens to glance over and Gerry Brisco is standing by this monster. Vince made a U-turn and beelined right to Brock – he had never seen him. Never watched him wrestle.”
Jim Ross mentioned that they had hyped Lesnar as an extraordinary talent to the boss before bringing him in. When Vince McMahon finally laid his eyes on the monster-sized athlete, he knew that Brock was ‘the guy’:
“So when Vince laid eyes on him he knew that we had the guy. If he had any aptitude whatsoever – we knew athletically he was going to be great, he’d already proven himself as an athlete – but if he could get the showbiz side of it and have the aptitude to be a pro wrestler, he was going to be our guy for a while. And that worked out.”
Brock Lesnar was then signed to the biggest rookie contract of that time and sent to OVW in 2000. He had a successful run following his main roster debut in 2002 but he famously got burned out and left the promotion only two years after his first main roster match in 2004 to pursue other interests.
