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What's the story?
Wrestling Inc conducted an interview with Court Bauer, the CEO of Major League Wrestling and the former WWE employee revealed that Brock Lesnar was touted for a return in 2005 and was to be pitted against either Batista or the Undertaker.
In case you didn't know...
Lesnar left the WWE after the match against Goldberg at WrestleMania 20 and the crowd did not put up with that all too well.
Former WWE writer buries Judgment Day HERE
The Beast was trying out with a few NFL teams but then decided to try his hand at New Japan Pro-Wrestling before returning to the WWE in 2012.
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The heart of the matter
Bauer revealed that the company wanted to bring Lesnar over to the SmackDown brand and were hopeful that he could be pitted against the Undertaker and Batista, who was on a meteoric rise in 2005.
"I really liked the Brock and Bautista because of the parallels going back to OVW. It was a classic, traditional Vince McMahon collision course of two massive forces. It was a big money match. Bautista needed something different to shake things up for him and Brock Lesnar could have really fit that mold rather well."
Bauer also added that the idea behind the rivalry would be Lesnar creating havoc on the brand before Batista would step up and claim that SmackDown was his yard.
The plan was to showcase McMahon that this rivalry would bring in a ton of money and lead to an epic encounter at WrestleMania but the boss told the creative team not to “factor Brock Lesnar into our plans for the immediate future”, which was his way of saying no.
What's next?
While Batista isn’t close to returning to the WWE anytime soon, Lesnar is the current WWE Universal Champion and did defeat Braun Strowman to keep hold of his title at No Mercy.
Author's take
Lesnar did leave to pursue his dream of playing in the NFL but not making the final team for the Minnesota Vikings, it was a surprise he didn’t return to the WWE, instead moving on to Japan and then the MMA.
Batista, for his part, was certainly growing in stature in the WWE and an epic bout between the two behemoths would have been a sight to behold. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the pair duke it off yet, but with the WWE team needing top wrestlers to boost the business, he could make a return for a few shows.
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