Brock Lesnar had serious trouble, claims former WWE rival, with one thing early in his career: "Something really drastic"

A former WWE Superstar recently shared the story of his feud with Brock Lesnar during the early part of The Beast's career. Zach Gowen explained why WWE decided to have Lesnar beat him up in front of his family way back in 2003.

During a recent appearance on Cafe de Rene with Rene Dupree, Gowen discussed what it was like to face Lesnar during the early part of his career. He was famously beaten up in his hometown of Detroit in front of his family after beating Lesnar via disqualification on the August 21, 2003 episode of WWE SmackDown.

Gowen revealed that Lesnar had trouble going over as a heel back then so WWE needed him to do "something drastic," which was beating up a one-legged opponent.

"They were trying to get him over as a heel and it wasn't working. He kept coming out to babyface reactions and so they had to do something really really drastic to get the public to boo him. So they figured well let's beat up the one-legged kid in his hometown in front of his mother and his brother and have Brock murder him to try to get a little heat on him," Gowen said. [0:52 - 1:15]

Brock Lesnar dominated the match but lost via disqualification after hitting Zach Gowen with a steel chair that busted him open in front of his mother and brother. Lesnar then hit Gowen with two F5s on the steel post. He also hit Gowen's leg with the steel chair several times.

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Zach Gowen on how Brock Lesnar treated him backstage

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight last November, Zach Gowen was asked about how Brock Lesnar treated him backstage. Gowen had nothing but good things to say about Lesnar and they got along really well off-camera.

"He was a very mean man to me on camera and he was a very sweet man to me off camera. I love Brock Lesnar so much. He's the type of dude that I get along with the best. Just salt of the earth. Shows up, respectful, does a great job. That's it," Gowen said. [30:15 - 30:34]

Gowen's career in WWE was short but had a memorable run, working with legends such as Roddy Pipper, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Brock Lesnar. He was released in 2004, but the company still helped him get clean a few years later by sponsoring his rehabilitation.