Who persuaded Brock Lesnar to do the Shooting Star Press at WrestleMania 19? Looking back

Brock Lesnar gave us one of the most memorable bouts in WWE history. At WrestleMania 19, The Beast faced Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle for the Undisputed WWE Championship. Lesnar memorably won the match, but maybe not in the way WWE wanted him to.

The match ended with the challenger attempting a Shooting Star Press to defeat the champion, which wasn't delivered to perfection. Years later, in his book Death Clutch, the former WWE Champion revealed it was John Laurinaitis' idea.

Leading up to WrestleMania 19, one of the upcoming producers backstage was John Laurinaitis. As he was preparing to book the biggest match of his life, there were also rumors back then of him one day becoming head of talent relations ahead of Jim Ross. He had to give it his all.

In his book, Brock Lesnar claimed Laurinaitis pitched the idea mainly because WWE wanted to show that both wrestlers could not beat the other with their normal moves. Hence, Brock had to use the Shooting Star Press to win.

"Since we couldn't beat each other with our best shots, we'd have to dig something out of our bag of tricks. I'd look around, trying to figure out how to beat Kurt. Then I'd climb to the top rope and hit the shooting star press to pin Kurt Angle and become a two-time WWE Heavyweight Champion. That was Big John's finish, for the biggest match, on the biggest show of the year."

Brock Lesnar did the unthinkable that night. The delivery fell short but it still is one of the most memorable moments in wrestling history.

Kurt Angle reflects on Brock Lesnar's Shooting Star Press at WrestleMania

Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle probably gave us one of the best WrestleMania main events ever. The incident, however, scared everyone from fans to staff backstage and even his opponent that night.

In an interview with True Geordie (via Wrestling Inc), the Olympic gold medalist claimed he got scared and thought that Lesnar had broken his neck post the move.

"When he landed on his head I was like, ‘Oh s**t, he broke his neck too!’ I literally thought, you know, he was knocked out; he got a concussion, sprained his neck, he didn’t injure it too badly. But the way he landed, he could have been paralyzed. Thank God he has a 22-inch neck because that’s what protected him."

Two decades later, Lesnar is still one of the biggest draws. The fearless superstar has done many dangerous things to entertain the audience, thus cementing his legacy in the process.