Tag: WrestleMania 38

Former Vikings players clash in Wrestlemania 38 main event

Former Vikings players headlined the sports entertainment spectacle at AT&T Stadium in Dallas

A purple-laden main event took center stage at Wrestlemania 38 on Sunday night as former Minnesota Vikings players, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, clashed for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

What has been deemed as the biggest feud in the world of professional wrestling ended anticlimactically—a spear off a rope whip from Reigns to sing Lesnar’s lullaby with a one, two, three count for the victory.

Reigns, whose real name is Joseph Anoa‘i, signed with the Vikings shortly after going undrafted in the 2007 NFL Draft.

However, his time was cut short with the team after being diagnosed with Leukemia during a team physical. He earned first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) honors at Georgia Tech University after posting 40 tackles, including nine for a loss and 4.5 sacks in 2006.

The Jacksonville Jaguars gave him a look as well, and he even went on to start in at least three games for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League.

Lesnar joined the Vikings a few years earlier than Reigns and lasted through the preseason, despite having not played a single snap of football since high school.

He spent his college years on the wrestling mats at the University of Minnesota, where he won the 2000 NCAA Division I heavyweight championship as a senior.

Former NFL veteran receiver Nate Burleson told a story of how Lesnar once came to the defense of former Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper by suplexing a Kansas City Chiefs player to the ground at a training camp practice.

“You remember Brock Lesnar, WWE? He came out and somebody cheap-shotted Daunte Culpepper late, and Brock was like, ‘Who did it?’ The next play he went and suplexed a guy,” said Burleson. “Different type of nasty but he picked up a grown man, and after the play, it was a Royal Rumble—Minnesota and Kansas City in Mankato during training camp. That was a nasty suplex on the football field.”

Remembering Brock Lesnar taking a Chiefs player to Suplex City

Wrestlemania 38’s Brock Lesnar once suplexed a Chiefs player for cheap-shotting Daunte Culpepper.

Wrestlemania 38 is buzzing this weekend with former Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman Brock Lesnar being featured in the main event of a champion vs. champion matchup with Roman Reigns on Sunday.

He’ll be looking to take Reigns, another former Viking, to “Suplex City” the same way he did a Kansas City Chiefs player during a training camp practice nearly 18 years ago.

We’re taking a stroll down memory lane in honor of this weekend’s festivities.

Some of the younger readers might not remember “The Beast” taking his talents from the squared circle to the gridiron when signing with the Vikings back in 2004. He appeared in preseason games and even became a part of a famous training camp scuffle story.

Nate Burleson, an 11-year NFL veteran, recalled the incident when asked to detail the “nastiest thing” he’d ever seen at training camp, when appearing on the NFL Network.

CBS Sports even ran an animated video featuring the story.

According to Burleson, the incident all started when a Chiefs player landed a cheap shot on quarterback Daunte Culpepper after a play.

“You remember Brock Lesnar, WWE? He came out and somebody cheap-shotted Daunte Culpepper late, and Brock was like, ‘Who did it?’ The next play he went and suplexed a guy,” Burleson said. “Different type of nasty but he picked up a grown man, and after the play, it was a Royal Rumble—Minnesota and Kansas City in Mankato during training camp. That was a nasty suplex on the football field.”

Lesnar was ultimately released by the Vikings before the season started, but he certainly made an impression on his teammates for defending the quarterback.

Granted, he turned the entire practice field into a barn-burning “slobberknocker,” which is a phrase coined by legendary pro-wrestling commentator Jim Ross.

One thing was made certain that day: Lesnar is somebody you’d rather have with you than against you.