The botched Shooting Star Press in the main event of WrestleMania 19 would have a profound effect on Brock Lesnar.
At the pay-per-view event, Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle to win his second WWE Championship but the match is perhaps best remembered for the botched Shooting Star Press.
Speaking on his “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy” podcast, Hardy recalled the spot, the fears backstage, and his belief that it changed Lesnar. He said,
“It was very, very scary. At one point, after we knew he was OK, Ron Simmons — who I love — was like, ‘I don’t know man. He was listening to Shelton [Benjamin] too much. At OVW, they had this big monster flipping out, and he went there and flipped up … and flipped out.’
“I applaud Brock for attempting that, to create a WrestleMania moment — I understand why he did it. But the fact that that happened, and he just decided, ‘I’m not gonna do that anymore and I can just work smarter and’ … I almost feel like that [incident] changed the way he worked.”
In an interview last year, Lesnar admitted that it was “foolish” on his part to attempt the move that he has avoided ever since.
