After losing to Goldberg at WrestleMania XX back in March 2004, Brock Lesnar left the WWE to pursue a career in the NFL.
However, that dream was deferred when the "Beast" was cut by the Minnesota Vikings prior to the start of the 2004 NFL season. That paved the way for Lesnar to go overseas and wrestle in the New Japan Pro Wrestling circuit before crossing over into the UFC and eventually returning to WWE in April 2012.
Now, pardon us for feeling a bit of déjà vu, but on Tuesday, the company announced its new class of 10 potential superstars who will be trained at the WWE Performance Center, and one of them seems to be following the path of none other than Lesnar.
Meet Babatunde Aiyegbusi — all 6 foot 9 and 350 pounds of him, enough to tower over the "Beast" in both height and weight.
The Polish native is a former professional football player, logging gridiron time in Poland and Germany, before most recently playing offensive lineman for the Vikings during the 2015 NFL preseason before the franchise cut him. That's right, the same Minnesota Vikings that also released Brock Lesnar.
Well, the NFL's loss is WWE's gain. At least it was for Brock, as the release of the "Beast" paved the way for his eventual return to the company.
By the looks of this picture that WWE.com released, Babatunde means business.
"With support from our world-class coaching staff at the WWE Performance Center, these men and women will have the chance to hone their skills and fulfill their dream of becoming a WWE Superstar," Paul "Triple H" Levesque, WWE executive vice president of talent, live events & creative, said as part of the company's press release statement Tuesday. "Our state-of-the-art training facility gives our talent every opportunity to succeed and grow, and I'm pleased to welcome this new class to WWE."
We speak on behalf of the WWE Universe when we say we sure hope that Aiyegbushi is a quick learner, as, from his size alone, we'd love just the prospect of him making a dent in the company's ranks and dare we say ... one day even challenging the "Beast" himself.
We're sure the Vikings will be watching.
