Legendary announcer Jim Ross recently told the story of the first time that Vince McMahon met Brock Lesnar. Ross told the story on a recent edition of his podcast, The Jim Ross Report.
According to Jim, Vince and Brock first met at SummerSlam in 1999, which took place in Minnesota.
Here is the story from Jim (h/t to Wrestling INC for the quote):
“It was the first time Vince McMahon physically laid eyes on Brock Lesnar. You’re not going to hear that in a lot of places. Brock came to the event. We were recruiting him. Jerry Brisco was recruiting him heavily. He was on him. He was our number one target and we got him. We got our guy. And he came to the show because, Brock, I don’t think he had been to a pro wrestling event in his life. He was not a fan. It didn’t mean he hated it. He just was occupied with working on the farm, playing football, and wrestling at a high, high level. So I remember that.
“I remember Vince walking out of his office and down [the hall] and I said, ‘Brock Lesnar is here’ and I had to refresh his memory about who that was. No face, no name – Vince didn’t know. And so, I said, ‘he’s standing out here’ and when Vince walked by, he gave him a little wave. He saw, ‘wait a minute, is that what I think it is? Is that 6’3″, 280 [lbs.]? Is that blonde hair? Looks like an angry Viking or a heifer bull.’ So Vince made a little detour, shook Brock’s hand, the rest, as they say, is history.”
Brock has gone on to have a very successful career in WWE. Pretty safe to say that Vince McMahon liked what he saw at Summerslam 1999.
On a related note, here are some more backstage Vince McMahon stories.