Brock Lesnar was going for a heavyweight championship, and he was in a bit of trouble.

Lesnar had taken a 2-0 lead at the 2000 NCAA wrestling championships, but Wes Hand had tied the match on two stalling points handed out by the referee. If there were ropes in collegiate wrestling, Lesnar would have been on them. Hand dominated the first overtime, but Lesnar – who the announcers called “Lez-naar” on ESPN’s broadcast – held on for a second overtime. Lesnar won the coin toss, chose the down position and escaped with nine seconds left to win the point and the championship.

After the match, ESPN’s broadcast interviewed Lesnar. “I knew it’d be close,” he said. “I didn’t want to make it that close. I didn’t want none of that. I wanted to get the first takedown. But I’ll take the win. I’m so happy. I worked hard, Wes is a competitor, I’ve enjoyed wrestling Wes, but I know I deserve it more than he did.”

ESPN’s ringside reporter, the late Jeff Blatnick, then wished Lesnar well and gave him this farewell: “Good luck with the choices after this season.”

The choices. Brock Lesnar may have entered professional wrestling with the nickname The Next Big Thing, but that was only telling people what they already knew. This man was destined for stardom. Even in college, he looked like he could legitimately beat up any other person on the planet. People called him Robocop or Terminator. He was more like a combination of the two; Lesnar looked like a teenaged, midwest Arnold Schwarzenegger. He went 33-0 as a senior in high school. “He brought the level of heavyweight wrestling in the United States to a new level,” high school coach John Schiley said. He went 56-3 at Bismarck Junior College. After transferring, he went 50-2 at Minnesota. Gophers fans wore ‘BROCKFAST OF CHAMPIONS’ T-shirts.

So he had those choices. Rumors swirled that the then-World Wrestling Federation was interested. Minnesota football coach Glen Mason wanted him to play defensive line. Lesnar said he wanted to attempt to qualify for the 2000 Olympics, then finish his business degree at Minnesota.

Lesnar had choices again recently. He’s worked a limited schedule since returning to WWE – the organization changed its name in 2002 – and now his contract was coming to a close. According to Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer newsletter, his final date was to be the day after Sunday’s WrestleMania – on WWE’s weekly Raw telecast. Rumors rumbled through social media. Meltzer reported Lesnar walked out on the 23 February episode of Raw (it airs live) and that WWE officials were preparing as if he were leaving post-Mania. He then appeared at UFC 184 with Dana White; the UFC was planning to run its first-ever event in New York City headlined by a Brock Lesnar/Frank Mir rematch. Paul Heyman, Lesnar’s storyline representative in WWE, even pulled it into the narrative: “If Brock Lesnar wants to spend his summer unifying the WWE and the UFC title, that’s what he’s going to do.”

Earlier this week, Lesnar made his decision. He was retiring from MMA and had re-signed with the WWE. His championship match with Roman Reigns at Sunday’s WrestleMania would not be his final one in the company.

“It was a very hard decision at this stage of my career,” Lesnar told reporters. “The fighter inside me wants to compete. The father and husband – I’m an older caveman now. I make wiser caveman decisions. So, I’m here to say my legacy in the octagon is over.” He said he turned down an offer worth “10 times” what he’d made in UFC earlier in his career.

Lesnar, though, had been pragmatic before. At a 2000 welcome-home event at his high school in Webster, South Dakota, Lesnar said he’d be signing with the WWF. “It’s in my mind but not in my heart,” Lesnar told well-wishers. “You know that when you start wrestling that there isn’t anything besides the Olympics after college where you can go and excel.”

It was a different time. The Olympics didn’t offer anything but a once-or-twice shot at greatness. UFC was not yet popular enough to deliver a massive payday. Lesnar hadn’t played football since high school. WWF was coming off one of its most popular, profitable stretches in history and could offer money and stardom. It was a sensible choice.

Lesnar excelled at his new career: Given Heyman – a manager and promoter who had booked the innovative Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion in Philadelphia – Lesnar quickly rose through the ranks. He had the look. He had the mouthpiece. “He worked hard to learn his craft pro wrestling,” the Pro Wrestling Torch’s Wade Keller wrote, “but he was also a quick study in that he became a very good worker at a young age, able to carry his end of top-notch main events quicker than most of his colleagues with similar experience.” At 25, he became the youngest champion in promotion history when he beat The Rock at SummerSlam five months after his debut. “Who in the hell will be able to stop The Next Big Thing,” announcer Tazz said after the match.

As it turns out, The Next Big Thing stopped himself. Per the Torch, Lesnar was “complaining that as a small town farm boy, he wasn’t used to so much travel.” Despite having an entire television show – SmackDown, then on UPN – built around him, he bolted the company in 2004 to try out for the NFL.

Thus began his career as a professional athlete. It was shortened by circumstances largely beyond Lesnar’s control: He didn’t make the Vikings partly because he had been out of football too long, and a battle with diverticulitis hit him in the prime of his UFC career. It’s a shame, because the man remains an incredible athlete.

Take his attempt at an NFL career. “I’m not stupid. I know the NFL is a difficult world to crack,” Lesnar said. “But I’ll play defensive line to left out. I’m fighting every fucking play. I can fight for real … If it was legal and I wouldn’t get in trouble, I’d pick a fight on every street. If I wouldn’t lose any money or nothing, I would fight. I’d fight every day.” It seemed like a wild idea, but others who hadn’t played college football had tried out and made NFL teams. Stephen Neal, who Lesnar lost to in the 1999 NCAA championship final, won three Super Bowls with the Patriots.

That agility and quickness he showed as a heavyweight carried over to his NFL tryout with the Vikings. He had an incredible worth ethic, too, and didn’t get into much trouble aside from a scuffle in a scrimmage against Kansas City. “We didn’t think he’d be able to pick it up so quickly,” then-Vikings coach Mike Tice told reporters after releasing Lesnar in the first round of cuts. “He showed us that he was going to have the right work ethic and the right attention to detail.” Tice said Lesnar – who wore No69 and made one tackle in one Vikings preseason game – gave him a hug after he was cut.

“I definitely was upset at first, but the thing about Brock is he flat-out earned my respect the past four weeks,” Vikings defensive line coach Brian Baker said. “I don’t know how else to put it. … You could pick 1,000 guys in his situation and not one of them would have lasted this long.” Baker thought adding Lesnar to the training camp roster was a joke, a publicity stunt. But in just four weeks of practice, Lesnar managed to earn the respect of his teammates and coaches. He got it. “Brock didn’t come in here thinking he was a big shot,” Vikings center Matt Birk said. “He took it seriously and kept his mouth shut.”

Once thought to have a chance at making the practice squad, Lesnar eventually decided against pursuing the football career. After legal wrangling with WWE over a non-compete clause, Lesnar made a move into mixed martial arts.

His career there is better known. After dropping his first UFC fight to Frank Mir, he won his next two – including a second-round TKO over Randy Couture that won him the UFC heavyweight championship. He was just 2-1 in UFC, yet he was world champion. At UFC 100 in 2009, he avenged his loss to Mir at a pay-per-view that had the largest buyrate in UFC history: 1.6 million. Only high-profile boxing events have done more buys. (After his win, Lesnar flipped off the crowd. “I’m gonna go home tonight, I’m going to drink a Coors Light … because Bud Light won’t pay me nothing,” Lesnar said in the octagon. “I’m going to sit down with my friends and family … and, hell, I might even get on top of my wife tonight.” Think how much fun he would have been in the NFL!)

Things were never really the same after that fight, though. He collapsed while on vacation in Canada and ended up needing surgery in 2009 and 2011. The second surgery removed a foot-long portion of his colon. He lost his final two fights to Cain Velasquez (in 2010) and Alistair Overeem (in 2011) in the first round.

Now, he’s just a pro wrestler. Lesnar is incredibly good at that, too. WWE wasn’t sure what to do with him when he returned in 2012, but in the last year he has produced several memorable moments. At last year’s WrestleMania, Lesnar defeated the Undertaker – breaking the 21-0 streak that was the scripted sport’s one true record. It was probably the most shocking wrestling moment in many fans’ lives. He defeated John Cena at SummerSlam in August, winning the title in a memorable one-sided title match. And at the Royal Rumble in January, Lesnar defeated Cena and Seth Rollins for the title in one of the best WWE matches in years. The Rumble title match was an intricate story with very few slip-ups. He placed 12th on The Wrestling Blog’s top-100 wrestler list despite wrestling in just four matches.

That’s all well and good. Lesnar is happy. Wrestling fans are happy. Even the UFC’s Dana White says he is happy: “From what I understand Vince [McMahon, WWE’s owner,] made him a deal that he couldn’t refuse, which is awesome.” Such a great athlete – such a unique athlete – will no longer compete in organized sports. When he fights Reigns on Sunday, he’ll be a scripted entertainer. His run as a pro athlete was a brief flash of light. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see him try it longer.