A world famous wrestler and prominent martial artist recently made a rare public appearance just outside of Regina.
Brock Lesnar, the longtime professional wrestler, former mixed martial artist and football player, stopped by Home Hardware in Emerald Park for a pop-up meet and greet on Thursday.
It was also an opportunity for Lesnar to promote his new product, “Brock’s Smoking Bullets,” made by Duck Mountain Hardwood Pellets.
Kelli and Lonny Riehl of Duck Mountain Hardwood Pellets said the partnership started through a friend of a friend.
“The boys headed out on a big ski-doo trip one day, and after Brock learned what our business was, he liked the idea that my husband had a smoker pellet,” she said.
“From there, it went into us making the trial pellets, I cooked up a bunch of meat, and Lonny took it over to Brock’s house and they had a big barbecue one night. Brock said that was the best smoked meat he’d ever had, and he agreed to be the spokesperson for our product.”
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Organizers expected a minimum of 800 visitors on Thursday, with many people lining up for hours outside of the store, waiting to see the wrestling icon.
Announced last week that Lesnar would be making an appearance, a group from Portland, Oregon flew all the way to Regina to meet him for the first time.
Zorahgail Balino and Matt Murrin had a layover in Minneapolis and got into Regina the night before. As big wrestling fans, both have witnessed Lesnar’s long history in the sport, dating back to the early 2000’s.
“We’re huge fans,” Murrin said. “We travel all over the world for pro wrestling, and we couldn’t miss this.”
Balino explained how she became a fan of Lesnar’s and why she wanted to meet him.
“For Brock, because of his size, his intensity, that’s what really drew me to him. He doesn’t do a lot of public appearances, like at all. We had the time, availability and the opportunity to come up here, so we did,” she said.
The two found out about the public appearance from a friend, through a Facebook post.
“At first, we thought, ‘Is this real?’ Because it’s so unusual,” Murrin said. “Like, we needed to verify it.”
Seth Mason, a Regina resident, took the opportunity to get Lesnar to sign his shoulder, and said he wants to get the autograph tattooed.
“He’s just an amazing guy,” Mason said. “When I first went up there, I was pretty shocked. My exact first words were, ‘You’re massive,’ but he took that really kindly and he laughed at it.”
Even though he is ranked among wrestling icons such as Hulk Hogan and John Cena, Lesnar has chosen a lifestyle not many celebrities pursue.
In the 2010’s, Lesnar moved to the area of Maryfield, Sask., near the Manitoba border.
“The legend of Brock Lesnar has always been that he’s not a people person and likes to have his own space, and he likes to distance himself from society,” said Danny Warren, general manager of Canadian Wrestling’s Elite.
“For us in the wrestling industry, we became pretty well aware pretty quickly that he was in Canada and I think people started to catch on that he’s now living in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan, so he can distance himself from the rest of the world and there’s no better place to do it than there.”
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Warren has competed in the wrestling industry for 23 years. He’s had events organized around Lesnar’s area, specifically in Moosomin, Sask., but said that he’s never seen Lesnar pop up.
“Him doing this meet and greet and doing this public appearance is huge,” he said. “If you were to ask me before he was announced for this, who are the most unlikely professional wrestling personalities you’d see at a Home Hardware in Regina? It’d probably be Brock Lesnar and Vince McMahon.”
Since Lesnar’s product launched, Emerald Park Home Hardware said around 50 per cent of their smoking pellets sold have been “Brock’s Smoking Bullets.”
