Brock Lesnar returned to WWE in April 2012, facing John Cena in the first match of his second stint.

To the surprise of many, Cena beat Brock in the main event of Extreme Rules, with many expecting 'The Beast' to win in what was his comeback match.

However, things were close to ending much worse than Lesnar than just picking up a loss, with the former WWE Champion nearly breaking his neck.

Brock Lesnar's 2012 WWE return

After leaving WWE in 2004 to pursue a career in the NFL, before then transitioning into UFC, Lesnar came back on the Raw after WrestleMania in April 2012.

Immediately re-asserting himself as WWE's top star, Brock entered a feud with Cena right out of the gate, with John having just been beaten by The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII.

The match was brutal in several ways, with the result of the clash being a tough pill for fans to swallow too, with the decision to have Cena win, even ten years later, still being criticised by WWE fans.

However, as noted earlier in the piece, Brock was very lucky that the night didn't end significantly worse for him.

Video: Brock Lesnar nearly breaks his neck during WWE return match

As you can see from the footage above, Brock can consider himself incredibly lucky not to have suffered a broken neck, or at least a seriously bad injury, at Extreme Rules 2012.

In what was a brutal fall, Brock launched himself as Cena, who was standing on the ring apron.

Nearly not realising just how fast and strong he is, Brock ended up flipping over the ropes and falling onto the outside of the ring, with his head narrowly avoiding spiking straight onto the floor.

Brock didn't sustain a serious injury during the match, which is incredibly lucky considering how nasty his fall to the outside could have been.

Brock Lesnar is one of the goats of WWE

Although his 2012 return may have started out in rough fashion, it didn't take long for Brock to get things back on track.

In the ten years that have followed, Brock has arguably been the most protected star, when it comes to WWE's booking, out of anyone on the roster.

Since losing to Cena in 2012 in what was his first WWE match since 2004, Lesnar has gone on to main event WrestleMania several times and hold multiple World titles, one of which he even took off Cena in 2014.

As for now, Brock is still an active member of the WWE roster, and is believed to be making a return at some stage towards the end of 2022, leading to a match at WWE Day 1 on January 1, 2023.