Cody Rhodes has shared his read on Brock Lesnar’s surprise return to WWE TV, telling ESPN Unsportsmanlike that he had been assuming Lesnar was retired, that the return concerns the entire WWE locker room, and that he is picking Oba Femi to beat Lesnar again at Clash in Italy.
Lesnar returned to WWE TV on the May 18th Raw with a surprise attack on Femi. The return is setting up a rematch between the two at Clash in Italy on May 31. Lesnar’s WrestleMania 42 moment, where he removed his gear in the middle of the ring, had been widely interpreted as a retirement gesture.
“I was set that Brock had retired, and that’s good for me, because I got two victories on Brock. So, the idea that he retired, I can say I got those two victories. Now that I’m not sure really anymore. It concerns me. Brock concerns the entire locker room because he is such a presence. He’s so difficult to beat in any aspect of our game, and just an absolutely genius businessman and unbelievable, unbelievable athlete.”
He then picked Femi to win the rematch. “But if you saw WrestleMania, I think Oba has got him again.”
Femi defeated Lesnar at WrestleMania 42, with the win establishing him as one of WWE’s brightest young main event stars. The Clash in Italy rematch gives Femi the opportunity to definitively close the door on the Lesnar program with a second consecutive win. Rhodes also noted his preference for a return to 1990s-style soft retirements.
“I want to get back to 90 style retirements, anyways, where we just say we’re retired and then we’re not. Brock has kind of started that out. Terry Funk was retired for 20 years, I think. Flair retired a bunch, Savage kept retiring. So I’m good with it if we’re not doing big, absolute definitive retirements anymore. Just say I’m taking a break.”
The SummerSlam connection puts Lesnar’s potential rematch path on a longer timeline. SummerSlam 2026 is at the Target Center in Minneapolis on August 1-2. Lesnar’s NCAA Division I Heavyweight wrestling championships at the University of Minnesota in 1999 and 2000 established the city as Lesnar’s hometown wrestling market.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit ESPN Unsportsmanlike and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
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