Brock Lesnar’s apparent retirement at WrestleMania 42 may not be as final as the moment suggested.
Lesnar left his MMA gloves and boots in the ring following his loss to Oba Femi at WrestleMania 42, embraced Paul Heyman, and waved to the crowd as they chanted “Thank you, Brock” before heading backstage. On the Raw after WrestleMania, WWE aired a video package celebrating his career while Heyman delivered a tribute, saying Lesnar should be moved to the “Forever” section of the “Then. Now. Forever” opening for WWE television.
Despite the farewell presentation, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that the belief within WWE is that Lesnar has not actually retired.
“I will only say that based on people in WWE, they believe he’s not retiring yet, although he is retiring at some point probably this year. I don’t know that anyone knows. This might be one of those things where everything is being kept quiet like the Seth Rollins thing (fake injury). A couple of people have mentioned it, that’s the belief. We’ll see. I’m not like saying that this is for sure because I don’t know if anyone knows for sure,” Meltzer said.
Bodyslam separately reported that only a few people within WWE knew Lesnar would remove his boots and gloves and leave them in the ring at WrestleMania. Many within the company had been under the impression that Lesnar’s actual retirement would come later this year at SummerSlam in Minneapolis, Minnesota, making the moment a surprise internally as much as it was publicly.
Meltzer also reported that the program between Lesnar and Femi was originally intended to be a multi-match feud before plans were changed weeks ago, resulting in the rivalry being condensed into a one-and-done bout with Femi defeating Lesnar in four minutes at WrestleMania.
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