WWE officials have reportedly acknowledged a groundswell of fan support for a powerhouse clash between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi. According to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE is “well aware” that the audience is clamoring for Femi to be the one to answer Lesnar’s current string of open challenges.
Lesnar made his return to Monday Night RAW on February 23, 2026, in Atlanta—a show he, Roman Reigns, and CM Punk are expected to appear on exclusively leading up to the Las Vegas spectacle. During his return segment, the Atlanta crowd broke into obvious chants for Oba Femi. While Paul Heyman and Lesnar remained silent, Dave Meltzer suggests this was a tactical move to avoid giving away a potential storyline shift.
Despite the vocal fan support for Femi, internal creative documents from late January 2026 originally had Lesnar slated for a singles encounter with LA Knight. Knight, alongside Cody Rhodes, was responsible for eliminating Lesnar from the Royal Rumble, providing a clear storyline catalyst for a feud.
However, Meltzer noted that while the Knight match was the internal listing, the Rumble itself featured almost nothing to build toward that pairing, whereas the Lesnar-Femi face-off generated one of the biggest reactions of the night.
Femi, who impressed at the Royal Rumble by lasting 39 minutes after entering at the #1 spot, recently discussed the interaction on the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast. He explained that the moment was a calculated test of the audience’s “appetite” for full-blown feud. While the reaction solidified that a program is in the cards for the future, its status for WrestleMania 42 remains uncertain.
