Now we know why WWE was acting as if Brock Lesnar was retired during and after Raw last night (Aug. 4).
Lesnar was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show today, joining remotely. The host kicked off the interview asking him to reflect on the emotion of his loss to Oba Femi in the main event of SummerSlam Saturday in Minneapolis, after which he put over Femi as the future of the business and calling himself, “the past”.
Brock paused, looked down, then responded:
“I’m here today to do this interview, to let the
world and everybody know that I am retired — and I wanted to say a big thank you to everybody.
“Saturday was a very emotional day for me. Kinda weird cause I did, in my heart — when Oba Femi slammed me at WrestleMania, I was like, ‘I can’t do this again.’ [laughs] So I was like, ‘I think I’m done.”
“But, the business and I still had some fuel in the tank. But Saturday for Brock Lesnar, that’s it. That’s it for me in the squared circle, and for everything else, too.
”So, I just wanted to give a shout-out to everybody on this universe that has followed me since I was a little kid all the way till Saturday. I was just a farm kid from South Dakota with a big dream and a big heart and a big ass chip on my shoulder, and… yeah, I’m just grateful. Grateful to be 49-years-old, and to have to be able to do what I did in this lifetime. I thank God and everybody that supported me.
“I wanna thank all my coaches, and I wanna especially say to the little kids — I was just a farm kid with a bunch of lint in my pockets, and I had big dreams, and I just worked. I think a lot of people — a lot of people nowadays with social media platform athletes for doing things, but they leave out the hard work. If kids just stay focused on work and putting the time in, good things will happen.”
Lesnar leaves with his personal reputation stained by accusations made in Janel Grant’s sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon which painted him as at least complicit in McMahon’s alleged misconduct. Professionally, he ends an unprecedented career that saw him capture the biggest prizes in combat sports. In pro wrestling, he remained a top draw for decades and — though his booking and schedule made him unpopular with some even before he was tied to Vince’s scandals — one of the more impressive and gifted athletic performers the business has ever seen.
Given all of the above, there will likely always be debates about his legacy. Fans will have to make their own decisions about that. We’re sure WWE, UFC and TKO will make sure Brock Lesnar is mostly remembered as one of the all-time greats.
