John Cena’s mention of Brock Lesnar’s retirement during a recent interview has now spawned a report on the end of Lesnar’s WWE career.
Regarding his most recent, one-sided loss to Lesnar at September’s Wrestlepalooza, in an interview with Chris Van Vliet released this week ahead of Cena’s own retirement match, John said WWE was building Brock up so it would mean more when Lesnar puts someone over before going “into the sunset” himself.
In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports
WWE has discussed plans for Lesnar’s retirement. He couldn’t confirm any dates for Brock, but reminded us that he’s one of three names WWE’s at least tentatively worked on farewell stories for. Meltzer writes:
There is a story going around that Lesnar will retire at SummerSlam 2026. I can’t confirm that date but did at least a month [ago] hear that the working plans for 2026 would be the WWE retirement runs for Lesnar, [AJ] Styles and potentially [Chris] Jericho if he signs. I didn’t get the impression it was locked in except for Styles, who has made it clear it will be in 2026 but not when. But the Lesnar name has been talked about, which is probably where the story came from.
Those are some big names. Whether Meltzer is right about where WWE is with their plans, it’s a reminder that there are a lot of stars in their 40s and older on wrestling television these days who could be hanging ‘em up soon.
