The wrestling world continues to react to the shocking sight of Brock Lesnar seemingly retiring at WrestleMania 42 following his loss to Oba Femi.
Among those sharing their feelings about the moment is Tiffany Stratton, who said she “almost shed a tear” at seeing Brock leave his boots and gloves in the center of the ring on Sunday (April 19).
Stratton made the comments during an appearance on the Unlikely with Adrian Hernandez podcast. Giving her takes on the events of WrestleMania, Stratton at first
expressed her happiness about Bianca Belair’s pregnancy announcement, as well as for Liv Morgan winning the Women’s World Championship.
Hernandez then asked her about Brock’s possible retirement.
“I don’t know. When I saw Brock on unlace his boots, I almost shed a tear. I was sad for him,” she said. “He looked like he started crying a little bit too. He’s just a boy. It’s his first time living too.”
Stratton and Lesnar are both natives of Minnesota, which will host SummerSlam this August. Hernandez noted there had been talk prior to WrestleMania that Brock might wrestle his last match at the upcoming event to close his career in his home state.
Tiffy also expressed that she would like to see Lesnar call it quits in Minneapolis.
“So hopefully it’s not his last match,” she said. “Hopefully in SummerSlam in Minnesota we’ll get to see him.”
Stratton continued, “I think that would be iconic, retiring in your hometown. But yeah, I’m really sad but happy for him.”
Given there was no indication before WrestleMania 42 that Lesnar’s career was coming to an imminent close, many people were confused by his gesture of leaving his gear in the ring, as is tradition in wrestling to signal retirement. Lesnar also called his manager/advocate, Paul Heyman, to the ring in Las Vegas and threw up the “X” symbol wrestling uses to indicate that something real just happened.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE’s chief content officer, appeared on ESPN SportsCenter following WrestleMania 42, and even he didn’t seem certain about the situation.
“Well, it certainly seemed that way,” Triple H replied when asked if Lesnar had retired. “Brock is not a walk back through the curtain and have a long conversation guy. Brock is a walk back through the curtain very angry and go to his bus and that is the end of it. So there was not a discussion had after.”
WWE gave a clearer sign that Brock might be done with wrestling on the Raw after WrestleMania by airing a video package that looked back at his storied career. Heyman also cut a promo later that night that possibly shed more light on Lesnar’s plans for the future.
“So let me bestow upon you my wisdom: please take him out of the now and put him in the forever,” Heyman said on Raw. “Because he is not the now, and he will forever be the baddest — that has ever been in a WWE ring. And that beast’s name is Brock Lesnar.”
What do you think about Stratton’s reaction to Brock’s retirement? Do you think Brock is “just a boy”? Let us know in the comments.
