Add as a preferred source on Google Brock Lesnar left his WWE future up in the air again after dropping the SummerSlam Night 1 main event to Oba Femi on Saturday, August 1. Femi went over inside Hell in a Cell to win the rubber match and take the series 2-1.
After the finish, Lesnar came back out, called Femi into the ring, hugged him and put him over on the mic, telling the crowd Femi is the future while he’s the past. He didn’t leave his boots and gloves in the middle of the ring the way he did at WrestleMania 42, but the angle still set off another round of retirement talk.
Triple H was asked point blank at the post-show press conference whether Lesnar was done. WWE’s Chief Content Officer said:
“For Brock to walk back to the ring, to bring Oba back in there with him, to put him over verbally and physically as, ‘This is the future and I am the past,’ that’s a pretty bold statement. Brock doesn’t just say things.
Without reading more into it, ‘I am the past’ is what he said. But you know as well as I do Brock does what Brock wants to do. So I would take what he said at face value and let’s see.”
As we reported earlier this week, WrestleVotes Radio said on Fightful Select that the internal belief was this wouldn’t be Lesnar’s retirement match, with the expectation being that he takes time off before turning back up on the road to WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia.
The backstage relationship between the two adds another layer to it. Triple H said on Busted Open Radio this week that Lesnar has been hands-on with Femi, pulling him into his room before shows and spending hours passing on what he knows. Femi said afterward that he didn’t expect the hug or the endorsement, though he knew the respect was there.
It was Lesnar’s third Hell in a Cell match and his first loss in one. The other two were both wins over The Undertaker.