RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. With a loss to newcomer Oba Femi, Brock Lesnar had a passing-of-the-torch moment at WWE 's recent premium live event, SummerSlam, in his home state of Minnesota.
And now it appears that "The Beast" has officially retired for good from WWE, making the huge announcement just days after his loss to Femi in a Hell in a Cell match.
"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," Lesnar said on " The Pat McAfee Show ."
"When Oba Femi slammed me at WrestleMania, I was like, 'I can't do this again,'" he joked but added that he did the recent SummerSlam match against him because he "still had some fuel left in the tank."
"That's it for me inside the squared circle, and for everything else too," he reiterated to McAfee about his decision to retire.
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The former MMA star, who also became a wrestling superstar, retires with an extremely impressive and memorable career. As a professional wrestler, he exclusively worked with WWE in three stints spanning from 2000 to 2026.
He became a seven-time WWE Champion, three-time WWE Universal Champion, two-time Royal Rumble winner, and one-time Money in the Bank winner. He also won the King of the Ring in his early career breakout in 2002 and famously ended The Undertaker's legendary undefeated streak at WrestleMania.
That comes in addition to Lesnar previously winning the UFC Heavyweight Championship and being a former two-time NCAA All-American due to his wrestling background. He'll undoubtedly be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame due to his achievements, but it's unclear if he'll make appearances for WWE beyond the matches he did.
Saturday's WWE match was his final one for the company and occurred inside the ring against rising star Oba Femi. The two battled inside a steel cage, called Hell in a Cell, where weapons were legal, and the only way to win was via pinfall or submission.
He and Femi put on an entertaining match for the first night of SummerSlam's main event. Both superstars kicked out of moves many other opponents would've lost to. Ultimately, Femi managed to kick out of a pinfall attempt after Lesnar hit a Tombstone Piledriver with him on the exposed wood beneath the ring mat.
Femi then hit his finishing move, Fall From Grace, to plant Lesnar on the mat for the winning pinfall. After the loss, Lesnar returned to celebrate Femi, congratulating him on the win and putting him over as the next big thing in WWE.
That passing-of-the-torch moment has fans excited for what's to come with Femi, as he looks to challenge for the major championships in WWE. His rise has been super quick, much like Lesnar's, suggesting that WWE has a dominant superstar to replace Lesnar.
Now that he's retired, Lesnar told McAfee he plans to do some hunting and support his two boys, who are involved in hockey.
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