RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Brock Lesnar has retired. More than a quarter century after making his professional wrestling debut, Lesnar has nothing more to give in the aftermath of WWE SummerSlam.
On Saturday, Lesnar headlined Night 1 of SummerSlam in his billed home city of Minneapolis. He wrestled Oba Femi in a colossal trilogy pitting two giants from different eras. The match, contained within Hell in a Cell, was rich with references to Lesnar's legacy, and the outcome further hinted at his retirement. After losing the trilogy, Lesnar anointed himself as "the past" and dubbed Femi "the future."
"I'm here today to do this interview and let the world know that I am retired, and I wanted to say a big thank you to everybody," Lesnar told "The Pat McAfee Show" on Tuesday. "Saturday was a very emotional day for me. That's it for me in the squared circle and for everything else, too."
The wrestling world thought they'd witnessed Lesnar's retirement in April . Lesnar laid his gloves down in the ring, often symbolizing retirement, before waving goodbye to fans after Femi beat him at WrestleMania 42. However, Lesnar showed up a month later and defeated Femi in a rematch at Clash in Italy . Those matches set the stage for the climactic trilogy, but Lesnar claims he really planned to wrap up his career at Mania.
"When Oba Femi slammed me at WrestleMania, I thought, 'I can't do this again. I think I'm done.' But I still had some fuel in the tank," he said. "But Saturday, for Brock Lesnar, that's it."
Lesnar reflected on his journey to the pinnacle of two industries, describing himself as "a farm kid from South Dakota with a big dream, big heart, and a big ass chip on my shoulder." He concluded his retirement speech by emphasizing to children the importance of hard work.
"I think a lot of people nowadays with social media platform athletes for doing things, but they leave out the hard work," Lesnar said. "If kids stay focused on work and putting the time in, good things will happen."
Lesnar closed one of the most impressive combat sports legacies in history. In 2002, Lesnar defeated The Rock to become, for a time, the youngest WWE world champion in history. Lesnar transitioned to mixed martial arts after his first stint with the pro wrestling juggernaut. He captured the UFC heavyweight championship in his fourth professional fight, tying Randy Couture in becoming UFC champion with the fewest professional fights.
His second run with WWE added a new dimension to his legacy. No longer "The Next Big Thing," a more grizzled version of Lesnar captured several more world titles, headlined WrestleManias and ended The Undertaker's legendary undefeated WrestleMania streak.
Lesnar's career was not without controversy. During his second WWE run, Lesnar made a one-off return to the UFC after a five-year layoff. Lesnar defeated Mark Hunt at UFC 200; however, the result was overturned to a no contest after Lesnar tested positive for clomiphene, a banned substance. More recently, he was explicitly named in former WWE employee Janel Grant's sex trafficking lawsuit against former WWE chairman Vince McMahon. After two years away from television, he returned to WWE despite the active lawsuit.
He concluded his wrestling career as an 11-time world champion. He won 10 of those championships in WWE and briefly held the IWGP heavyweight championship. Lesnar won the King of the Ring tournament in 2002, the Money in the Bank ladder match in 2019, and the Royal Rumble (2003, 2022) twice.
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