Brock Lesnar is back in WWE in a shocking move.
Lesnar returned at WWE Summerslam after not being on WWE TV in over 18 months after being named in the lawsuit against WWE and Vince McMahon alleging sex trafficking, among other things. While Lesnar is not a defendant, and isn't accused of the harsher actions, he's been off WWE TV since early 2024.
When the lawsuit was filed in January 2024, WWE pulled him from the Royal Rumble and his planned WrestleMania feud with Gunther. A WWE source at that time told us that Lesnar would not be back any time soon, and the company and WWE 2K went to time and expense to largely remove him from that game. Throughout 2024 Fightful was told that as of that time there were not real conversations regarding Lesnar returning as of yet, but that he remained under contract to the company.
Contrary to misinformation, Brock Lesnar has always remained on the WWE Superstars page.
Fightful learned Saturday that the John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes main event was being kept very quiet, even from writers, producers, staff, and production crew. As of this evening, a number of those same people still hadn't heard anything about Brock Lesnar, and wondered if The Rock was making an appearance.
It is believed that Lesnar was flown into Minnesota and then Teterboro private on Saturday private and that Lesnar was hid throughout the day.
Some of the staff started to make their way near the stage to start filming things midway through the main event. Lesnar was backstage by about 9:15 PM ET during the main event.
Sources backstage that we spoke to said that they could tell something was up based on what people weren't saying as opposed to what was said.
Virtually all of the media suspected this is related to why WWE has moved away from press conferences. Dozens of media traveled into town for the show and weren't told this was the case until Saturday.
Fightful has reached out to a number of WWE execs and spokesmen for an official comment on Lesnar, or the legal situation. There has been no legal "clearing of wrongdoing," but he isn't actively being sued or prosecuted.
We've also asked if Brock Lesnar's return is permanent or if it will be a one-off. He is planned for a program with John Cena who is heavily factored in to Smackdown this month.
