Brock Lesnar is done. Three days after losing to Oba Femi inside Hell in a Cell on night one of SummerSlam, Lesnar sat down on The Pat McAfee Show and confirmed, in his own words, that it’s really over this time.
What Brock Lesnar Actually Said
Here’s the full quote, transcribed by Fightful:
“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. When Oba Femi slammed me at WrestleMania, I was like, ‘I can’t do this again.’ So I was like, ‘I think I’m done,'” Lesnar said, laughing.
“But, the business and I still had some fuel in the tank. But Saturday for Brock Lesnar, that’s it. That’s it for me in the squared circle and for everything else too. So, I just wanted to give a shout-out to everybody on this universe that has followed me since I was a little kid all the way till Saturday. I was just a farm kid from South Dakota with a big dream and a big heart and a big ass chip on my shoulder, and yeah, I’m just grateful. Grateful to be 49 years old and to have to be able to do what I did in this lifetime. I thank God and everybody that supported me. I wanna thank all my coaches, and I wanna especially say to the little kids, I was just a farm kid with a bunch of lint in my pockets and I had big dreams and I just worked, and I think a lot of people, a lot of people nowadays with social media platform athletes for doing things but they leave out the hard work, and if kids just stay focused on work and putting the time in, good things will happen.”
It’s worth noting Lesnar has said goodbye before. He performed a retirement angle after losing to Femi at WrestleMania 42 earlier this year, only for it to turn out he and Femi were actually in the middle of a planned multi-match series that wrapped up Saturday, fittingly, in Lesnar’s home state of Minnesota. This time, on McAfee’s show, it read as the real thing.
The Career, Quickly
Lesnar’s road to that farm-kid speech ran through two different sports at the highest level. He arrived in WWE off an NCAA Division I heavyweight wrestling title at the University of Minnesota, signing the richest developmental deal in company history at the time and debuting on the main roster in March 2002. Within months he’d won King of the Ring and beaten The Rock for the Undisputed Championship at that year’s SummerSlam, becoming the youngest WWE Champion ever at 25.
He left WWE in 2004 for outside opportunities, eventually landing in the UFC in 2008. He became UFC Heavyweight Champion that same year with a win over Randy Couture, added victories over Frank Mir and Shane Carwin, and lost the title to Cain Velasquez in 2011.
Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012 and spent the next decade as one of its biggest part-time attractions, headlined by ending The Undertaker‘s undefeated WrestleMania streak in 2014 and a 504-day reign as Universal Champion from 2017 into 2018. He briefly stepped back into the UFC cage in 2016 for a win over Mark Hunt that was later overturned to a no-contest after Lesnar failed multiple drug tests, and he officially retired from MMA in 2017.
The Janel Grant Lawsuit
Lesnar’s final stretch in WWE also unfolded in the shadow of the lawsuit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant against Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis in January 2024, which alleges sexual battery and trafficking. Lesnar was not named in the original complaint, but he was identified in an amended filing, and WWE moved him to its alumni section shortly after the suit became public.
According to that amended complaint, as reported by ESPN and CBS Sports, Grant alleges McMahon instructed her to create and send sexually explicit material to Lesnar in 2021, at a point when McMahon was trying to keep Lesnar under contract, and that McMahon at one point flew Lesnar to Connecticut for an encounter that ultimately did not happen. Grant has also said in filings that Lesnar contacted her directly under the name “Polish Joe.” Lesnar has not publicly commented on the allegations, and the case is headed for a settlement.
It’s an uncomfortable footnote to hang on a career that includes an NCAA title, a UFC championship, and one of the most decorated runs in modern WWE history. But it’s part of the record now, and it’s part of how this chapter of Lesnar’s career closes: a farm kid from South Dakota walking away from the business that made him a legend.
