Brock Lesnar surprised everyone when WWE SummerSlam went off the air, leaving Oba Femi looking confused.
Brock Lesnar seemed to go off-script when he grabbed the microphone right after his main event match against Oba Femi at SummerSlam.
Femi, who only joined the main WWE roster in March, beat Lesnar with his Fall From Grace powerbomb inside Hell in a Cell, winning their second match in a three-match series.
At first, many thought Lesnar had retired after leaving his boots in the ring following his loss to Femi at WrestleMania. But he surprised everyone by returning without any announcement and beating Femi at Clash in Italy this May, setting up their big showdown at SummerSlam.
After losing in Minnesota, Lesnar, with his friend Paul Heyman behind him, grabbed a mic and called Femi back into the ring. Fans think what he said next was unscripted.
He shouted, “Minnesota, and the whole wide world watching this tonight. Come here, Oba. Here’s the future of WWE. Come here, Oba. Congratulations. This is the future, ladies and gentlemen.” Then, pointing at himself, he added, “This is the past.” Turning back to Femi, he said, “This is the future,” raised Femi’s arm, patted him on the back, and walked out of the ring.
WWE commentator Michael Cole called it “a true passing of the torch moment.” He said, “We never thought we’d see Brock Lesnar again. You might be seeing a reflection of yourself, but that man’s name isn’t Brock Lesnar. That man is the future—his name is Oba Femi.”
Though this felt like a retirement announcement, WWE’s chief content officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque didn’t officially confirm it during his post-show press conference.
He said, “For Brock to come back, bring Oba Femi in, and call him ‘the future’ while calling himself ‘the past’ is pretty bold. Brock doesn’t say things lightly. I’d take it at face value and just wait to see what happens.”
The first two matches between Lesnar and Femi took place at WrestleMania and Clash in Italy. But their third and final match was the main event at SummerSlam.
The World Heavyweight Championship match between CM Punk and Cody Rhodes was the pre-main, while Liv Morgan defended her Women’s World Championship against IYO SKY at the start of the show. No official reason was given for making Lesnar vs Femi the main event, but Lesnar has main evented SummerSlam more times than any other WWE star before Saturday night.