Brock Lesnar has confirmed that his time as a pro wrestler has come to an end following his loss to Oba Femi at SummerSlam.
Lesnar gave a rare interview as a guest on The Pat McAfee Show. Lesnar, 49, confirmed that the reason for the appearance was to announce his retirement. The 10-time World Champion noted that he first thought about hanging up the gloves when he was slammed by Femi at WrestleMania:
“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. Kind of weird 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.’ 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 in this universe that has followed me since I was a little kid all the way till Saturday.”
Continuing, Lesnar expressed gratitude to everyone who supported him throughout his career. The former WWE and UFC Heavyweight Champion added that his hard work paid off, and advised kids to do the same:
“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. I think 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.”
Addressing what’s next for him, Lesnar said that he plans to enjoy hunting and supporting his sons’ hockey dreams. Lesnar’s daughter also has her eye on the 2028 Olympics in shot put.
Lesnar’s final match saw him lose to Oba Femi inside Hell in a Cell in the main event of SummerSlam night one. After the match, Lesnar made his way back into the ring to show respect to his last rival. Lesnar claimed that Femi was “the future” and he was “the past” before leaving The Ruler to have his moment.
Brock Lesnar Officially Confirms Retirement Following SummerSlam And WrestleMania Losses
Brock Lesnar first indicated retirement following his 5-minute loss to Femi at WrestleMania 42. Taking off his boots and gloves, Lesnar embraced longtime advocate Paul Heyman before emotionally exiting the ring. Despite this, Lesnar made his return later that year to beat Femi in a rematch at Clash in Italy.
Debuting on the main roster in 2002, Lesnar was pushed immediately and won his first WWE Championship at SummerSlam that year by defeating The Rock. Leaving WWE in 2004, Lesnar went on to find success in NJPW before transitioning to the UFC.
Returning to WWE in 2012, Lesnar remained on a part-time schedule for the next 13 years.
Featured image: WWE
