Brock Lesnar made a shocking return to the WWE on Sunday night at SummerSlam, just over six months after he was identified in a lawsuit filed against the company and former executive Vince McMahon.
Lesnar, 48, last wrestled at SummerSlam 2023, losing to Cody Rhodes in Detroit’s Ford Field. Lesnar’s return Sunday came after the main event of Night 2 of SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Rhodes regained the undisputed WWE championship in a “street fight” against John Cena, who has said he’s retiring as an in-ring performer after this year. Cena stood alone in the middle of the ring as fans chanted, “Thank you, Cena!” He knelt, kissed his hand and then placed it on the mat. Then, Lesnar’s entrance music began, sending the crowd into a frenzy. He eventually entered the ring and delivered an “F-5,” his finishing move, to Cena as the show ended.
Lesnar was a champion amateur wrestler at the University of Minnesota as well as a UFC fighter from 2008 to 2011. But he’s best known for multiple runs in the WWE, where he was a seven-time world champion known as “The Beast Incarnate.”
Former WWE employee Janel Grant officially identified Lesnar in a Jan. 31 filing in U.S. District Court, related to her lawsuit filed against WWE and McMahon in January 2024. The original complaint referenced a star wrestler in the accusation but did not provide Lesnar’s name.
Lesnar is not a defendant in the suit.
In a statement issued at that time by McMahon’s attorney, the amended complaint was called a “publicity stunt.”
“As expected, the proposed amended complaint is nothing more than the latest publicity stunt in an ongoing smear campaign,” McMahon attorney Jessica Rosenberg said in the statement. “It is filled with desperate falsehoods from a team that continues to disregard the law and the truth.”
Grant, who worked in the company’s legal and talent departments, has alleged that McMahon forced her into a sexual relationship to keep her job. She alleges McMahon demanded she create “personalized sexual content” for Lesnar in July 2021, at a time McMahon was attempting to keep Lesnar under contract with the WWE. She further alleges McMahon flew Lesnar to Connecticut in 2021 for a sexual encounter, which ultimately didn’t happen.
McMahon resigned in January 2024 as executive chairman of the board of WWE parent company TKO Group after Grant’s lawsuit was filed.
The WWE has tried to avoid commenting on the ongoing litigation. There were no news conferences after SummerSlam, as the WWE shifted to having its performers speak exclusively on the event’s postgame show rather than getting questions from reporters. WWE chief content officer Paul Levesque was not asked about the lawsuit on the show Sunday night but addressed Lesnar’s return.
“If there had been a roof on this place, it wouldn’t be here anymore. The dynamic in the room changes when the Beast is here,” Levesque said. “Anything that you thought was happening sort of all goes out the window. The factor of Brock changes everything incredibly and makes it unpredictable. Incredible to have him back.”
Levesque discussed the allegations against McMahon on the U.K.-based “The Sports Agents” podcast, which was released Friday.
“All we can do is move forward, for us as a company and creative,” said Levesque, who was known as Triple H during his in-ring days. “Allegations are allegations, right? It’s a complicated relationship for anybody in life. Nobody is perfect. But accusations are made and that’s a whole legal thing that is totally separate and aside from what we do.”
“My job is to put on the best creative product that WWE can do. Luckily and happily, it’s been successful. Business is in a good place right now and continues to grow.”
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto contributed to this report.
