There has never been anyone like this in WWE, and there probably never will be
He was an NCAA champion, conquered the WWE within months, won the UFC championship, and broke The Undertaker's mythical streak. Now, at 49, Brock Lesnar has announced his retirement. Behind the one-of-a-kind athlete also remain a failed drug test and serious allegations raised against him in the Janel Grant lawsuit.
It is hard to believe the word "retirement" in the world of professional wrestling. Wrestlers retire, return for one last match, and then discover they have a little more fuel left. Meaning, there is someone willing to pay to see them one more time. In the case of Brock Lesnar, who has already left the WWE and returned to the ring more than once, the doubt is warranted. But this time he sounds different. After losing to Oba Femi in a match at SummerSlam, the 49-year-old Lesnar appeared on Pat McAfee's show and announced that it was over. "I am here to announce to the world that I have retired," he said, clarifying that the match in Minneapolis was his last — in professional wrestling and in any other arena. As is customary in the industry, he lost to the one who is supposed to inherit his mantle as the next unstoppable monster in the WWE. Lesnar wants to dedicate more time to his family: his two sons who play hockey and his daughter Mya, a two-time NCAA shot put champion who is aiming for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
Thus ended, at least if you believe him this time, one of the most unusual careers in the history of sports entertainment. Lesnar is not a man who looks like an exaggerated sporting creation of a screenwriter, but he was capable of backing up almost everything written for him with real achievements. He was much more "sport" than entertainment. Wrestlers have testified more than once that it is hard to work with him because sometimes he hits for real. Therefore, he needed to become a real champion in a world of staged champions, to show that he is an athletic monster. He became a UFC heavyweight champion after years as an entertainer. He almost got an NFL contract and managed to create an aura around him that no one else has. Every appearance of his feels special, a kind of "final boss" of the business. Someone who it is an honor to be in the ring with, and an even greater honor to lose to after he tears you apart.
In sports entertainment, everyone tries to be a certain "character" — like The Undertaker, for example. Lesnar doesn't need to talk, he doesn't need to dress a certain way, he doesn't need to be nice to the fans. At 1.93 meters tall and 127 kg of muscle — people will simply pay any amount to see him. And he will be worth it. Many athletes come to a career in the WWE like Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle, who was an Olympic champion. It is hard to think of someone like Lesnar, who did the opposite path — from entertainment to sport. Vince McMahon saw — and knew. Lesnar grew up on a farm in Webster, a small town in South Dakota, and built his name on the wrestling mat, meaning real wrestling. In 2000, he won the NCAA heavyweight championship and finished his college career with a record of 106 wins and only five losses. He weighed close to 130 kg but moved with a speed that did not fit his body.
When he tried to fit into the NFL in 2004, he recorded in the tryouts, if you believe it, a 40-yard dash in about 4.65 seconds, a 35-inch vertical jump, and 30 repetitions in the bench press with 130 kg. He arrived at the Minnesota Vikings training camp even though he hadn't played football since high school, but did not make the final roster. Even this failure contributed to the myth: Lesnar almost made it to the NFL in a sport where he barely had experience. The WWE didn't need much time to understand what had fallen into its hands. According to Jim Ross, who was responsible along with Gerald Brisco for his recruitment, the legendary owner of the WWE Vince McMahon was convinced even before he saw Lesnar wrestle. McMahon didn't even know him from a picture, but when he noticed the young man 1.91 meters tall and weighing about 127 kg behind the scenes at an event in Minneapolis, he immediately changed direction and approached him. Ross described Lesnar as someone who looked like an "angry Viking" and said that McMahon had a "crazy crush" on him from the first moment.
126 days on the way to the top
Lesnar was signed in 2000 and sent to the WWE's developmental organization. In March 2002, he made his television debut on Raw, alongside Paul Heyman, who introduced him as "The Next Big Thing." Only 126 days after his first television match, Lesnar defeated Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson at SummerSlam and won the WWE Championship. At age 25, he became the youngest WWE champion in the organization's history. Within months, he also won the King of the Ring tournament and defeated Hulk Hogan. The company didn't ask the audience to get used to him; it announced that this was the strongest man in the hall. In any hall. Lesnar was a giant who slammed people onto the mat, but also jumped over the ropes and performed moves of wrestlers tens of kilograms lighter than him. At WrestleMania 19, in a match against Kurt Angle, he tried to perform a complicated jump from the top rope, landed on his head, and suffered a concussion — but managed to continue and win. After only two years at the top, the travel schedule, the pains, and the wear and tear wore him down. The match against Goldberg at WrestleMania 20 took place when the audience already knew that both were on their way out and showered them with boos. It seemed that the meteoric star had burned himself out at the speed he had risen. But Lesnar just changed the ring.
Lesnar didn't like signing for fans or taking pictures with them anyway, quite unusually for the WWE, which feeds purely on the love of the crowd. He came to wrestle. He wasn't moved by boos because he is used to being the bad guy who doesn't consider anyone, the machine that came to trample. He went to trample somewhere else.
When the monster became real
Lesnar turned to MMA. In this ring, there were no longer scripts to say that he was the strongest man in the world; he simply managed to prove that he was truly a dangerous fighter. Lesnar lost to Frank Mir in his UFC debut in 2008, but recovered quickly. In only his fourth professional fight, he defeated Randy Couture by technical knockout and became the UFC heavyweight champion. After that, he took revenge on Mir at UFC 100, an event that sold an estimated 1.6 million pay-per-views and was then the largest in the organization's history. Lesnar was not a perfect fighter. His boxing technique was limited, and he struggled when opponents applied pressure to him, but the very fact that he became a UFC champion after a few years of training is inconceivable. The opponent who almost defeated him for real did not stand before him in the octagon. Diverticulitis caused him to lose about 18 kg, and later 30 centimeters of his colon were surgically removed. He returned, but no longer looked invulnerable. Cain Velasquez took the title from him, and Alistair Overeem stopped him. His final MMA record stands at five wins, three losses, and one no-contest. After four years as a real wrestler, he decided to return home.
The man who broke the streak
When he returned to the WWE in 2012, Lesnar was no longer "The Next Big Thing." He was a former UFC champion and an attraction that the company could not produce itself. The partnership with Paul Heyman was perfect. Lesnar didn't need long speeches; Heyman spoke for him and presented him as the perfect wrestler. Unlike other monsters, the audience was not required to suspend disbelief. Everyone knew that the man in the ring was truly capable of defeating any opponent. The defining moment came at WrestleMania 30. The Undertaker had won 21 consecutive matches at the event, until Lesnar pinned him. The screen showed "21:1," and the stunned faces of the fans became one of the most famous images in WWE history. A few months later, he dismantled John Cena at SummerSlam using 16 German suplexes and two F-5 moves. Thus was born "Suplex City": less acrobatics, fewer moves, and much more sense of danger.
Stains that cannot be erased
Lesnar's story does not allow for a clean and nostalgic farewell. In 2016, he returned to the UFC and defeated Mark Hunt, but failed two tests for prohibited substances. The result was changed to "no contest," he was fined $250,000, and suspended for a year. Lesnar denied that he knowingly took a prohibited substance. The more serious stain came following the lawsuit filed by former WWE employee Janel Grant against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and the company. According to her, McMahon used her as a "bargaining chip" in negotiations to sign Lesnar, gave him her phone number, and ordered her to prepare sexual content for him. It was also alleged that meetings were planned between the two that did not take place. Lesnar is not a defendant in the case, the allegations against him have not been decided in court, and he has not responded to them publicly. McMahon denies the allegations against him. Lesnar was absent from WWE shows for about two years but returned in the summer of 2025 while the proceedings were still ongoing — a decision that sparked sharp criticism.
He ends his career with seven WWE championships and with some unforgettable moments that made everyone grab their heads. But that doesn't explain his status. Lesnar's uniqueness was in the sense of danger. In a world where everyone knows that the fights are scripted, he makes them feel real. He retires as one of the most impressive and controversial athletes in the history of sports entertainment. A huge legacy that, even though it has stains on it, cannot be ignored. Not the most recognizable face of the business, but when a WWE fan wants to convince that sports entertainment is a dangerous thing, he will send people to search for "Brock Lesnar" on Google, and even the biggest skeptics will start to doubt the fact that it is all a show.
