WWE has moved Brock Lesnar back to the alumni section of its website. Roman Reigns has posted a goodbye. Neither is quite the same as a retirement.
Reigns appeared in the video package WWE aired on Monday’s Raw, a reworked version of the tribute that first ran after WrestleMania 42 in April. He put the full recording on his Instagram afterward, speaking as himself rather than in character.
I don’t think there will ever be another Brock Lesnar. What he was able to do. What he was able to create. To go out on his own, to go to UFC, to become a World Heavyweight Champion.
And then to be able to come back and do both, it’s the legitimacy, the athlete that he is, the realism that he brought from the UFC, to the UFC, to WWE in our ring. He’s gotta be one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. When you put it all together, no one’s done it like him. No one will ever do it like him I don’t think.
The personal part follows.
And I was very fortunate, my life changed at WrestleMania 31 in that main event, 2015. I feel like the whole world looked at me differently because of being in the ring with Brock. And it’s just been crazy ever since.
So I’m very grateful to have that time to have been under his learning tree, to be able to pick his brain, to be able to see how he operates, how he does business, how he carries himself, how he moves. Our business is gonna miss him.
He signed off with a joke.
I appreciate everything you did for me Brock. I don’t appreciate you busting my head open and throwing me all over my neck, but that’s what we do. That’s the job we signed up for. It was an absolute pleasure. Have fun in the woods.
The caveats matter. WWE moved Lesnar to the alumni page after WrestleMania 42 as well, when he left his gloves and boots in the ring, and he was back attacking Oba Femi within weeks. The Raw video is a rework of that same April package rather than anything new. WrestleVotes Radio reported before SummerSlam that the belief inside WWE is that this is not the end, with a source expecting him back for WrestleMania 43.
Triple H said as much at the post-show press conference, declining to call it a retirement and saying he would take Lesnar’s words at face value and wait.
Reigns has made this point before. He named Lesnar his favorite opponent in an ESPN interview last year and said his whole career changed once he got in the ring with him. Their WrestleMania 31 main event ended with Seth Rollins cashing in Money in the Bank.
