AP Photo/Don Feria, Archive
On the day Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon announced his retirement from WWE, a prominent star left SmackDown before the show.
According to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observermultiple sources said Brock Lesnar left the TD Garden in Boston hours before the scheduled start of Friday’s episode of SmackDown.
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp confirmed the report, noting that he was told Lesnar was “pissed off.”
Alvarez followed up with a report that Lesnar said something to the effect of, “If he’s gone, I’m gone,” referring to McMahon.
Lesnar was advertised to appear on SmackDown and eventually made an appearance to face Austin Theory:
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The report came just minutes after McMahon announced he was permanently stepping down as WWE chairman and CEO amid an investigation into his paying four women to sign non-disclosure agreements in exchange for keeping quiet about relationships or sexual encounters.
On July 30 at SummerSlam from Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, Lesnar is scheduled to face Roman Reigns in a Last Man Standing main event for the undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
It will be a rematch of the main event at WrestleMania 38 in April, in which Reigns defeated Lesnar in a title-versus-title match to retain the Universal Championship and win the WWE Championship.
Lesnar, 45, took a couple of months off after WrestleMania before returning on the June 17 episode of SmackDown to face Reigns.
After Reigns defeated Riddle to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, The Beast Incarnate hit him with an F-5, indicating his intention to challenge Reigns once more.
Lesnar is seen as a relatively strong candidate to defeat Reigns at SummerSlam due to the idea that it would be unwise for Lesnar to lose two main event matches in a row.
Assuming Lesnar and WWE can get back on the same page, a Lesnar win at SummerSlam could set the stage for a huge triple threat at Clash at the Castle in September between Lesnar, Reigns and Drew McIntyre.
McIntyre, who is from Scotland, earned the right to challenge for the world title at Clash at the Castle in Wales, and face and beat two of WWE’s biggest stars in the same match at his continent of origin would be the culminating moment of his career.
Although Lesnar is a part-time wrestler, he is undoubtedly one of WWE’s main attractions, and losing him would be a huge blow to the company, especially at such a crucial time in the calendar.
WWE apparently has big things in store for Lesnar, but if he decides not to go ahead with his SummerSlam match against Reigns, WWE will be forced to dig deeper into their bag of tricks for a replacement opponent to face Reigns.