Shocking returns are a common occurrence in the world of professional wrestling, but this one really caught fans off guard.
After the main event of WWE SummerSlam on Sunday night, Brock Lesnar made his return to the squared circle, coming down to the ring and putting a beatdown on John Cena.
Lesnar, who had been away from the company for two years, had been named in the ongoing sex trafficking lawsuit against former WWE head honcho Vince McMahon.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in January 2024, McMahon is accused of sexual assault and sex trafficking by former WWE employe Janel Grant.
While Grant’s original complaint did not include Lesnar’s name — it only referencing a “world-famous athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion” — he was officially named by Grant in federal court in an amended complaint in February.
In the suit, Grant accused McMahon of asking her to create “personalized sexual content” for Lesnar — who is not a defendant in the case — during his contract negotiations and that McMahon flew the superstar to Connecticut in 2021 for a sexual encounter that didn’t end up happening.
McMahon has denied all allegations by Grant while his attorney called naming Lesnar in the suit a “publicity stunt.”
“As expected, the proposed amended complaint is nothing more than the latest publicity stunt in an ongoing smear campaign,” McMahon’s attorney Jessica Rosenberg said in a statement to ESPN. “It is filled with desperate falsehoods from a team that continues to disregard the law and the truth.”
With the lawsuit ongoing, the company had made efforts to distance itself from Lesnar, taking down his merchandise from its online store and removing his playable character from the WWE 2K24 video game.
His previous appearance had been at SummerSlam in 2023, which also was held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. On Sunday night, after Cody Rhodes defeated Cena to win the WWE Universal Championship, Lesnar came down to the ring and hit his F5 finishing move on Cena before celebrating.
A spokesperson for Grant issued a statement after Lesnar’s appearance, saying that WWE was attempting to “sweep misconduct under the rug.”
“For far too long, abuse was allowed to thrive under WWE’s leadership,” the statement said. “Instead of righting this wrong, WWE has done nothing to ensure those responsible are held accountable. This attempt to sweep misconduct under the rug will backfire.
“We look forward to the full set of facts, including those about Mr. Lesnar, coming out in a court of law where they belong but, in the meantime, we refer you back to Janel Grant’s updated complaint, which outlines, in detail, the abuse she endured by McMahon and others while employed at WWE.”
His appearance garnered a mixed reaction by those in attendance and was widely criticized on social media.
WWE defended its decision to bring back Lesnar despite the allegations and ongoing nature of the suit.
“My reaction was exactly what I thought it was gonna be, which was, if there had been a roof on this place, it wouldn’t be here anymore,” WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque said during the SummerSlam post-show.
“The dynamic in the room in WWE changes when The Beast is here,” he added. “Seeing Brock Lesnar come back, anything that you thought was happening sort of all goes out the window because the factor of Brock now just changes that dynamic so incredibly. It makes it unpredictable.”
Levesque, a former WWE champion himself, said that working with Lesnar was on Cena’s “wish list” for his retirement tour.
“This is John Cena’s wish list,” he said. “It’s him writing the last chapter of his book and I think people saw a conversation with us where he said we’d have to screw it up pretty badly to ruin his career.
“But it’s not about that for me. It’s about John being able to go out the way he wants to go out. To write his chapter. I know what that’s like as a performer. I know what that’s like for everybody to feel that, and I think for John to be able to do what he wants to do.
“One of the very first things I said to him is ‘Who do you want? And how?’ And we’re working through that.”
Renowned pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that the company’s legal team had cleared Lesnar to return.
“Four weeks ago, WWE Legal cleared him,” Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio. “I do know, everyone figured this out, but I can tell you also, factually, that the reason they didn’t do the press conferences was because of this angle.”