In late February, Brock Lesnar stormed out of a WWE Raw taping. It was later reported by Dave Meltzer that the walkout was over an impasse in contract negotiations between Lesnar and Vince McMahon. Just days after that walkout, Lesnar was shown on camera at a UFC show headlined by Ronda Rousey. It was a pretty obvious attempt at leveraging himself against McMahon, by showing that he had other options on the table. It possibly did make a difference in convincing WWE to tie Lesnar down. They didn't want to lose a second high profile star to UFC, following CM Punk's shocking signing with the MMA group in November. However, Lesnar has denied that the UFC appearance was a bartering move. He told SportsCenter "It wasn't a contractual move or bartering pitch of any kind." If it was a bartering move, it didn't make WWE act until this Monday night. Weeks passed since the UFC event and Lesnar was still approaching the expiry of his contract. Who was going to blink first? Lesnar finally agreed the new WWE deal on Monday night, with Dave Meltzer reporting that it may have been the case that WWE put a final offer on the table and told Lesnar the offer would be pulled completely if he didn't agree that night. It really was now or never, as WWE had the WrestleMania plans to finalise. The impasse ended, with Lesnar signing the deal.
