There was something immensely depressing about Brock Lesnar's WWE return at SummerSlam, and the company doubled down on the doomy feeling with his match and feud with John Cena.
Vince McMahon first resigned in disgrace in 2022 and then was gone for good from 2024, but WWE has always been a named party in the sex trafficking lawsuit against the former Chairman, and Lesnar himself was eventually revealed as a named wrestler too. The company could neither acknowledge nor ignore the reality of the situation, but they did have the option not to steer into the flames further by bringing the former Universal Champion back, at least until the proceedings were over. There's a strong argument that he wasn't worth bringing back at all, and that's ignoring all moral and ethical stances (because WWE certainly do).
The bleak cloud that hung over his comeback extended to a woeful and awkward television showdown with Ron Killings and an abysmal retrograde match with Cena at the roundly-criticised WrestlePalooza PLE. All of this built to his inclusion in the ultra-cheesy WrestleMania 42 promotion, which itself had a crushing inevitability about it.
The Brock Lesnar character used to bring dread as a feature, but it's long since become little more than a boring bug.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
