*phew* what a day in the WWE Universe.
It started normally enough, with your typical pre-SmackDown promotional material, before news broke that Vince McMahon had officially retired from the WWE at the ripe old age of 77, likely because of the heat generated from his ongoing scandals that were growing increasingly damning with each passing report.
If this was all that happened, it would be more than enough to keep the greater world occupied indefinitely, but that, as it turns out, was just the beginning of a day that will all but certainly serve as an inflection point in wrestling history. No, then news broke of the succession plan, with Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan taking over as the company's Co-CEOs and Triple H officially re-instated as the EVP of Talent Relations.
Again, totally normal stuff, right? Well, what do you call Brock Lesnar reportedly leaving the SmackDown taping in Boston, Massachusetts, with the dubious quote “If he's out, I'm out,” as initially reported by Bryan Alvarez? Fans understandably freaked the heck out, the WWE reportedly reached out to Bill Goldberg about filling the spot at SummerSlam, and the fans assembled in Boston openly wondered what would happen next.
Well, as it turns out, they didn't have to wonder for long, as Lesnar made his triumphant return in the final seconds of the show, tossing Theory around before it went off of the air.
So what gives? Was everyone wrong? Or did Lesnar simply decide to… come back? Well, let's attempt to find out.
F-5 on the #MITB briefcase! #SmackDown @BrockLesnar @_Theory1 pic.twitter.com/EzSJ2unmKM
— WWE (@WWE) July 23, 2022
WWE put in the work to bring back Brock Lesnar.
“It was confirmed to us that Brock Lesnar was slated to be “all over” SmackDown tonight and abruptly left. We haven't heard on if he plans on returning.”
These words, initially written on Fightful Select and then released to the masses on regular Fightful, highlight that even if Lesnar did appear at the end of SmackDown, that wasn't initially the WWE's plan. This reporting makes sense, as Lesnar has been increasingly featured in multiple segments on the way to his Last Man Standing match with Roman Reigns, including a fantastic back-and-forth segment with former manager Paul Heyman that needs to be seen to be believed.
Sean Ross Sapp, to his credit, backs up his company's reporting with a follow-up of his own, as you can read below.
“If you really think WWE went to the trouble of leaking “Brock Lesnar was pissed” to several wrestlers, rewrote the script without him, pulled him from their website just to work the net for the Smackdown six-man tag, I dunno what to tell you.”
Alright, so not only do we know that the WWE had plans for Lesnar throughout the show, but they actually had to re-write their scripts to work around him, which sort of makes sense, considering how the show was paced. Still, these suggestions alone don't explain why Lesnar would leave the taping at one moment before coming back shortly thereafter. I mean goodness, the company reportedly removed any mentions of Lesnar from their SmackDown promotional material on their official website and even reached out to Goldberg about potentially getting back in the ring for a second match in 2022 versus the “Head of the Table.”
Okay, so surely something was lost in translation, right? Like there's no way Lesnar left because he was angry and then, either because he had a change of heart or because he was offered some additional compensation, opted to come back, right?
Well, according to Bryan Alvarez, who is in the middle of a vacation, that very well is what happened.
https://twitter.com/bryanalvarez/status/1550662244794372096?s=20&t=5Ar_09indgguHxTkatbwUw
Welp, you have to give it to the Co-CEO-ship of Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan, they certainly weathered their first big controversy without doing something embarrassing and or reactionary, which re-booking the match with Goldberg very much would have been. Instead, they got Lesnar back in the ring and got him to throw around Theory a bit after a SmackDown main event ended by some briefcase shenanigans.
Is this the end of the story? Will Lesnar return to the ring next week like nothing happened, do the job to Roman Reigns in SummerSlam, and then ride off to his farm until the next time the company needs him? Or will the controversy continue for the next eight days, with even more reports breaking down the situation and the issues between the two parties? Either way, we only know the tip of this story's iceberg, and as the hours, days, and weeks go by, the reporting on the matter is only going to grow more and more interesting.
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