Brock Lesnar Retires From WWE: 'That's It'
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- Brock Lesnar announced his official retirement on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, confirming that Saturday's SummerSlam Hell in a Cell match in Minneapolis would be his last — "that's it for me in the squared circle and everything else."
- Lesnar initially felt done at WrestleMania after Oba Femi slammed him and he removed his boots and gloves in the ring, but returned for one more match because, as he put it, "the business called" and he "still had some fuel in the tank."
- A two-time All-American who won the NCAA Division I wrestling championship for the University of Minnesota in 2000, Lesnar beat Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in 2002 — just his second year on the roster — to capture his first of 10 WWE world titles.
- Lesnar ended The Undertaker's 21-0 WrestleMania streak in 2014 and also won two Royal Rumbles (2003, 2022), the 2002 King of the Ring tournament, and a 2019 Money in the Bank ladder match.
- After a brief NFL stint with the Minnesota Vikings in 2004, Lesnar transitioned to MMA in 2007 and won the UFC heavyweight championship in just his fourth pro bout, against Randy Couture in 2008.
- Lesnar retired from MMA in 2015 but returned for one fight at UFC 200 in 2016; the Nevada State Athletic Commission later suspended him after he tested positive for banned substances ahead of that bout, and he never fought in MMA again.
Why it matters: Lesnar, 49, closes out a roughly 25-year career that uniquely bridged NCAA gold, WWE championships, an NFL tryout, and a UFC heavyweight title — a crossover arc no active wrestler comes close to matching. His stated finality ("that's it... and everything else") formally ends any speculation of an MMA or in-ring return, capping one of the most successful and singular résumés in professional sports history.
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