Paul Heyman has heard Brock Lesnar say he was done with wrestling plenty of times before. This time, he actually believed him.
Speaking alongside The Undertaker on Six Feet Under, Heyman opened up about Lesnar’s retirement and why he knew the familiar “this is it” declaration wasn’t going to end with another contract and another comeback. According to Heyman, Brock had been telling him essentially the same thing for years.
“I would hear this every year from him. ‘Nope. This is my last contract. This is it.’ And he meant it when he said it.”
Brock wasn’t necessarily bluffing when he made those declarations either. Heyman believes Lesnar genuinely thought he was finished each time. The difference was that once the end of those previous contracts actually got closer, Brock’s position usually started to soften.
“As we got closer, he would then change his mind, or it didn’t take a lot to talk him into it.”
That’s how Brock’s wrestling career went for years. He could disappear, decide he’d had enough and seemingly be finished with WWE, only for the right situation to eventually pull him back through the door.
But Heyman says something was different this time. When Lesnar decided his SummerSlam match against Oba Femi would be the end, Heyman could tell this wasn’t another temporary goodbye. Brock wasn’t waiting to be talked into another deal or simply reacting to how he felt in that moment.
“But I knew that this was it. Because he knew that this was it. He wasn’t just saying it because he felt it at the moment.”
Lesnar himself removed any remaining doubt on August 4 when he appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and officially announced his retirement following his Hell in a Cell loss to Oba Femi at SummerSlam.
“Saturday, that’s it for me in the squared circle and for everything else too.”
Brock Lesnar has said he was finished before. Paul Heyman heard it every year, watched Brock change his mind and even helped talk him back into wrestling along the way. But after all those false endings, Heyman says he could finally tell the difference. This time, Brock knew he was done.
Do you think Brock Lesnar will really stay retired this time, or could even Paul Heyman eventually be proven wrong? Let us know in the comments below.
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